MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – At the end of a long, grueling, strange, awkward season for college football, we finally got a little bit of normalcy as the final seconds on Monday night at Hard Rock Stadium: Alabama hoist yet another national champion trophy after winning on dominant, manner.
There were only a few spectators left to attend the celebration, a small fraction of the roughly 14,000 fans who entered the facility, taking into account all applicable restrictions. In every other year, the field is harassed with friends, family, media, photographers, event staff during a grand party that runs 10 deep into the makeshift stage. On Monday evening, a lone player snowed angels in the fallen confetti while teammates hugged only team personnel.
Winning Alabama, of course, felt like the inevitable end as the most dominant coach in the sport put together the most dominant team with the most dominant players. For those who tune in to the College Football Playoff National Championship presented by AT&T against Ohio State on Monday, believing they will power just seeing a competitive game, they saw exhibit # 13 showing why the Buckeyes just didn’t have a chance.
There was Heisman Trophy winner DeVonta Smith who owned Ohio State so completely that he would have taken multiple titles in the title match before halftime and would have shattered even more had he not dislocated a finger on his right hand. Najee Harris ran back, bulldozing through the Buckeyes with such force that their collective wills inevitably broke. The leader was quarterback Mac Jones, who orchestrated another near-flawless offensive performance, while, yes, setting his own championship records along the way.
The Crimson Tide could not be stopped during the season. They couldn’t be stopped in a 52-24 championship-winning performance that no one will soon forget.
“For me, this team has accomplished almost more than any other team,” said Alabama coach Nick Saban, who won a record seventh league title. “Played 13 games, remained unbeaten with all the disruption we’ve had this season. I think there’s quite a bit to write when it comes to the legacy of the team.”
This Alabama team will have its special place in history, and with good reason. What this team has achieved goes beyond the points and the nice statistics and the Heisman. Players across the sport have sacrificed more than ever before; they have endured more than they ever have; they were challenged both physically and mentally in ways that are difficult to comprehend.
They played football during a pandemic.
It may not sink in until much later, perhaps years later, how remarkable this season really was, with time to reflect on the extraordinary circumstances in which it all came about.
“It has been an unprecedented year of many adversity,” said Alex Leatherwood in Alabama. “But we just stayed on track. We tried to stay focused and take everything from day to day and really get everyone to buy in and stick to what we wanted to achieve – and we came out victorious.”
Ohio State also pushed for this opportunity, believing it also had a championship team with Justin Fields leading the way. Although the Buckeyes started their season later than Alabama, they dealt with numerous coronavirus issues to get to this point – and even discussed whether to postpone this championship game because they had more COVID-19 woes over the past week.
All of that speaks to the uncertainty that filled this season. No one really knew if college football would make it to the finish line, as coaches basically told anyone who would listen, “You’re as good as your last test.” The season felt uncertain every day, with coaches, players and trainers waiting their breaths for the coronavirus test results.
That only added to the excitement for players because they tried their best to follow all safety protocols to keep playing. While SEC teams handled outbreaks and Saban herself handled the coronavirus, only one team felt really secure: Alabama, thanks to Smith, Harris, Jones, and everyone else. Yes, there were a few short phone calls along the way. But this is a team that only failed to score 40 or more points twice and had three players finish in the top five for the Heisman – and you could make a very real case today that they should have finished 1-2-3 .
Of course, this doesn’t just happen by accident. Saban recruits the best players and then develops the best players. But this kind of attacking performance was not predetermined either. Saban saw the changing landscape in college football to wide open, score-at-will insults and changed with it – reinventing the Crimson Tide into an unstoppable offensive force. Consider the first two times he won a national championship with Alabama: The Tide scored 58 points together – just six more than where they finished Monday night.
Alabama offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian once again called a masterful game. Knowing full well that Smith would be tested at every game, he placed Smith in new and different formations to get him the ball. But most of the time, Smith just got behind the Ohio state defenders and outdone them. By the time the first half was over, Smith had 12 catches for 215 yards and three touchdowns, broke three SEC career records, set a BCS / CFP championship record, equaled another and set a school bowl record.
“He can call a game very well,” Saban said of Sarkisian. He knows what the other team is doing, knows how to attack it, knows where to place the players to put them in position to make those moves against what the other team is doing. He has just done a fantastic job. . “
Jones, meanwhile, threw for 464 yards – breaking Joe Burrow’s BCS / CFP championship record and tying Burrow’s passing touchdown record with five.
A year after college football experts declared that Burrow’s LSU squad had the greatest offense of all time, Alabama made its own claim to that crown. None of that should come as a shock: Alabama missed the playoffs a year ago and watched the division’s rival Tigers roll through everyone in the same way. Did anyone think Saban would just like that?
Jones, who hobbled on a bruised leg for a good part of the second half yet delivered one perfectly placed pass after another, went one step further than calling Alabama the biggest offense.
“I think we are the best team that has ever played,” said Jones. “There is no team that will ever play such an SEC schedule again. But at the same time, we are just so happy to win this game and put the icing on the cake. There wasn’t much pressure; we just wanted to go outside. go and play the game we’ve all been playing since we were 5 years old. “
Despite all the unknowns as to how this season would unfold, the Crimson Tide stuck together.
“We were on a mission,” said Smith. “Everyone wanted to end things the right way. We all just came to work every day and just stopped work. We got the result we wanted.”
And ultimately the result that we could all see coming.