For the fourth time in seven seasons, the Alabama Crimson Tide are champions of College Football.
Trailing by three entering the fourth quarter, the Tide used a surprise onside kick and a 95-yard kickoff return by Kenyan Drake to seize momentum for good, defeating the Clemson Tigers 45-40.
Alabama quarterback Jake Coker went 16-of-25 for 335 yards and two touchdowns to guide the offense. Most of those yards went to an unexpected contributor in the form of O.J. Howard. The junior tight end entered the game with 394 receiving yards and no touchdowns all season. He caught five passes for 208 yards and two scores for the Tide with no catch bigger the 63-yard hookup with Coker with less than four minutes left.
Derek Henry capped off the game with a one-yard score with 1:07 remaining on the clock.
For Clemson, quarterback Deshaun Watson had an incredible game, going 30-of-47 for 405 yards and four touchdowns passing. He also added 73 yards on 20 carries to power his offense. Unfortunately, the offense just couldn’t keep up as the Tigers lost for the first time in 51 games when leading entering the fourth quarter.
The fun got started early on when Heisman Trophy winner Henry took a handoff 50 yards to the house to open the scoring for the Crimson Tide. Henry was his typical dominant force for Alabama, going for over 100 yards rushing, 128 to be exact, in the first half alone. His two first-half touchdowns kept the Tide in it when it looked like the Tigers were going to just have their way with them.
Derrick Henry takes it 50 yards to the house! #RollTide https://t.co/HVl1ESTeBM
— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) January 12, 2016
Henry finished the game with 158 yards and three touchdowns on 36 carries. For as well as he ran in the first half, he was pretty much shut down by the Clemson defense over the final 30 minutes. After averaging 6.4 yards per carry in the first half, Henry ran for just 1.8 yards per attempt in the second half. Whatever adjustment the Tigers made in the locker room worked like a charm, but as any good team does, Alabama adjusted.
Speaking of the Tigers, it really felt like they were going to perform surgery in tearing apart the Alabama defense. Watson carved Alabama up on Clemson’s first two drives, both of which resulted in touchdown passes to Hunter Renfrow. Renfrow finished the game with seven catches for 88 yards and two touchdowns, undoubtedly the best game of his career.
https://twitter.com/RedditCFB/status/686732904190316544
With a chance to go up by two scores, Watson threw a pick to safety Eddie Jackson inside their 50 yard line that gave Alabama life. That led to a one-yard Henry run to tie the game.
Watson did drive the Tigers downfield late in the first half, and put his team in position to take a lead at the half. However, a 44-yard field goal attempt by Greg Huegel was blocked. It was the second failed field goal attempt of the game as Alabama kicker Adam Griffith pushed a kick to the right when given a chance to put the Tide up by three late in the first.
With the game tied at 14 after 30 minutes, the second half action picked up right where the first left off. It took all of 2:07 for the Crimson Tide to take the lead thanks to a 53-yard touchdown pass from Coker to Howard that came about from a lapse in the Clemson defense.
The Tigers would score the next 10 points in the third as the back-and-forth theme of the game continued. It was the fourth lead change of the night with the go-ahead score coming courtesy of a Wayne Gallman punch in from the one-yard line.
Wayne Gallman punches it in and Clemson retakes the lead! #ALLIN https://t.co/kJOjUCE1gD
— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) January 12, 2016
As per usual, though, Alabama came right back. The Tide scored 10 points in a 49-second span thanks to a 33-yard field goal that tied the game at 24 and the aforementioned onside kick. While Clemson was scrambling for answers, Alabama took advantage of the surprise with yet another long touchdown for Howard, this one going for 51-yards after another defensive breakdown.
The Tide never looked back, and showed what the experience of a team being in that moment before meant.
A fourth title in seven seasons cements this era of Alabama football as the greatest of all-time, and there’s certainly more where that came from. As the saying goes, Alabama is “just getting started”.
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*Featured Photo (above) credit to USA TODAY Sports
