BCS Championship Grades

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The omens were very favorable.

As we crossed into Louisiana on I-59 Saturday afternoon, the classic oldies satellite radio station started playing "Sweet Caroline." We were at the corner of Royal and Conti when an Alabama-themed second line brass band came down the street with crimson clad revelers trailing behind. We arrived at Champions Square just at the Million Dollar Band started its pre-game pep rally. On the St. Charles street car headed to the game, we heard the first of what would ultimately be dozens of Tiger fans taunt people wearing crimson with: "you can't spell Roll Tide without two Ls." And, much like their team, they never had an answer when you pointed out to them that you can't spell "LSU" without one. Yes, the omens were favorable; but in the end, they didn't come close to forecasting just how decisive Alabama's victory was going to be.

In the history of the BCS, no team had ever been held scoreless, until last Monday night when Alabama's defense smothered, pummeled, and crushed the Tiger offense that averaged scoring 40 points per game against the best competition college football had to offer.

LSU tried everything: option, power running, motion, draws, play action, throwing deep, screens. Nothing worked.

When Alabama had the ball, the roles were reversed. LSU had no answers for what Alabama did on offense. Yes, only one drive ended with a touchdown, but as the game progressed, and Tide field goals were met with Tiger punts, the outcome of the game began to take on an air of inevitability.

How did this happen? LSU is loaded with superior athletes. So is Alabama. LSU is well coached. So is the Tide. LSU had everything to play for. So did Bama. Both teams are accustomed to playing on the largest of stages. Both enjoy the support of a passionate fan base and the resources of the flagship institutions of their states. So what was the difference?

A superior game plan? No doubt. Better preparation? Certainly. Greater effort? To be sure. But there was something else. A fierceness. A passion. An absolute refusal to accept anything less than each player's best. An undiluted commitment to excellence. In short: it is the ultimate manifestation of The Process.

His first full recruiting class-the players signed in February 2008-have won two National Championships, two SEC West titles, one SEC Championship and compiled a record of 48-6 with half of those losses coming in a single season. Every player on the 2011 team is a Saban recruit. And each one has been shaped by Saban's approach to the game. Each has bought in to what Saban has required.

The results of The Process were on full display last Monday night in the Superdome. Last Monday night, the Crimson Tide would have beaten any college football team in America. For LSU, it's just unfortunate that they had to be the one on the opposite sideline.

Here's how I grade the game:

Offense: A+ AJ McCarron has matured as a player and leader throughout the entire 2011 season, but most of that progress has been made since November 5. He was poised, confident and totally in control. He completed 23 of 34 pass attempts for 234 yards. Brad Smelley was the leading receiver with 7 catches for 39 yards. Darious Hanks gained 58 yards on 5 receptions and Kevin Norwood-remember that name-caught 4 passes for 78 yards. Seven different players caught passes and Marquis Maze was not among them.

Norwood's play was especially noteworthy as time and again he made plays against the insufferable Tyran Mathieu.

Trent Richardson, in his last game in a Tide uniform gained 96 net yards rushing and scored the only touchdown of the game. Eddie Lacy added 43 yards and AJ rushed for a net of 11.

Alabama had five drives that gained 40 or more yards [64, 58, 52, 50, 50] resulting in one missed field goal, three FGs and a TD. Four of those long drives were consecutive, beginning at the 2:38 mark in the 1st quarter and ending with 12:39 to play in the 3rd. The 52 yard drive with 1:59 to play in the first half resulting in a FG pushing the score to 9-0 was a dagger in LSU's heart, and the 50 yard drive to open the third quarter making the score 12-0 sent the unmistakeable message that LSU was going to lose the game.

Whatever film study the LSU coaching staff did in preparation for the game proved to be a waste of time as Bama ran plays out of formations never before seen. For example, we had a formation where Barrett Jones started at fullback, then shifted to right tackle to be replaced at FB by Hanks. We threw the ball out of "heavy" formations and ran out of "light" ones. LSU's defense committed to stop the run and make AJ beat them with his arm; AJ obliged them with a horse doctor's dose of precision passes. And if the LSU coaches thought that the injury to Maze would eliminate the passing attack, they were sorely mistaken.

Not only did AJ find multiple targets, he found them time and again being covered by Mathieu. The LSU Heisman finalist was embarrassed by Hanks, Williams and Norwood.

Defense: A+ Alabama has a long and proud tradition of excellent defenses. Fans can argue about which defense was the greatest of the modern ear. 1992? '78? '63 But this game will be studied by football coaches for years to come as an example of just how good a defense can be.

LSU did not snap the ball in Alabama territory until there remained only 7:30 to play in the 4th quarter. Each of the ensuing snaps was a negative play and the possession ended with a forced fumble at mid-field.

Courtney Upshaw and Jerrell Harris each recorded 7 tackles. Dont'a Hightower, Nico Johnson, Dequan Menzie and Dre Kirkpatrick each recorded 4 and both Nick Gentry and Robert Lester had 3. Eleven times, LSU ball carriers were stopped for lost yardage including 4 sacks of Jordan Jefferson.

Dont'a forced a fumble that Gentry recovered. A word here about Nick Gentry. His career at Alabama had its ups and downs, but he played the best game of his career in the biggest game of his senior season. Congratulations to Nick Gentry for going out a champion.

Jordan Jefferson has a habit of being careless with the football under pressure; he got away with it against Arkansas and Georgia. Last Monday, CJ Mosley made him pay for it with an interception.

The Tigers did not convert a third down until the 4th quarter and only converted 2 of 12 in the entire game. LSU had 11 offensive possessions. Seven of them lasted 3 or fewer plays and the Tigers' longest drive was only 24 yards. This prompted one wag to observe that it would take LSU fans three days to travel from New Orleans back to Baton Rouge because they couldn't sustain a drive.

Special Teams: The conventional wisdom was that LSU had a clear advantage over Alabama in special teams. The conventional wisdom was wrong.

Punting: A+ Alabama only punted three times for an average of 44.3 yards and LSU only returned a single punt for a measly 1 yard; this by the over-hyped previously mentioned Mathieu. [His poor play on defense and lack of production on special teams prompted the Fairhope Animal Hospital to put a sign out front of its establishment saying: Free To A Good Home One Badly Beaten Honey Badger.]

Brad Wing, LSU's very fine punter, was called upon 9 times and managed to average only 45.7 yards per punt. The more he kicked the less he produced. Marquis Maze and Christion Jones returned 3 of Wing's punts for 67 yards and only a hamstring injury prevented Maze from scoring a TD on his return of Wing's second punt of the night.

Kickoffs: A+ Cade Foster averaged 66.7 gross yards per kick. Coverage was excellent. LSU only kicked off once and Christion Jones returned the kick from the middle of the end zone to the 32 yard line. Kick returning will be in good hands in the next few seasons with Jones.

Place Kicking: A- There simply is no way to award the + when an attempted field goal is blocked and the PAT is missed. Otherwise, Jeremy Shelley did an excellent job setting a BCS record with successful kicks from 23, 34, 41, 35, and 44 yards.

Coaching: A+ The preparation and game plans were simply outstanding. The participation report lists 53 players who saw action and Alabama was only penalized a single time for 5 yards. The result of the play following the penalty actually yielded better field position.

Trent Richardson, Dont'a Hightower and Dre Kirkpatrick have all declared themselves available for the NFL draft. These early departures, combined with graduations will leave some large holes to fill on the defense. At the same time, the decisions by Barrett Jones, Chance Warmack and DJ Fluker to return for their senior seasons will guarantee that Alabama's offense in 2012 will be extremely good. A player from the 2009 national championship team once told me that if AJ and Julio Jones had overlapped as starters on offense, Jones would have won the Heisman. Maybe so. AJ has two more years ahead of him in charge of the Tide offense and he is going to be blessed with some dangerous weapons at receiver and a backfield that will once again be loaded and deep.

Back in June, at the "Bama Rising" concert, Kirk Herbstreet told a sold-out crowd at the Jefferson County Civic Center that Alabama would play for and win the 2011 BCS Championship. Every Tide fan wanted to believe his prediction. As the season progressed it became obvious that this team was on a championship mission and that the shock of April's tornadoes provided some of the emotional fuel for that quest. The mission is accomplished. The quest of 2011 has reached its goal. The road to 14 has been successfully traveled.

The Process, however, continues.

And the road to 15 lies ahead.

The Commissioner