Where Nick Saban Ranks After Alabama’s Latest National Championship

Watson led Clemson to a field goal to make it 31-27, and boom!

But Nick Saban has never had to overcome an opponent like this with so much on the line, making all the more impressive what Alabama did Monday night to beat No. 1-ranked Clemson for the College Football Playoff title 45-40.

Alabama tight end O.J. Howard finished with five catches for 208 yards and two touchdowns. He called for an onside kick called Pop Kick from Adam Griffith and Alabama defensive back Marlon Humphrey caught it over the shoulder at midfield. However, after some early jitters, Coker settled down nicely and made the plays he needed to in order to win the game, including a huge scramble on a third down in the final few minutes to set up Henry’s final touchdown.

Moments later, with momentum on his squad’s side, Howard struck again.

Watson finished the season as the first quarterback to put up 4,000 passing yards and 1,000 rushing yards in the same season. TCoker completed 66.9 percent of his passes for 3,110 yards, 21 touchdowns, and nine interceptions, while running for two scores as well. J Howard. Oh, and Kenyan Drake returned a kickoff 95 yards for another score.

Through the first half, taking Clemson and the points seemed like a great play, as the Tide had shown no signs that they were about to start blowing them out any time soon. Watson threw for four touchdowns and accounted for 478 yards of offense, the Tigers topping the Crimson Tide nearly everywhere but on the scoreboard. After last night’s win, Alabama has won four national championships in seven years (2009, 2011, 2012 and 2015). But Watson’s performance should have Clemson fans unreasonably excited for next season, that is, once the disappointment wears off.

The College Football Playoff National Championship Game between Alabama and Clemson featured two teams whose campuses are more than 1,500 miles from Utah, but a bevy of local connections played out on Twitter during the contest.

Coming into the national championship game, the aura of Nick Saban and his Roll Tide program was teetering on being considered “overrated or “past it’s time”, but if the national championship was any indication on his program, the hype was real”.

Jake Coker was 16 of 25 for 335 yards and two touchdowns.

Watson is the best player in the country: No, Clemson didn’t win, but Tigers quarterback Deshaun Watson did all that he could.

With Clemson still reeling from the sneak attack, Coker hit Howard for the 51-yard strike.

The Crimson Tide (14-1) won their three previous championship game appearances in runaway fashion. The clock should have stopped with about 15 seconds remaining after Clemson picked up a first down.

“Initially it felt like a dream”, he said after the game, “and I tried to tell everybody to wake me up because I thought it wasn’t real”.