In last year’s national championship game, Deshaun Watson completed 36-of-56 passes for a national championship game record 420 yards and three touchdowns, including the game winner to wide receiver Hunter Renfrow with one second left in the game.

Watson’s performance, plus what he did the year before in the 2016 College Football Playoff Championship Game, was a thing of beauty against an Alabama defense, particularly in the secondary, that does not give up many yards or big plays. But what happened in those two games had little to do with what Alabama was doing and more to with what Watson was doing, especially before the ball was snapped.

The Crimson Tide secondary has always been known under Nick Saban as a hardnosed group that is rarely out of position. They play coverages and schemes that are suited more for the NFL than the college game.

They will play more man-to-man and force quarterbacks to make highly competitive plays. But at the pre-snap is where Saban likes to confuse the quarterback the most.

“They are not going to throw just one pitch at you,” Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney said. “They are a very multiple front and multiple-coverage-type-team. They are going to play a lot of man, but how they get to that is not always the same.”

In last year’s title game, Alabama played a lot of two-man coverage on first down, which means the two safeties are deep and the linebackers and corners have one-on-one responsibilities. Throughout the evening, Watson and Saban were playing a cat-and-mouse game prior to the ball being snapped.

As we know, Watson won the majority of those games on his way to a record night in which he threw no interceptions in 56 passing attempts. However, every single one of Watson’s 56 passes was contested. There was not an easy pass all night.

To beat the Crimson Tide in the Sugar Bowl on New Year’s Day and to send Clemson to its third straight College Football Playoff National Championship Game, quarterback Kelly Bryant is going to have to win the majority of these battles.

“First of all, they are just so sound. They are rarely out of position,” Swinney said. “They’re very technically sound. They’re physical. That is the culture that they have in their program. There is a certain mindset you just have to have for four quarters and if you don’t, then you are in trouble.

“So the mentality, No. 1, the soundness schematically, and then the diversity of what they do.”

Alabama’s scheme forces a team into competitive plays on every down.

“And most of the time, they’re better than everybody they play in those competitive matchups because they can line up and play man coverage against pretty much anybody, which allows them to control the box,” Swinney said. “It allows them to control the safeties. A lot of times, they can stop the run with two-high safeties and that is a huge advantage.”

And that means Bryant and the Clemson passing game will have to have their most efficient passing-night of the year if the Tigers want to advance to the title game.

“They are just really, really talented. That is the biggest challenge you have and then they’re well, well coached,” Swinney said.