Ad Disclosure
Alabama and Clemson have taken much different paths to the College Football Playoff national championship game. The two teams will meet on Monday in Glendale, Ariz.
The Crimson Tide seek their fourth national championship in the Nick Saban era. For the Tigers, it’s been since 1981 that they’ve hoisted the trophy – their lone national title.
For Alabama it’s been almost a carbon copy of last season, only a little better. Like last season, an early loss to Ole Miss jolted the team into the reality of having to show up prepared and ready to win rather than expecting to do so simply by putting on a uniform.
But they’ve been there before, certainly Saban has, and he knows how to handle adversity as well as the preparation it takes to carry the banner for the SEC. Like last year, the Tide subsequently rolled through the 2015 schedule.
One by one, the SEC contenders (pretenders?) fell at their feet. Georgia (38-10) was the first to fall hard, then Arkansas (27-14). Then they fell like dominoes; Texas A&M (41-24), Tennessee (19-14), LSU (30-16), Mississippi State (31-6) and Auburn (29-13). They brushed off Florida (29-15) in the SEC Championship Game.
The big difference between this year and last? Unlike last year, Alabama took no prisoners in the semifinal game this time around. A 38-0 blanking of Big Ten champion Michigan State made for an emphatic statement to anyone crossing the Tide’s path. The “Beware” sign is firmly hung.
For Clemson, this is uncharted waters. It’s a process a long time in coming. Where it began in earnest differs by opinion. Clemson guard Eric MacLain has been in the program the past five years, including a redshirt season in 2011. He points to the 2012 Chick-fil-A Bowl victory over LSU, a 25-24 win on the last play of the game, as a turning point in the program.
“I think the summer after the LSU game (the change started),” MacLain said. “The offseason, going into that, that was obviously a huge win for our program and with that momentum, you saw leadership emerge from young guys.”
Hurdling Notre Dame 24-22 in the fourth game of the season was monumental in the development of the 2015 team, according to Tigers RB Wayne Gallman, but the mauling of Miami (58-0) that subsequently got Hurricanes head coach Al Golden fired after the worst loss in program history, is the momentum the Tigers are riding on today.
“I’d say the turning point this season, yeah, Notre Dame was one of those games,” Gallman said. “But I’d say Miami was really when we got really all in, and the plan really started to just flow together. We were good on both sides of the ball, so I think that’s when we started to get good. Everything just clicked. The gameplan was right. Everybody came to play, and we played perfect.”
After seven seasons as head coach at Clemson, it seems Swinney now has everything in place to be a national power.
“It’s just been cool to watch,” MacLain said. “I think Coach Swinney has got the character type guys that he wants, whether that’s coaches or players. I think our support staff is second to none. We really have been able to go out there and get the best in the country.
“Obviously our coordinators have been a huge deal in that. So I really think it’s just been a growing process through players and coaches, and you guys have seen firsthand what that can do.”
The Tigers ride into Arizona with the nation’s current longest win streak at 17 games.
“We’ve played a lot of good teams in those 17 games,” said Swinney. “I’m just so proud of our team for just their willingness to be coached, their willingness to prepare each and every week, each and every game, the mindset and the mentality that they come to work with because it’s just special.
“It’s uncommon. That’s what I tell them all the time, when you do the common things in an uncommon way, you command the attention of the world, and this team is uncommon in everything that they do. It’s just awesome to be in the national hampionship, to represent the ACC, and I think this is two out of the last three years our conference has been in the national championship game, and hopefully we can hold our end of the deal up.”
Swinney is hoping to come full circle, raised in Pelham, Ala., and winning a national championship as a walk-on receiver on Alabama’s 1992 national championship team, now with an opportunity to play Alabama and coach a national championship team.
“It’s just a lot of fun,” he said. “It really is, and I’m just proud to be a part of it. This team, this program has become incredibly consistent. They really have just an unbelievable heart. Hats off to our guys. It’s a special time right now. It’s been 34 years since Clemson had a chance to win a national championship.
“Seven years ago when I got this job, I knew that we would be here. It was just a matter of when. This is year seven, and we were able to kind of knock the roof off of it, win another ACC championship, and when you win our league, you’ve got a chance to play for it all, and so here we are.”
Glenn Sattell is an award-winning freelance writer for Saturday Down South.
