Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney and Alabama counterpart Nick Saban pose Sunday beside the trophy that will be awarded after tonight’s national championship game in Tampa, Fla.TAMPA, Fla. – When Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney told Alabama’s Nick Saban early last year that he would see him again in January, that was the easy part.
There was still the matter of creating the first championship rematch college football has experienced since the installation of the Bowl Championship Series in 1998 and the adoption of a four-team playoff in 2014.
The No. 1 Crimson Tide (14-0) and No. 3 Tigers (13-1) play tonight in Raymond James Stadium less than a year after Alabama toppled Clemson 45-40 in Glendale, Ariz., for last season’s crown.
Alabama and Clemson began this season ranked 1-2 in the Associated Press poll, but how did Swinney know his Tigers could live up to the billing and again challenge the sport’s perennial Goliath?
“We played a lot of freshmen last year, so I knew we were going to have a very strong sophomore group,” Swinney said Sunday in the final news conference before tonight’s official 8:17 kickoff on ESPN, “and the seniors and juniors that we did have were impactful people who were incredibly committed to our program – guys like Deshaun Watson, Ben Boulware, Mike Williams, Wayne Gallman, Carlos Watkins and Jay Guillermo. These are very impactful leaders, and I could just tell right out of the gate from the very first meeting that these guys were locked in.