Clemson dominates Alabama to claim national championship

Photo credit: @ClemsonFB

By: Eric He

The first drive ended in a pick-six, the first half ended with a stalled offense and the game ended in devastation.

For Alabama, it was a result that not even their harshest critics could’ve imagined. For Clemson, it was pure ecstasy: a 44-16 rout over the Crimson Tide at Levi’s Stadium on Monday to claim the national championship.

Clemson led 31-16 at halftime and never looked back, outscoring Alabama 13-0 in the second half to clinch the title. The Tigers end the season a perfect 15-0, the first team in the AP poll era to do so. It is the program’s second championship.

“We’re gonna enjoy this one. We’ve got a nice spot to put it in our facility, right next to that other one,” Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said. “We’ve got twins!”

In the process, they became the first team to defeat Alabama by more than 14 points since Nick Saban took over as coach in 2007. And in many ways, it was stunning. Trevor Lawrence carved up a premier Alabama defense to the tune of 347 yards for three touchdowns on 20-of-32 passing. His favorite target was Justyn Ross, who caught six passes for 153 passes and a touchdown.

From the start, the Tiger put their imprint on the game. Alabama quarterback Tua Taovailoa, who threw for 295 yards and two touchdowns but also had two interceptions, tossed his first pick on his third pass attempt. It went all the way back for a touchdown, with A.J. Terell returning it 44 yards for Clemson.

The Tigers scored touchdowns on three of their final five drives of the first half, and then shut down the Crimson Tide in the second half. Three times, Alabama went for it on fourth down — including a fake field goal attempt on its first drive of the second half. Three times, it was denied.

“We’re 15-0, we beat the best team ever, nobody’s taking that away from us,” defensive tackle Christian Wilkins said.

With another title win over Saban’s team, Clemson is no longer the little brother to Alabama. The two teams have faced off for four straight years in the College Football Playoff, and it is apparent: Clemson is every bit as equal, every bit as dominant and revered a program as Alabama.

NCAAFB Podcast with Daniel Dullum: Crimson Tide go perfect; Central Florida stays undefeated; Clemson finishes undefeated: plus more

photo from al.com: Alabama defensive lineman LaBryan Ray (89) exits the field after the Iron Bowl Nov. 24, 2018

NCAAFB podcast with Daniel Dullum:

1) Poll and playoff update, coaching rumors Helton stays with USC Trojans contrary to the firing rumors, Texas Tech fires Kingsbury, Illinois Lovie Smith was extended for next season.

2) No. 1 – Alabama steamrolls Auburn to complete undefeated regular season

3) No. 9 – Central Florida remains unbeaten, loses quarterback McKenzie Milton to possible knee injury

4) No. 2 – Clemson is 12-0 after lopsided win over South Carolina State; Florida State’s bowl streak ends at 36 after loss to No. 11 Florida

5) Arizona State comes back for wild win over U of Arizona in Tucson, Sun Devils improve to 7-5; Minnesota reclaims Axe Trophy in win over Wisconsin 37-15; Stanford win over UCLA

Daniel Dullum is filling in for Michelle Richardson for the NCAAFB podcasts this week at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Michelle Richardson on the NCAA

 by Michelle Richardson

Auburn 34 Alabama 28: This was one of the most exciting games and exciting might not be even the right word to use that’s how great it was and at the very end of the game when Chris Davis returned the ball from a botched field goal for over 100 yards that’s how you want to win the game. Auburn did this against their arch rival and you can’t ask for anything more. The game was great it was pretty evenly matched the time of possession was about the same. Alabama has about 1:34 left and couldn’t hold the ball and Alabama had more penalties they had six penalties for 45 yards.

Auburn had only three penalties for 21 yards, Auburn had a fumble and they had a turnover and Alabama had no turnovers and there were no interceptions so the game was played well. It was just one of those things. How do you explain it, you just can’t explain it was one of those things that makes football in November so exciting and I tell people over and over it’s great when football season starts but November it is the time of the year that’s when you know who the real deal and whose not.

Remember what it doesn’t matter what happens in September or October in football but it’s November it’s all about what happens in November because that’s when the games really matter. People play these games and know they have to win them because these are the ones that have to be won in order to advance to the next level for bowl games. Auburn let it be known they won it. I can’t tell you Alabama wasn’t in it maybe they thought they should be looking forward to the SCC Championship instead of concentrating on the game that was in front of them.

Pac 12 Championship: Stanford is made up of a group of very poised young men and they can play anywhere as they play this Championship in Arizona State this coming Saturday night. They have more issues amongst their peers than on the field. Arizona State is not going to let you just walk in and take over by no means and their not going let you do this last dynasty stuff. Stanford is going to go in there and play but it’s believed that Stanford can and should go down there and pull off a win.

It will be a good game and who would have thought this would be the year that it would be Stanford and Arizona State to represent the Pac 12 as everybody had Oregon picked to win and these teams proved otherwise. Oregon was just a little bit over hyped and that’s why they play the games. That’s why the games are played. Somebody isn’t just going to show up and get handed the title. Stanford had a tough loss against USC in their last loss but it ended the season with a 10-2 record.

Stanford is in the Pac 12 Championship and have earned a spot in the BCS bowl and Arizona State who quietly dominated for the most part the Pac 12 south. It’s going to be a great game and it’s evenly matched but I have still have Stanford coming out on top. I wouldn’t be surprised however if ASU shows us a little something something on Saturday night.

Villanova 88 Iowa 83 Big Ten/ACC hoops: Honestly this was a great game with Villanova winning it on Saturday and I take nothing away from either team but I’ll be honest with you it’s too early. This tournament was a great tournament and these were great games but don’t talk to me until you get to conference play. It’s December and January you’ll be in the conference play and you’ll be getting beat up and we might not see these teams again and then again you might not.

It’s like the last week in August or the second week in September when their still beating up on Liberty or Appalachian State. Lets all kind of calm down we’ve seen some really good basketball so far, there’s some very exciting players out there for Iowa and this was really a good game. Villanova was all over the floor with players like Jayvaughn Pinkston with 14 points and James Bell at guard he had 20 points and then they had Chris Jenkins, Josh Hart had 14, also they had key help from Ryan Arcidiacono.

This game came down to bench play and Villanova had three people on the bench that was in double figures and that’s a good showing that was very large. This was a great game and I can’t wait to see more games like this and it’s just the beginning and we have to wait until they get into conference play.

Michelle Richardson does NCAA commentary each week for Sportstalk Radio

Michelle Richarson on the NCAA

by Michelle Richardson

 

 

Stanford 20 USC 17: I’ll be honest with you this game really surprised me, in the end you would think Stanford would eek out the win after losing in the last 25 seconds of the game on a field goal by USC kicker Andre Heidari who hit a 47 yarder. It’s never easy this is a tough loss for Stanford and they played at USC which is a tough school to play at. Stanford looked like they had that extra push that would put them over the top but it got late and the Trojans got in range to get three points at the end of the game.

 

Southern Cal basically played bowl crasher and their the first team this year to play bowl crasher this year in knocking down Stanford in their bid to the Rose Bowl. USC beat Oregon State back on November 1st and beat Stanford last Saturday with that being said Stanford had three turnovers but everything else was pretty much even.

 

You can’t turn over the ball and expect to win and that’s been pretty much the story of the game, turnovers you can not have them they had two interceptions and one fumble. You can not turn over the ball especially against a highly effective team like SC and to expect to come out with a victory.

 

Alabama 20 Mississippi State 7: Alabama kind of got ahead of themselves that happened after they beat LSU last week 38-17, and the Crimson Tide thought all they had to do was go on cruise control, it’s one of those teams their about to change the tide in the SCC. Their no longer whipping boys they’ve proved they can play with the best in the SCC they can beat them or play them very close.

 

For Alabama quarterback A.J. McCarron this was not his best work he threw for 187 yards, went 18-32, with two touchdowns, and two interceptions, which means there was a mistake in the secondary and Mississippi St was ball hawking and they were on it. MS was on McCarron and the Tide knew it and they knew how he played. Alabama not only threw for two interceptions they had two fumbles on top of that.

 

Alabama gave up four turnovers in the game for 41 yards, you can not make stupid penalties and give up the ball if you expect to win the game. The Crimson Tide were lucky in this one and strangely enough they came back and won this game. Alabama head coach Nick Saban I’m sure talked to his players during half time to get them to shake some of these turnovers and other mistakes off as the Tide held on.

 

Charleston Classic coming November 21st: I love all the tournaments that are playing at the end of the year and we can get an idea how they play before they get into the conference and none of the teams going into this classic are slouches. A lot of these teams are doing well that’s in there, Nebraska, UMass, UAB, New Mexico, Georgia, Davidson, Temple and Clemson.

 

The smaller schools like UAB and Davidson the other big schools can not take these teams lightly, this is going to be very interesting, there’s some great talent scheduled for this tournament and there is going to be some great basketball and I can’t wait to see it.

 

Michelle Richardson will be covering the Charleston Classic Tournament for Sportstalk Radio