GLENDALE, Ariz. — It’s not easy for the No. 1 team in the country to have an inferiority complex, but who could blame Clemson if it did?

Undefeated at 13-0, conqueror of fourth-ranked Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl as well as Notre Dame, Florida State and North Carolina during the regular season, the Clemson Tigers have been roaring loudly all year that they have the best college football team in the land and maybe even one that could go 8-8 in the AFC South. Yet when the Tigers face Alabama tomorrow night at University of Phoenix Stadium, they will be 61⁄2-point underdogs to the 12-1 Crimson Tide, at least in the opinion of Vegas’ wiseguys.

“Even Flipper the Dolphin picked against us,” Clemson safety Jayron Kearse joked last week about the annual pregame event in which a dolphin predicts the Orange Bowl winner and chose the Sooners. It appears Kearse and his teammates are used to this sort of disrespect, but after clobbering Oklahoma, 37-17, their coach made clear his feelings in a postgame bombast.

“We ain’t no underdog!” Dabo Swinney hollered into an ESPN microphone. Tomorrow night his players will have the opportunity to prove it one last time. If they do, the main reason will be Deshaun Watson’s legs and arm.

Clemson’s stunningly versatile quarterback became only the third player in FBS history to pass for at least 3,800 yards and run for more than 1,000 yards in one season. Not one of those yards was gained against the massive Alabama front line that features two 300-pound-plus defensive tackles, A’Shawn Robinson and Jarran Reed (both are projected to be first-round NFL picks), and a 252-pound middle linebacker with quickness and surliness named Reggie Ragland, of course. So that, then, is the problem for Clemson and the main reason the wiseguys don’t believe in them.

Alabama’s defense hasn’t allowed a quarterback to rush for more than 29 yards all season and in coach Nick Saban’s nine years in Tuscaloosa his defenses have allowed no (as in ZE-ro, as they say in Alabama) quarterbacks to rush for 100 yards. So we have the immovable object vs. the irresistible force tomorrow night and the one that refuses to give will be the second national champion crowned under the college football playoff system.

Alabama’s side of the equation has shown little inclination to waver. It held third-ranked Michigan State to 29 rushing yards in the Cotton Bowl, the sixth straight game in which it allowed fewer than 100 rushing yards. That same defense has posted an FBS-leading 50 sacks, so don’t think throwing on them will be elementary, my dear Watson, either.

Vegas generally knows what it’s talking about and one can certainly see why betting against Alabama might seem unwise, but four of the last five times the oddsmakers made Clemson an underdog the Tigers have won, so there you go. But can they beat Saban’s team, one many believe would have won the AFC South this year?

“I’m glad we’re going against the best,” Clemson linebacker Ben Boulware boldly claimed last week before catching himself. “Well, what everybody says is the best team in college football. Technically, we’re ranked No. 1.”

Tomorrow night Watson will try his best to prove it’s more than a technicality and he has the unique talents to do so, because he presents an unusual problem for Alabama. Unlike most of the quarterbacks the Tide have shut down, Watson can throw over them or run through them with equal alacrity.

Watson has rushed for 11 touchdowns this season, which is five more than Alabama’s rush defense has allowed. Just as significantly, Watson has completed 42.6 percent of his throws beyond 20 yards, which is a significantly high success rate for the long ball. Tomorrow night he will face a defense that is long-ball challenged, having allowed a 39.3 percent completion percentage on throws beyond 20 yards.

What Watson might do to Alabama is the same thing Johnny Manziel did several years ago and Cam Newton did before him and even South Carolina’s Stephen Garcia did to a lesser extent in 2010 when the Gamecocks upset the then-No.1 Tide. All of them beat Alabama’s defense with their arms, but by setting those throws up with their legs, or at least the threat those legs posed.

Only Newton ran better than Watson (and that’s debatable at Clemson), so Alabama will be faced with the kind of running-passing threat that has undone their seasons in the past. Add to that one final factor and you may decide to invest the kids’ college funds in a wager on Clemson and it is this: Watson runs fast and the offense he operates runs faster.

Saban acknowledged last week Clemson will be the fastest-operating offense Alabama has faced this season, one that runs so many plays it’s “like playing a game and a half.” Clemson ranked 11th in the country in plays run, averaging 80.1 a game. Alabama has faced only one offense in the top 20 in that category. What that means is if Watson can make some plays and keep his team quickly lining back up, it has a chance to do to the staggeringly massive Alabama defensive front what that defense usually does to its opponents: wear them out.

In Clemson’s last three wins, Watson has averaged 19 runs and 104 rushing yards per game. He’s also run for six scores, one more rushing touchdown than Alabama has allowed. That threat has to be respected. If it slows the Alabama rush and Watson makes its secondary pay where it’s most vulnerable — against the deep pass — the Tide may slowly recede and Clemson may finally prove to the doubters they’re more than “technically No. 1.”