ESPN’s Greg McElroy and Fox Sports’ Joel Klatt are among the analysts who have gone on record with their predictions for Saturday’s College Football Playoff first-round game between No. 12 seed Clemson and fifth-seeded Texas.

The Tigers (10-3) are 12-point underdogs entering the matchup against the Longhorns (11-2) at DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium.

McElroy is taking Texas to win – and win handily.

“I think it’s going to be one-sided,” McElroy said. “I think this thing gets out of hand. I think it’s a bad matchup for Clemson. I think Texas will force Clemson to take the underneath stuff. They’ll rally up, and then when the field condenses in the red zone, Clemson is going to have a really difficult time running the football. Unless Phil Mafah reverts back to who he was in the first eight or nine games of the year, I cannot envision Clemson having a lot of success running the football. I think they’ll try to run Cade Klubnik, but I don’t know how successful it will be. And I think Texas is too disciplined along the defensive front to allow quarterback draw to hurt them the way it’s hurt some of Clemson’s teams that they have played against this year.

“I think Texas wins this thing going away. I just don’t know if Clemson will be able to score to keep up. I also think it has a chance to be low scoring. I’ll take Texas in a one-sided affair against the Clemson Tigers.”

Klatt, meanwhile, picked the Longhorns to win as well, but he believes they won’t cover the spread.

Klatt predicted a 27-17 victory for Texas.

“I like Texas to win this game. Texas, I think, is going to get close to 30 points. I think they score 27. Clemson does not score 20 points. I think they score 17,” Klatt said.

“Thus, I actually think covering the (12 points) is the way I’m going to go with Clemson. I think I’m going to take the points with Clemson, just because of this offense and the lack of production from Texas down the back half of the year. But again, the Texas defense is going to win this game for them. 27-17, Texas wins this game, and I’m taking the points for Clemson.”

Clemson and Texas are set to kick off at 4 p.m. ET Saturday. The game will be televised on TNT.

–Photo courtesy Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports