All of its power.
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As his postgame interview was winding down following Alabama’s pulsating 45-40 victory over Clemson to win the College Football Playoff championship Monday night, Nick Saban put on a Cheshire cat grin, looked into the camera and said, “I’m smiling”.
It is the 14th NCAA national title for the Crimson Tide, which finished the season 14-1. Saban said he’s improved his blocking, too.
But Alabama was able to tie the game up early in the fourth quarter and that was when the Crimson Tide made a decision to run the aforementioned onside kick.
When the Crimson Tide had practiced the play during the walk-through one day earlier, kick-team specialist Marlon Humphrey had dropped the “pop”. Clemson averaged 38.4 points per game and took the big, bad Alabama defense to the limit in the championship game.
Two plays after the onside kick, Tide quarterback Jake Coker again found a wide-open Howard, connecting for a 51-yard reception to give Bama a lead it would never relinquish.
“No question, no doubt about it”, Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said when asked if Watson was the country’s best player. He directed a drive that ended on a field goal before giving Clemson its last lead of the game, 24-21, after directing a 60-yard touchdown drive. But Watson kept finding a way to scamper free and get a first down or big gain with his feet. Coker took a knee and Alabama was back on top after two years of not making it to the national championship.
That Smart’s defense couldn’t handle Watson will be of importance only if Georgia faces Clemson next season, which would probably come only in a playoff game, and if you’re Georgia and you haven’t played for a national title since 1982, you’ll take that matchup and glad. But with Alabama nabbing the title, its name is attached to a historic win for the school and its coach, Nick Saban.
The sophomore quarterback, who was third in the Heisman voting, was on point most of the night with his passes. But Watson couldn’t finish the job the way Young did in Pasadena, California, and win the national title.
Alabama’s Henry lugged the ball 36 times, totaling 158 yards. Howard had five catches for 208 yards and two touchdowns, his first scores since the 2013 season. He scored twice in the first half and iced the victory by running for a one-yard TD with 1:07 remaining. Now that he has succeeded so much at the collegiate level at a head coach, the timing could not be better for him to try to jump back into the National Football League, where he coached the Miami Dolphins in 2005 and 2006, according to Bleacher Report.
Throughout Alabama’s unprecedented run under Saban, the Tide was hardly challenged in a championship game. Alabama pulled away from Texas for Saban’s first Tide title to end the 2009 season. Alabama blanked LSU for No. 2 and crushed Notre Dame to repeat.
Alabama unleashed tight end O.J. Howard as a weapon to complement Henry’s power running. And Saban, the quintessential CEO coach, showed he had a little riverboat gambler in him.
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Fans cheered, chanted and waved pompoms as the team’s buses arrived and the players got off. Many in the crowd held their cellphones in the air to capture photos and video of the arrival, some stood on tip toe and hopped up and down to catch a glimpse of their favorite player.
