When watching film in advance of last night’s college football championship game, Alabama head coach Nick Saban noticed tendencies he thought his team could exploit if Clemson lined up a certain way on kickoffs.
Advertisement
The No. 2-ranked Crimson Tide (14-1) became just the second team in college football since 1936 to win four titles in seven seasons, joining Notre Dame, which won four times from 1943-49. Griffith’s kick was recovered by Alabama at the 50, and two plays later, Jake Coker completed a pass to O.J. Howard for a 51-yard touchdown. “It won’t be 34 years before we’re going to be back, I promise you that”, Swinney said.
Following an exciting game between two equally talented teams, the Tide took control of the fourth quarter, winning the national championship, 45-40.
After becoming the unlikely hero for Alabama in its national title win over Clemson, Crimson Tide tight end O.J. Howard won’t have a lot of time to savor the victory, or his role in it, before he has to make a big decision.
Watson led Clemson to a field goal to make it 31-27, and boom! With 4:40 on the time clock, Clemson’s Artavis Scott caught a 15-yard touchdown pass from Watson.
Derrick Henry rushed for 158 yards and three touchdowns in 36 attempts, including the game-securing one-yard TD run inside the two minutes. OJ. Watson threw for four touchdowns and accounted for 478 yards of offense, the Tigers topping the Crimson Tide nearly everywhere but on the scoreboard.
College Football Playoff champion Alabama finished No. 1 in the final Associated Press rankings announced Tuesday. I mean, you don’t average over 20 yards a completion without some cooperation from the defense.
Monday’s game, at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, pitted the winners of the semifinal games in the second College Football Playoff. Coach K has five NCAA titles.
Alabama’s Nick Saban wins his fifth national title. Saban said he would be meeting with those players and their families onWednesday.
“It’s good to be an Alabama fan – of course, I still would be no matter what”, Shirley said, clutching a jersey and magazine that he hoped to get autographed. After spending last season backing up Blake Sims, Coker took over the starting role and helped lead Alabama to a 14-1 record and a national title. On Monday night, thanks in part to a great set of skills and in part to narcolepsy in the Clemson secondary, Howard finished with 208 yards on five catches and two long touchdowns.
Back and forth it went. As much as one is hard to win, repeating is exponentially more difficult: Alabama in 2011 and 2012 is the only team to do it since Nebraska in 1994-95.
Advertisement
But all those five-star recruits and future National Football League players that dot the Alabama roster showed they also have plenty of resiliency and toughness. According to Coach Swinney,”We stand toe-to-toe with everybody in the country”.
