I Hate You, John Crist: No matter how you analyze it, 'Bama just got beat

I was just as surprised as you were that Alabama didn’t defeat Clemson and claim its fifth national championship since 2009.

A year ago, I was convinced that the Crimson Tide having Jake Coker — a three-star recruit and marginal talent — at the controls would be their Achilles’ heel. He simply didn’t look like a title-winning quarterback to me.

This season, I thought that substituting Coker in favor of Jalen Hurts had made ‘Bama just about unbeatable. As it turns out, I was wrong on both counts. While Coker played the best football of his life throughout the playoff run, Hurts was exposed as an inexperienced true freshman playing over his head earlier in the campaign.

Coker wasn’t the reason the Tide won it all, just like Hurts wasn’t the reason they came up short, but it goes to show how unpredictable this sport can be sometimes. “Clemsoning” is now clearly dead and buried once and for all.

Here are some of my favorite comments from this past week. It feels good to bust this feature out again after it being on hiatus for a while.

The “him,” of course, is Alabama tailback Bo Scarbrough, who broke a bone in his leg in the third quarter of the national championship game.

Prior to the injury, he carried the ball 16 times for 93 yards and a pair of bruising touchdowns. Plainly speaking, he was the best player on the field. But once he departed, the stage was set for Clemson’s Deshaun Watson to do his thing.

The Tigers handled just about everything thrown their way, with the exception of Scarbrough creating his own holes between the tackles. The Crimson Tide weren’t the same after he exited, as Damien Harris and Joshua Jacobs — both quality backs, mind you — don’t offer the physical style that Scarbrough brings to the table.

For whatever reason, he just can’t stay healthy. Dating back to his high school career, Scarbrough has never been able to play a full schedule of games. It may ultimately prevent him from being all he can be for the Tide.

And now Najee Harris, the No. 1 high school recruit in America, calls Tuscaloosa home. With or without Scarbrough, that’s indeed a loaded backfield.

I tend to agree. At no point in the game — aside from the first series, perhaps — did I question Alabama’s play-calling offensively.

Considering the fact that Steve Sarkisian (below) had a grand total of one week to prepare and hadn’t called plays in quite some time, I thought he did a pretty admirable job. The Scarbrough injury unquestionably changed things for him.

Credit: John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports

Under normal circumstances, ‘Bama can afford to struggle on offense when protecting a lead in the second half. Since the defense tends to be so suffocating, the possibility of blowing said lead rarely crosses anyone’s mind. But facing an enemy led by Watson is far from normal circumstances, especially with a ring on the line.

Sarkisian made it known in the days leading up to the game that his goal is similar to what Lane Kiffin’s was. He has no desire to hold this position any longer than necessary. His plan is to be a head coach again as soon as possible.

Will he be successful? Probably. Even with all the drinking skeletons in Sarkisian’s closet, he wasn’t as reviled as pre-Tide Kiffin.

I don’t care how deep and talented your team is. Having to defend 99 plays in a single game is a recipe for eventual disaster.

As exciting as it was — the fourth quarter, at least — there’s no reason for a college football game to take 4 hours and 8 minutes to play. That’s how long it took this one to go from starting gun to final whistle.

Unfortunately, a lot of games take about four hours these days. Somewhere in the vicinity of three is more reasonable. Something must be done to cut it down a bit. Attention spans are only getting shorter in the world we live in, not longer. It’s not as easy as losing a few commercial breaks, either. The game itself must be addressed.

Personally, I think it’s time to adopt NFL-style rules in this arena. No more stopping the clock after first downs. It’s called a “two-minute drill” for a reason. In this day and age, two minutes is an eternity. There are too many stoppages.

A typical NFL team runs about 60-65 plays per game. Many college teams go 50-percent beyond that routinely. It’s just too many.

A lot of the passing plays called by Alabama this season, be it Kiffin or Sarkisian, were rollouts that took a while to develop.

That was no doubt a product of having Hurts pulling the trigger. Rollouts tend to limit throwing options and usually eliminate half the field altogether. At no point did he resemble a traditional pocket passer this season.

Also, the Crimson Tide’s scheme has evolved in recent years. It’s no longer an old-school, between-the-tackles system on running plays. So much of it is read-option stuff. Maybe the tailback is given the ball. Perhaps the quarterback decides to keep it. How the defense reacts is a product of how the play is actually run.

Credit: John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports

As a result, it’s only natural to add passing elements — hence, the “RPO,” or run-pass option — as another layer. They take a while to develop, though. Quick slants work on three-step drops. They don’t on rollouts after a play fake.

Hurts (above) either threw immediately behind the line of scrimmage or deep down the field off play-action. There was no intermediate passing game at all.

There’s a difference between rub and a pick. However, that difference is minute. Clemson took advantage of the grey area.

I could make a convincing case that both of the Tigers’ touchdown passes in the fourth quarters were illegal and should’ve been flagged for pass interference. The first one to Mike Williams has been all but ignored in the aftermath of the game.

Still, the second one to Hunter Renfrow was pretty egregious. Renfrow ran an out route from the slot position. The outside receiver, Artavis Scott, did little more than run directly into Alabama’s Marlon Humphrey — a glorified block, really — in order to create some separation for Renfrow. In that situation, no official wants to throw a flag.

And, no, the completion wasn’t made behind the line of scrimmage. If that were the case, then blocking downfield prior to the catch would’ve been within the framework of the rules. This was a pick play, plain and simple.

But again, Clemson capitalized on the situation. It should’ve been a penalty, but it’s not called very often. Certainly not in that spot.

John Crist is the senior writer for Saturday Down South, a member of the FWAA and a voter for the Heisman Trophy. Send him an e-mail, like him on Facebook or follow him on Twitter.