Nick Saban has doubts about viability of colllege playoff system

But that’s not what Scott will take out of the 45-40 loss.

(Michael Chow/The Arizona Republic via AP).

College Football Playoff champion Alabama finished No. 1 in the final Associated Press rankings announced Tuesday. In five of his last six games, Watson has rushed for more than 100 yards.

No wonder the normally stone-faced Nick Saban was smiling. Those are correctible, Watson said, and will be fixed before next season – and another run at a national title. And that should tell you everything you need to know about Saban’s ability to adapt.

The Tide will send another batch of players to the National Football League this year, as Saban always does.

Kiffin spent considerable time doing media interviews in the aftermath of the game. “It’s just the process”. Saban did not have to rewrite the rules, but he did execute a particular play that changed the course, which helped lead to a favorable outcome. “He’s the one guy that stays the same”. And that’s the point.

“She made it clear to Moore that Saban was miserable in the National Football League and dearly missed coaching in college”, Burke writes at page 6 of the biography. Take his urging Kiffin to spread out and speed up the offense at times.

Alabama’s fireworks on offense were enough to offset a brilliant effort from Watson, who dazzled with his arm, his legs and dizzying improv skills. Clemson finished with 550 yards to Alabama’s 473, but the Crimson Tide scored on a kickoff return for touchdown in the fourth quarter that provided momentum.

Onside kick? In a tie game? Alabama pulled away from Texas for Saban’s first Tide title to end the 2009 season.

This one went down to the wire.

The Tigers looked strong through most of the game, repeatedly sacking Alabama quarterback Jake Coker. He’ll head back to the office for Wednesday meetings with players, including the latest group of underclassmen considering turning pro. For Henry, he becomes only the fifth running back in Heisman Trophy history to add a national title to the honour in the same season.

Then, true freshman(!) offensive tackle Mitch Hyatt, a long-armed kid who was an elite-level recruit from Georgia proved absolutely indispensible. “We’re watching a very special player here; he’s kind of come on this year, and Wayne is one of the best running backs in the country”. Howard got treated by the Clemson secondary like he was radioactive. “I thought we’d do a better job against him than we did”.

“I think there will be time for that”, Scott said of 2016. “I’m incredibly proud of our team”. Henry plunged into the end zone for his third touchdown of the game to make it 45-33 with 1:07 left. “Their team played hard and, you know, I’d like to congratulate them on the great season that they had”.

No move was bolder than hiring Kiffin, the brash former Southern California, Tennessee and Oakland Raiders coach. The result has been 26 wins, two SEC titles and two Heisman Trophy finalists.

Saban was still damp with his Gatorade baptism when he said this was “my favorite team” because it has “come so far and done so much”. Obviously we wanted to win the game and we came up a little short, but I think that at least the nation saw tonight why we’ve been so successful.

In the end, you also see more of the same. Was this year’s Alabama defense better than the 1992 national championship defense? This won’t be like USC winning a two-game series against Auburn in 2002 and 2003, when Matt Leinart’s debut was a shellacking of the War Eagle on the road, against a team that had Jason Campbell, Karlos Dansby, Carnell Williams and Ronnie Brown. His teams are so well-prepared and typically are so physically superior, he has not needed to ad lib much or use much imagination.