Coming into the national championship game, the aura of Nick Saban and his Roll Tide program was teetering on being considered “overrated or “past it’s time”, but if the national championship was any indication on his program, the hype was real”.
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Alabama tight end O.J. Howard hadn’t caught a touchdown pass since 2013. “I just wanted to get the win and do something that we haven’t done in 34 years”.
“Championship football is a game of a few plays, and that’s really what this one came down to, just a few plays”, Swinney said during his postgame press conference. The perfectly placed onside kick dropped straight into his arms, and Coker hit Howard on the 51-yard, go-ahead touchdown two plays later.
“Coach Saban, what he’s done, I mean, he’s one of the greatest coaches that ever coached the game”, Swinney said. Henry plunged into the end zone for his third touchdown of the game to make it 45-33 with 1:07 left. Alabama never gave that lead up and would go on to win its fourth national title in seven years.
“We got ahead, which allowed us to play differently because we weren’t playing great on defense”, Saban said Tuesday.
Schlabach also pointed out that Clemson’s schedule appears “more manageable” than it was this season, though the Tigers will be tested with a road game against Florida State.
Alabama loses its defensive coordinator, Kirby Smart, and defensive backs coach, Mel Tucker, to Georgia as the two take over as head coach and defensive coordinator, respectively. But Coker bounced back from a shaky first half that included four sacks and burned Clemson’s aggressive defense with long throws. On the evening, the 2015 Heisman Trophy victor finished with 158 tough yards, three touchdowns, and became only the fifth Heisman winning running back to add a national title to his resume.
Clemson was seeking its first national championship since 1981.
Saban, knowing it was hard for his team to properly focus, made the point to his players before the game the mark they could leave behind. The success of the kick was crucial in keeping Clemson’s dynamic quarterback, Watson, off the field for what would prove to be a valuable possession.
This is the Tide’s 11th National Title in the poll era and that’s more than any school.
After a Tigers field goal made it 31-27, special teams showed up again, as Alabama’s Kenyan Drake returned the kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown, and Clemson couldn’t rally back from there.
“We’ll learn from this, we’ll grow from it, and I appreciate our fans”, Swinney added. Howard led the team in receiving on Monday, accumulating 208 yards on five receptions.
The 6-foot-6, 242-pounder always had the speed, as evidenced by that eye-catching play against LSU as a freshman. Alabama pulled away from Texas for Saban’s first Tide title to end the 2009 season.
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That onside kicked stunned the stadium and Clemson, and brought a big grin to the face of the country’s most serious coach. “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”.
