Clemson Claims Title

Its one thing to win a national championship in college athletics. It's yet another to do so in a dominating fashion. That's the feeling that Clemson has, totally dominating Alabama in the title game Monday night. By the time all was said and done, and the dust had settled, Clemson had walked away with its third title in school history on the strength of a 44-16 win. It wasn't even really a close game, as for one of the few times in recent history, Alabama looked badly outplayed and outsmarted.

Heisman Trophy winner Tua Tagovailoa was the hero for Alabama last year, helping the Tide to last years title. He threw for 295 yards in this years title tilt, along with two touchdowns. But he was picked off twice and held in check for most of the rest of the ballgame. In fact, Alabama was shut out for the final 44 minutes of the contest. Jerry Judy had himself a day with five catches for 139 yards and the 62 yard touchdown catch, which was the biggest play for the Tide on this day. That was really all Bama could do on this day. With the way things settled down for Bama after the first interception, it looked like they had things in hand as the game was going to roll along. After they took a two point lead early in the second quarter it looked like things would settle for the Tide. Then something happened. A true freshman took the game over and never looked back

Trevor Lawrence was a stud under center for Clemson. To no surprise here, Lawrence was named most outstanding offensive player, as the true freshman quarterback finished with 347 yards, three touchdowns and zero turnovers. The fact that he had zero turnovers in this contest tells me a lot. It shows that he has no trouble handling the pressure of playing in a big game. And to make things better, he's a true freshman. He got three more years of this to go to become an even better quarterback. What had to make this victory feel even better for the Tigers is that, just a year ago, Alabama beat them 24-6 in the national semifinal, making it the 2nd loss to Alabama in three seasons. It looked like there was still a gap between the two programs. Clemson debunked the notion with this dominating victory.

Clemson is starting to show the rest of the football world that they can indeed hang. They've won two titles now, one in a route and one in a close game. Both came against the same team in Alabama. And from the early projections, both of these teams could be right back near the top of the list in the championship race this time next year. Clemson showed that Bama could be outplayed, out coached and out classed. Nick Saban is good, no argument there, but on this day Dabo Swinney was the better man.

By the time the game was over, Clemson became the first college football team to go 15-0 since Penn in 1897. To make this win even more impressive victory for Clemson is that Alabama is now 1-2 against Clemson the last three years. The Crimson Tide are 40-1 against everyone else. Congratulations to Clemson on winning the 2019 National Title!