As Monday night became Tuesday morning, Alabama football coach Nick Saban expressed appreciation for his latest national championship team.
He also took some blame concerning Crimson Tide junior tight end O.J. Howard.
The physically imposing but often-underused Howard had five receptions for 208 yards and two touchdowns and raced away with Offensive MVP honors in Alabama’s 45-40 win over Clemson in Glendale, Ariz. Howard had touchdown receptions of 53 and 51 yards from Jake Coker, and he added a 61-yard gain to set up Derrick Henry’s third touchdown run that gave the Crimson Tide a 45-33 lead with 1:07 remaining.
Howard’s touchdown receptions were the first of the 2015 season, and he didn’t have any in 2014, either.
“O.J., quite honestly, should have been more involved all year long,” Saban said in a news conference. “Sometimes he was open and we didn’t get him the ball, but the last two games have been breakout games in terms of what he’s capable of. I would say it’s bad coaching on my part that he didn’t have the opportunity to do this all year long, because he’s a really good athlete who has improved as a player.”
Crimson Tide coaches and players left Arizona on Tuesday and were back in Tuscaloosa by early evening. The university soon will announce plans to celebrate its 16th national championship and the fourth in the last seven years under Saban.
Howard set a Tide bowl record for receiving yards, breaking the 167 Ray Perkins compiled in the 34-7 win over Nebraska in the Sugar Bowl after the 1966 season. It was an unlikely mark for the 6-foot-6, 242-pounder from Prattville, Ala., who had a modest 33 receptions for 394 yards through the first 14 games.
“You can’t get frustrated about not getting the ball,” Howard said in a postgame news conference. “Once you get frustrated, you start messing up plays and getting other guys hurt if you’re missing a block. It was a great feeling tonight to get back to the end zone again.”
Said Saban: “There were times when Jake was developing that we protected what he did, and I think that affected O.J. in terms of his production, but there was not one time he complained about it.”
Alabama defensive back Marlon Humphrey (26) celebrates after recovering an onside kick during the second half of a Playoff Championship NCAA football game against Clemson, Monday, Jan. 11, 2016, in Glendale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Butch Dill)Howard is among several Alabama juniors who must decide whether to leave early for the NFL or return for a final college season. Striking while the iron is hot could certainly apply to Howard, who said, “At the end of the day, I’ll make the right decision.”
Monday’s championship thriller was certainly the final game for Alabama senior tailback Kenyan Drake, who had a mostly mediocre season as well. The 6-1, 210-pounder from the Atlanta suburb of Powder Springs rushed 77 times for 408 yards in Henry’s shadow, but he produced one of Monday’s most memorable plays.
With Alabama leading 31-27 midway through the fourth quarter following a Clemson field goal, Drake took the ensuing kickoff 95 yards for a score that gave the Tide their first taste of breathing room.
“Kenyan has been through a lot,” Saban said. “When the season started, I didn’t know who would have more of a breakout year between Kenyan and Derrick. Kenyan fought hamstrings and all sorts of injuries and then got frustrated and put all sorts of pressure on himself. He got settled down and started being productive, but then he broke his arm and missed a couple of games.
“I always like to see a senior who has worked so hard in the program do something special, and that kickoff return was really something special.”
Saban on multiple occasions has started to call this team his favorite before catching himself. He admitted that Monday night wasn’t one of the Tide’s better performances, especially on defense, but said that in terms of competing and making big plays when they needed to be made, it was “as good as it gets.”
Though he now has a national championship in the four-team playoff format to go along with four (including one at LSU) in the BCS era, don’t look for Saban to lead any kind of expansion movement to an eight-team field.
“We did not have the same juice in this game that we had against Michigan State,” he said. “I think the players struggled to maintain that even though we were playing for a national championship.”
Tide tidbits
Saban has won eight straight “championship” games, defeating Florida (2009 and 2015), Georgia (2012) and Missouri (2014) with the SEC at stake and downing Texas (2009), LSU (2011), Notre Dame (2012) and Clemson (2015) in national-title showdowns. Eddie Jackson began this season by moving from cornerback to safety and ended it as the title-game Defensive MVP. Henry has 3,591 rushing yards, topping the former school mark of 3,565 set by Shaun Alexander from 1996 to 1999. Adam Griffith wound up 23-of-31 this season on field-goal attempts – he missed his first four tries – and was successful on all 62 extra-point attempts.
The big decision
Former Calhoun High School kicker Adam Griffith provided one of Monday night’s biggest plays by successfully executing an onside kick early in the fourth quarter with the game deadlocked at 24. The Crimson Tide lined up to kick off in their squeeze formation before Griffith popped up a 15-yard kick toward the right sideline that was caught in the air by redshirt freshman cornerback Marlon Humphrey.
“I thought we had it in the game any time we wanted to use it,” Saban said. “I made the decision to do it right then because we were tired on defense. Getting that onside kick changed the momentum of the game.”
Clemson coach Dabo Swinney was quick to credit Griffith and how well he placed the ball.
“It was a huge play,” Swinney said. “We had all the momentum, and we were getting ready to get the ball back.”
Kiffin left behind
For Alabama assistant coach Lane Kiffin, the national title was his first as an offensive coordinator and the first since he was Southern California’s receivers coach in 2003 and 2004 (USC later vacated the latter title). Kiffin celebrated with his children on the field and was still talking with reporters when he walked out and noticed that the team buses were pulling away and heading back to the hotel.
“My bus is leaving. That’s not good,” Kiffin told Fox Sports. “First I get fired on the tarmac, and now I get left behind at the national championship.”
Kiffin was fired as USC’s head coach at the Phoenix airport following a loss at Arizona State five games into the 2013 season. He got bailed out early Tuesday morning by none other than his boss, Nick Saban.
“He ended up hitching a ride with me,” Saban said Tuesday morning. “I’m always anybody’s fall-back for a ride.”
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.