Miami Lakes, FL – No. 1 Alabama dominated No. 4 Oklahoma and took an early four-TD lead to go on to advance into the CFP title game with a 45-34 victory. Bama star QB Tua Tagovailoa impressed with his strong, rifle arm throwing deadly accurate passes to WRs Devonta Smith (6 for 104 yards, 1 TD) and to Jerry Jeudy (4 for 73, 1 TD). He completed his first nine attempts and finished by completing 24 of 27 (a bowl record) for 318 yards and four TDs.
Timing is everything
Tagovailoa’s sense of timing with his receivers resembles nothing Collegefootballfan.com has ever witnessed so consistently before. His passes looked overthrown and out of reach on numerous occasions, but both Smith and Jeudy accelerated to make the receptions for big gains bursting by defenders. The timing between QB and receivers looked masterful.
Fast Start
Alabama took a 21-0 lead by the end of period one. A fifty-yard bullet to Smith on the game’s first play set up a one-yard touchdown by Damien Harris on to finish the Tide’s first possession. However, that was pre-empted by a lost fumble by Bama reversed under a pile of bodies difficult to fathom based on two replays shown on The Hard Rock Stadium video board. Tua’s pass to Henry Riggs III at the OU ten extended the Tide’s lead on their subsequent possession. Harris finished off a 75-yard drive with a one-yard run to give Bama its 21-0 lead before the first stanza ended. I could not foresee leaving my second bowl game in two days after the first half, but the thought did regretfully cross my mind. What a waste of a bowl tour this turned out to be, I thought.
Never saw this before
In the second period, a 40-yard reception by Jerry Jeudy set up a diving TD catch by Josh Jacobs (15 rushes for 98 yards; 4 catches for 60 yards and 1 TD) going out over the end line to go up, 28-0. OU finally got on the board with a two-yard TD run by Trey Sermon on their subsequent possession. Things got a little interesting after two consecutive personal foul calls against the Sooners, one after the TD and one following the point after that sent the ensuing kickoff from the OU ten. It looked like another big break for Alabama. However, a surprising fair catch by Bama only got them started from their 25.
The Sooners held to force a 34-yard punt that resulted with Austin Siebert’s 26-yard FG. It seemed like the penalties threw Bama a little off kilter. Maybe no one else challenged them physically like that before. The Crimson Tide came back next though with Joseph Bulova’s 38-yard FG to reset their course to lead 31-10 at halftime. CFF.com decided to stick it out in the second half just in case. We didn’t buy a ticket and fly down to Florida for half a CFP game.
Heisman moments?
In the third period, OU crept back within 11 starting with another 26-yard FG by Siebert. On their next series, Murray followed up with a 49-yard pass caught over the shoulder by WR Charleston Rambo to trail 31-20 with 3:03 left in the third. Would we see some Heisman magic from Kyler Murray? Not if Heisman runner-up Tagovailoa could help it.
Continuing a drive into the final period, the Bama QB completed five passes to five different receivers in this series, the last one to Smith from ten yards out. No. 1 and No. 4 traded three more TDs nearing the end of play. Murray threw a 10-yard score to WR Cee Dee Lamb to complete an 80-yard scoring drive. Tagovailoa followed up with 13-yard TD pass to Jeudy after The Tide recovered an onsides kick at OU’s 46. The Sooners were game but late as Murray tallied the final score of the game running it in from the eight with 4:23 remaining. The Alabama Crimson Tide ate up the clock with its run game forcing OU to use up its last two time-outs before time expired. The Tide rolls on to Santa Clara, California at 14-0 with it 45-34 victory.
No. 2 Clemson waits for what will be their fourth post-season meeting against The Tide in four years. This should be another classic battle. We will watch it on TV and turn it off it the score gets out of hand, but we don’t think this will be the case. Oklahoma (12-2) opens at Houston next season who just hired Dana Holgerson formerly head Coach as West Virginia after the release of major Applewhite. He’s had some familiarity with the Sooners after seven seasons of Big Twelve play heading into that one. For what that’s worth, he’s 0-7 against the Sooners. We at Collegefootballfan.com travel on to our final game of 27 this season to be held in Annapolis on New Year’s Eve afternoon. The 10-2 Cincinnati Bearkats of the American Athletic face 6-6 Power Five team Virginia Tech of the ACC in the McDonnel Douglas Military Bowl.
Extra points:
We made up another new resolution (after the debacle in Music City) for next year’s bowl season plan based on this experience. As long as Alabama and Clemson continue to enter the CFP’s Final Four (and we don’t expect them to miss out on this any time soon), we will only buy a ticket to a game if Penn State is involved. At least we’d be fired up to root for somebody. We just don’t see either Alabama or Clemson fading away and out of CFP contention under the watch of their skillful head coaches.
Dominating Dynasties
And domination’s not unusual in college football by any stretch if you are familiar with other divisions of NCAA college football. Dynasties basically already persist in all four divisions to some extent. North Dakota State won five of the last six FCS championships and will be in it again on January 6 when they meet perennial contender Eastern Washington for its next title.
Mount Union in Division 3 has played in 21 national championship games since 1993 and won 13 D-3 titles. They fell to Mary Hardin-Baylor this season after defeating them last season. The MU Purple Raiders and Wisconsin Warhawks met for the title nine times from 2005-2014. The Warhawks won six and lost three. Former UWW Head Coach Lance Leipold moved on to FBS Buffalo in 2015 and is already righting the Bulls’ program there.
NW Missouri State is the closest to dominance in D-2. They’ve won five D-2 championships from 2009-2016. From 2005-2008, they made it to each championship game but came up short each time. The reason for success? We say its outstanding head coaches who are highly skillful in five major areas.
Alabama and Clemson successes can be attributed to the talents of their respective head coaches Nick Saban and Dabo Swinney. The five areas that dynasty-leading coaches are highly skillful at above and beyond all other coaches in their respective levels are these: 1.) Recruiting talent, 2.) Building solid coaching staffs, 3.) Teaching (coaching) skills on the practice field, 4.) Motivating their players, and 5.) Game Plans (X’s and O’s) executed in the heat of competition. This is what got them both to Santa Clara, and that is the result of these skills you will see on Monday night in the CFP championship game.
