Alabama fans are often criticized for arrogance. Pundits say that our championship expectations are unrealistic and therefore an expression of an intolerant and privileged mentality impossible for any rational coach to endure. To these nay-sayers and Tide-haters, I say: Look at the record book.
The University of Alabama football program has won 16 national championships in its 124 seasons. In the so-called "modern era" it has won 11. Five of those national titles have been achieved since the 1982 retirement of Paul Bryant, widely regarded as the greatest college football coach of all time. Since 1998, the advent of the BCS era, college football's effort to pit the season's two best teams in a definitive title game, the SEC, with 10, is the conference with the most BCS Championships. Alabama has accounted for four of those ten national championships, each in the last seven seasons.
Over the modern era, college football's competitive environment has increased dramatically. Scholarship limitations have leveled the playing field. Winning a national championship has always been hard, but the degree of difficulty has never been greater than it is today. At the time when a championship has never been harder to achieve, Alabama has dominated the sport of college football. No other program even comes close.
Consider this: Besides losing to Alabama in the national championship game, what do the 1992 Miami, 2009 Texas, 2011 LSU, 2012 Notre Dame and 2015 Clemson teams have in common? Their ONLY loss was to Alabama.
Yes, Alabama fans have perennial championship expectations. But those expectations are not unrealistic. Coach Saban frequently points out that the success of the Alabama football program depends upon not only the efforts of players and coaches, but also on the support of the University's administration, alumni and wider fan base. The readers of this blog are part of that base.
Each of those sixteen national championships holds a special place in the hearts of fans, but some are a bit more significant than others. Is there one championship that is greater than the others? What about the win over Washington in the Rose Bowl following the 1925 season; a watershed victory for all of Southern football? Or what about the 1961 championship, Coach Bryant's first of six national titles for The Capstone; an achievement that purged the stench of "Ears" Whitworth from the Alabama program and set the Tide up to dominate the sport for the next two decades? Then there is the 1992 championship, marking the Tide's return to the elite ranks of college football for the first time since Bryant's death. Maybe you would argue that the 2009 BCS national championship is the greatest; the first in 17 years, the unequivocal statement that Alabama had returned from its prolonged wandering in the wilderness of coaching malpractice and NCAA sanctions. A case could be made for each of these, or others, but from my perspective, Alabama's greatest national championship is its 45-40 victory over a previously undefeated Clemson, in the 2015 College Football Playoff Final.
If you watched the game on TV, or were among the 75,000 people who filled University of Phoenix Stadium, count yourself fortunate; remember this game!
It was not Alabama's best game of the season. The thrashing of Michigan State in the Cotton Bowl playoff semi-final deserves that accolade. In fact, Alabama did not play particularly well in its core competency; defense. Clemson had a lot to do about that. The Tigers are a very good football team. Deshawn Watson is a phenomenal college football player and without a doubt the best college quarterback I have ever watched. The Clemson defensive line was ferocious and gave Jake Coker and the Alabama offense their greatest test of the year.
But football is a game with three interdependent components: offense, defense and special teams. In the end, Alabama proved itself the better team. Consider this statistical comparison: Clemson gained 550 yards of total offense to Alabama's 473. But Alabama gained more all-purpose yards; 681 to 640.
Alabama defeated previously unbeaten Clemson with a comprehensive, team effort. The Tide offense earned only 18 first downs compared to Clemson's 31, and had six drives that gained 40 yards or more [59, 42, 64, 64, 50, 75] while Clemson had eight [54, 73, 40, 55, 60, 61, 75, 68]. The Tide defense recorded 7 tackles for lost yardage. Clemson recorded 9. Alabama defenders broke up 7 passes, forced a fumble and intercepted a pass. Clemson's secondary only broke up a single pass and forced no turnovers.
The Tide special teams blocked a field goal attempt [DJ Pettway] recovered an onside kick [Marlon Humphrey] and returned a Clemson kick 95 yards for a TD [Kenyan Drake].
When the team wins the national championship, every phase of the game earns A+. So you already know the mark on the report card. Nevertheless, faithful to the tradition of The Grades to take a deep dive into the statistics, here is how I grade the game:
Offense: A+ Jake completed 16 of 25 pass attempts for 335 yards and 2 TDs, both to OJ Howard. He was sacked 5 times but the Tide did not turn the ball over.
Derrick Henry ran the ball 36 times for a net of 158 yards [4.4 avg] and had 3 TDs. His longest run of the night was a 50 yard sprint down the middle of the field after breaking the box stuffed with Clemson defenders for the game's opening score. Jake posted a net of 11 yards rushing. He gained 31 yards but lost 20 yards on sacks. His most crucial run of the game came late in the 4th quarter with the Tide leading by 5. Facing 3rd and 2 from the Clemson 6 yard line with under 2:00 to play, Coker gained 3 yards for a first down at the Tiger 3, and setting up Henry for a hard-earned 1 yard TD three plays later; a score that ultimately determined the margin of victory.
Calvin Ridley caught 6 passes, but Clemson was determined to bottle him up, and he was only able to gain 14 total yards receiving. Ardarius Stewart was likewise kept in check through the first three quarters, but made 2 outstanding catches in the 4th for a combined 63 yards. Kenyan Drake added 21 yards on 2 receptions, and Richard Mullaney made a single catch for 29 yards. The usually sure-handed graduate transfer player had an uncharacteristic drop on a third down in the second half that forced a punt.
There are many reasons why those number 1 recruiting class rankings are important. Sure, it's sporting to make fun of UT fans who crow about how well Butch Jones, or Derek Dooley, or Phil Fulmer or whoever, is recruiting when the product they put on the field does not match the recruiting rankings. But when you are facing a talented, determined opponent, whose defense is disrupting your principal ground attack along with your primary receiving threat, it is nice that outstanding recruiting means you have an elite athlete playing tight end. Such an athlete is OJ Howard. The 6-6, 242 junior from Prattville [Autauga Academy] caught 5 passes for 208 yards and 2 TDs. He earned offensive MVP honors for his performance in the game.
Defense: A+ I know some will think this is a give-away grade. Coach Saban acknowledged that the defense did not play its best game, but the defense played well enough to enable the team to win.
Geno Matias-Smith led all tacklers with 11 solo stops. Reuben Foster had 9 tackles [8 solo]. Cy Jones, Reggie Ragland and Marlon Humphrey each were credited with 5 tackles.
Humphrey, and his fellow defensive backs, Minka Fitzpatrick and Ronnie Harrison (both freshmen), combined for 5 pass break ups, including two that would otherwise have resulted in Clemson touchdowns.
Special Teams: A+. A team that gets a kick blocked deserves to lose. By that standard, Clemson deserved to lose when DJ Pettway got his hand on a second-quarter Clemson field goal attempt. JK Scott was reliable all night, averaging 42.2 yards on 7 punts. He dropped 3 inside the Clemson 20 yard line and his longest punt of the night traveled 52 yards.
I cannot write enough about Kenyan Drake.
A difficult injury history might mean that the Clemson game was the last time he will play organized football. Maybe not. The senior running back from Powder Springs, GA, stands 6-1 and tips the scales at 210 lbs.; 209 of which are heart. He was having a fantastic season in 2014 when he broke his left leg in the Ole Miss game. This year, against Mississippi State, he broke a bone in his forearm making a tackle on kick coverage. He was back on the field against Florida in the SEC CG, ripped through a gassed Michigan State defense on a brilliant 58 yard run in the 4th quarter of the Cotton Bowl and made a dazzling kick return for a touchdown in the championship final. I am no NFL scout. I do not claim any insight into draft-ology. But if a pro team needs a player who will be fantastic in the locker room, dedicated on the practice field, and deadly with the ball in his hands on game day, then I cannot think of a better player to draft than Drake.
Coaching: A+ The participation report lists 51 players who saw action in the game. Alabama was penalized twice for 21 yards.
There is lots of room to quibble about the play calling, for example, the failure to take greater advantage of injuries to key Clemson defenders, but the run/pass ratio was a respectably balanced 41/30, with 20 of the 29 first down plays called as runs. The best, and most daring coaching decision of the game-indeed of the entire season-was the call for an on-side kick with 10:34 to play in the game and the score tied at 24 following Adam Griffith's successful 33 yard field goal.
Ryan Kelly told reporters in the locker room following the game, that Coach Kiffin came over to the offensive line bench when the teams were lining up for the kick and told the players about the call. "He told us to just stay seated, not get up, and not act like anything is about to happen." Thinking the pre-play deception through so thoroughly is a sign of the Nick Saban attention to detail.
Coach Saban has talked a great deal about how unselfish this team is. How the players are all about the team. How they have subordinated individual success to team success.
Here are some examples:
* OJ Howard was asked about whether his performance in the championship game makes him unhappy with primarily being a blocker during the season. "Not at all", he replied, "I'm happy just doing what I'm told to do."
* The seniors and juniors who were eligible to receive NFL draft "grades" predicting where they might go in the draft, unanimously voted, in a players-only meeting, that they would not even ask for such information until the Championship Game was over.
* The players themselves voted to send Tony Brown home from Dallas in the days prior to the Cotton Bowl, and they enforced the ban to include the championship final.
Derrick Henry has to throw his name into the draft hat this year. It is the only reasonable and logical thing for him to do. But here is hoping that the rest of the junior class decides to come back for their senior season. Players like Reuben Foster, Ryan Anderson, OJ Howard, Jonathan Allen, Brandon Greene, Adam Griffith, Eddie Jackson, Darren Lake, and A'Shawn Robinson would be sorely missed. And just think about what a contribution they would make as senior leaders in the 2016 season.
Yes, this team is special. This victory over the only undefeated team in the FBS is special. This championship, the fourth In seven years is special. This season is one I will always remember. Even the Empire State Building celebrated the Tide's 16th National Championship.
The journey down the road to Number 16 has been thrilling. Thank you for sharing it with me.
Roll Tide, Y'all.
The Commissioner
No comments:
Post a Comment