Wow
No one saw that coming. No one.
Not the biggest Bama hater. Not anyone in the Swinney family.
No one. Sure, there were a lot of folks who believed Clemson could win the national championship. The Tigers are good.
But to thoroughly trash and demolish Alabama? To make Nick Saban look lost? To confuse and frustrate Tua Tagovailoa to the point that he was replaced after the game had long since been decided? To keep that traditional Tide defense without a sack or forced turnover for the first time since 2011?
To humiliate the humiliators?
No one.
It was complete and decisive and unrelenting as Clemson rolled to 30 unanswered points in a 44-16 win over previously unbeaten Alabama.
Clemson crushed it on both sides. Trevor Lawrence was an absolute stud – anyone doubt that that kid would be the first QB off the board if he was eligible to enter the draft? – and his perimeter pieces were stellar. The defensive front was everywhere. Defensive coordinator Brent Venables worked magic.
It was surely impressive and no one is or should take anything away from the Tigers, who now have two national titles under Dabo Swinney, who has cemented his spot as the second-best coach in college football, and the gap between No. 1 and Swinney is tighter than the gap between Swinney and everyone else.
But to discuss, rehash or dissect last night’s championship game must start with the complete meltdown suffered by Alabama. It was surreal.
It was so out of character that after the game Saban was not angry or outraged. He looked shocked – we all were – and understandably disappointed. And he sounded calm.
But the game was a disaster after Alabama took a 16-14 lead in the second quarter, and it will be forever remembered for a lot of us for the single worst fake field goal decision any of us have seen in a long time.
Sure, a lot of that Alabama meltdown was because Clemson has the dudes – and the long-locked QB with the Golden Arm – to match the Tide talent-wise.
But it’s impossible to recall anyone doing that to a Saban team in a decade.
The bully got bullied friends. And it was stunning.
Looking back
We have a few traditions around these parts.
Contests are a given. Picks in football have become a familiar face. Power Polls. College basketball Tuesdays (starting next week) too.
We also have done a way-too-early Top 25 college football poll the morning after the national title game.
Before we get to that – and we will – let’s review some of the hits and misses of last year’s way-too-early Top 25. Here’s the link.
First, let’s start with the top three: Alabama, Clemson and THE Ohio State. Those were the final three with a little juggling in the order.
Second, well, 4-through-9 all lost bowl games – Wisconsin, Penn State, Georgia, Miami, Washington and Virginia Tech – and several of them finished unranked. That may be as bad as we can do.
We had Michigan at 16, which is way more accurate than most of the views of Team Khakis.
We had Auburn at 17, which is way closer to range in which the Tigers deserved to be than that preseason top-10 noise.
That said, we had FAU and the Fightin’ Kiffins at 20, two spots ahead of Notre Dame, four spots ahead of UCF and five spots ahead of Texas. Ouch-standing.
So there’s that.
Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoan throws under pressure during the second half of the NCAA college football playoff championship game against Clemson, Monday, Jan. 7, 2019, in Santa Clara, Calif. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
Looking forward