For the past three seasons, Alabama and Clemson have gone head-to-head for the title of the best team in the country.

This year, they’re both top-3 teams once again, and look like they’ll both be in this year’s College Football Playoff if all goes according to plan.

Still, many believe Alabama is far and away the No. 1 squad, meaning Clemson has some catching up to do. On Tuesday, former coach Rick Neuheisel joined ESPNU Radio on SiriusXM and said he thinks the Tigers have indeed closed the gap on the Tide by naming Trevor Lawrence their starting quarterback:

“That’s why I think Trevor Lawrence got named the quarterback,” he said. “They’ve got to develop an offense that can do what Deshaun Watson did against Alabama if they expect to play for those prizes at season’s end.”

Lawrence is only a true freshman, but we saw what true freshmen can do last year when Tua Tagovailoa and Jake Fromm did battle in the second half of the title game.

It’ll be interesting to see how Lawrence develops now that he’s been named the Clemson starter.