MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – At the end of a long, grueling, odd, awkward season of college football, we finally got a little bit of normalcy, as the final seconds of Monday night at the Hard Rock Stadium took off: Alabama, he’s another national championship trophy after winning in a dominant, historic way.
Only a few spectators were left to watch the celebration, a small fraction of the approximately 14,000 fans who allowed the facility took all the restrictions into account. In any other year, the field is crowded with friends, family, media, photographers and event staff during a grand celebration that runs ten deep along the temporary stage. On Monday night, a lone player did snow angels in the fallen confetti, as teammates only hugged team personnel.
Winning Alabama naturally felt like it was 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 only qualify for the College Football Playoff National Championship hosted by AT&T against the state of Ohio on Monday, they believe maybe see only a competitive match, they see exhibition no. 13 which shows why the Buckeyes simply had no chance.
There was Heisman Trophy winner, DeVonta Smith, who owned Ohio State so completely; he grabbed several title game records before the break and would have shattered more if he had not dislocated a finger on his right hand. There, Najee Harris ran back, being bullied by the Buckeyes with such violence, and their collective wills inevitably broke. The leader of all was fullback Mac Jones, who orchestrated another almost flawless offensive performance while setting his own championship records along the way.
The Crimson Tide could not be stopped during the season. They could not be stopped in a 52-24 championship show that no one will soon forget.
“For me, this team has performed almost more than any team,” said Alabama coach Nick Saban, who won a record of the seventh national title. “Played 13 games and went undefeated with all the disruption we’ve had this season. I think there’s quite a bit to rewrite when it comes to the legacy of the team.”
This Alabama team will have its special place in history, and rightly so. What this team has achieved goes beyond the points and the fine statistics and the Heisman. Players across the sport sacrificed more than they ever had; they endured more than they ever had; they are physically as well as mentally challenged in ways that are difficult to comprehend.
They played football during a pandemic.
It may not happen much more this season, perhaps years later, with time to reflect on the extraordinary circumstances in which it all took place.
“It’s been an unprecedented year with a lot of adversity,” said Alabama’s offensive tackle Alex Leatherwood. “But we just stayed the course. Trying to stay focused and taking everything day by day and really buying and locking everyone in what we wanted to achieve – and we came out victorious.”
The state of Ohio also insisted for this event, believing that he also had a championship-caliber team with Justin Fields taking the lead. Although the Buckeyes started their season later than Alabama, they have dealt with numerous coronavirus issues to get to this point – and even discussed whether they should postpone the championship game because they had more COVID-19 problems this past week.
It all speaks to the uncertainty that has filled this season. No one really knew if college football would reach the finish line, because coaches basically told everyone who would listen, “You’re just as good as your last Test.” The season felt tough every day, with coaches, players and coaches holding their breath in anticipation of the results of the coronavirus test.
It only increased the pressure on players because they did their best to follow all the safety protocols to keep playing. Since teams in the SEC were dealing with outbreaks and Saban himself was dealing with coronavirus, only one team really felt a certain thing: Alabama, thanks to Smith, Harris, Jones and all the others. Yes, there were some calls along the way. But this is a team that could not just score 40 points or more twice and had to finish three players in the top five for the Heisman – and you can really make a case today that they had to finish 1-2-3.
Of course, this does not just happen by accident. Saban recruits the best players and then develops the best players. But this kind of offensive achievement was also not predetermined. Saban sees the shifting landscape in university football to wide-open, score-to-will offenses and shifts with it – rediscovering the Crimson Tide in an unstoppable offensive force. Think of the first two times he won a national championship with Alabama: The Tide scored a combined 58 points – just six more than where they finished Monday night.
The offensive coordinator of Alabama, Steve Sarkisian, once again called it a masterful game. Knowing well that Smith would be classified on each play, he placed Smith in new and different formations to give him the ball. But mostly, Smith just got behind Ohio State defenders and outscored 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 game record, tied another and set a school record.
“He’s doing a good job of naming a game,” Saban said of Sarkisian. “He knows what the other team is doing, knows how to attack it, knows where to put the players in position to make the plays against what the other team is doing. He just did fantastic work this year . “
Jones, meanwhile, threw for 464 yards, breaking Joe Burrow’s BCS / CFP championship record and setting Burrow’s passing record by five.
One year after college football experts declared Burrow’s LSU group the greatest offense of all time, Alabama made its own claim to the crown. None of this may come as a shock. Alabama missed the playoffs a year ago and saw the Tival division roll through everyone in a similar way. Did anyone think Saban would just get along with it?
Jones, who threw a good portion of Monday’s second half on a bruised leg and still delivered one perfectly placed pass after another, took it a step further than declaring Alabama the biggest offense.
“I think we are the best team that has ever played,” Jones said. “There is no team that will ever play such an SEC schedule again. But at the same time we are just as happy to win this game and put the icing on the cake. There was not much pressure; we just wanted to to go there and play the game we’ve been playing since we were 5 years old. ‘
Despite all the unknowns about how this season would unfold, the Crimson Tide connected.
“We had a mission,” Smith said. “Everyone wanted to end things the right way. We all started working every day and just did the work. We got the result we wanted.”
And finally the result that we could all see coming.