It’s not the most glamorous spot on the football team and their names don’t usually make headlines. In fact, unless an offensive lineman is doing something wrong, like holding or causing their quarterback to be sacked, nobody pays much attention to them.

But ask Alabama RB Derrick Henry how important an offensive line is. The Heisman Trophy winner will have a very different opinion.

Those who know football know that games are won and lost in the trenches. And when you consider that both Alabama and Clemson had to basically rebuild that group prior to the 2015 season, it’s impressive that the two teams were able to make it all the way to the College Football Playoff national championship game this season.

It’s a tribute to good coaching that the “reloaded” lines from Alabama and Clemson will be featured items in Monday’s title game from Glendale, Ariz.

Sophomore LT Cam Robinson and senior C Ryan Kelly were the only returning linemen at Alabama with more than two starts under their belts. The Tide’s RG Alphonse Taylor had appeared in 12 games at the beginning of the season but had only started two of those. Senior RT Dominick Jackson and redshirt freshman LG Ross Pierschbacher fit in nicely and the group jelled rather quickly.

Clemson faced an even steeper hill heading into the 2015 season. The Tigers had to overhaul both lines. All together, from both the offensive and defensive lines, the Tigers returned a grand total of one player from the 2014 season.

Not to worry. Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney’s got this. How?

“We recruited well, and we saw them in the spring,” Swinney said. “Everybody wants to talk about who’s left and what you don’t have. Sometimes you have addition by subtraction. I mean, I don’t get caught up in all that. I worry about who we’ve got.”

Like Alabama, what Clemson has is a talented group that’s been able to work in unison.

“You can’t state enough the job that that offensive line has done,” Swinney said. “All five of them made all-conference. (OL coach) Robbie Caldwell and the job he’s done, and Eric (MacLain, left guard) has been an unbelievable leader. He took Mitch Hyatt under his wing, a true freshman left tackle, getting (center Jay) Guillermo back, (center) Ryan Norton battling through injuries, (RT) Joe Gore, Maverick (Morris, right guard) stepping in, (right guard, Tyrone) Crowder, all those guys, they’ve been incredible. It doesn’t matter who we’ve played, they have been incredibly consistent.

“Again, if you just look from last year to this year, because we lost all the guys in the trenches on both sides but yet we were able to stop the run and we were able to run the ball at an incredible pace. So I’m really proud of those guys up front, and Eric has been the cog in the wheel for sure.”

MacLain, like his coach, said he could see the talent was there on both sides of the line even though the experience wasn’t, not just yet anyway.

“I said from day one, (DT) Christian Wilkins was going to be a monster among children, and he’s proven that,” MacLain said. “He’s just dominated offensive lines that he’s gone against.

“From the offensive line, I knew that we had something special, just the brotherhood that we had, that we might not have all started games, but we played a lot, when you look at the different snaps and things like that. I knew that we had the capability. (It was) just a matter of (whether) we came together and did it or not.”

It’s rare that a team replaces, almost entirely, both its offensive and defensive lines and has an undefeated season to show for it.

“I think it’s been awesome to be able to replace essentially every single person on the offensive and defensive side of the ball, and to have zero dropoff if not be even better, maybe statistically, on both sides, and just really to be able to take over games,” MacLain said.

“We really understand that it all starts in the trenches, no matter who we’re playing, no matter where we’re playing. If we can dominate on both sides of the ball up front, it’s going to be a very easy game for us.”

It doesn’t shape up to be an easy game for either team on Monday, but the team that has the most success in the trenches will likely hoist the national championship trophy when all is said and done.