Alabama rode the momentum from that surprise to score the go-ahead touchdown and then rocket back to the top of the college football world, winning its fourth national title in seven years Monday night by beating Clemson 45-40. Only former Crimson Tide coach Bear Bryant (six) has won more than four national titles during the wire-service era (since 1936).
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“I made the decision”, Saban said afterward, because “we were exhausted on defense and weren’t doing a great job of getting them stopped”.
Howard kept sneaking behind the Clemson defenders and finding himself wide open for big plays: touchdowns of 51 and 53 yards and a galloping 63-yarder in the fourth quarter that set up Alabama’s final touchdown. Crimson Tide defensive back Marlon Humphrey caught it on the fly 15 yards downfield at the 50-yard line. “It won’t be 34 years before we’re going to be back, I promise you that”, Swinney said. The Tide players made it easy for their coach with the plays they pulled off. Let’s take a look at a few of the biggest Alabama national championship highlights from the night.
Watson led Clemson to a field goal to make it 31-27, and boom!
Not to be outdone, Watson and company fought back, while down 45-33 with 1:07 remaining in the game after exchanging touchdowns. Clemson scored on a pass from Watson to tight end Jordan Leggett with 12 seconds left, but Alabama recovered the onside kick.
Facing the stout Alabama defense, Watson threw for 405 yards and four touchdowns, adding 73 more yards on the ground.
“It’s always great. My first year out here, ’92, was a national championship year, too”, said Lance Shirley, a 42-year-old graduate of the University of Alabama. The Tigers also surrendered 1,764 yards on kickoff returns – the highest total in the nation.
Less than a minute later, Alabama took the lead with an easy pitch and catch touchdown from QB Jake Coker to OJ Howard thanks to broken coverage by the Clemson secondary. “But the score was pretty close, coach Saban called it, And [we] went out there and did it”. “But it was calculated on the fact I thought we could execute it, and it was something I knew that we would use in this game if we needed to”.
That onside kicked stunned the stadium and Clemson, and brought a big grin to the face of the country’s most serious coach. 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.
When you win the national championship, you tend to get some perks of fame thanks to accomplishing something so huge.
After a Clemson field goal put them within striking distance with half a quarter remaining, Alabama special teams stepped up once again.
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Typically by the end of January, Saban said Tuesday, the Tide will begin offseason weightlifting and conditioning while concentrating on their academic responsibilities. And Saban, the quintessential CEO coach, showed he had a little riverboat gambler in him.
