National Title Game

On January 11, 2016, we will see the National Championship between number 1 Clemson and number 2 Alabama. Who is going to win between the 2 college powerhouses? Honestly I feel like this matchup is not between the 2 best teams in the country. I feel that the best 2 teams in the country are Alabama and Oklahoma. Of course people will call me crazy because Clemson beat Oklahoma, but in my defense that game was won during the halftime speech. At halftime of that game Oklahoma was leading by 1, but after that there was one thing that kept Oklahoma out of the game, Samaje Perine. Samaje Perine is Oklahoma’s star running back and he holds the record for the most rushing yards in a game in history with 427 yards in one game. Perine was named All-American second team running back and was an extremely valuable part to Oklahoma’s offense which scored 17 points in the first half with Perine and then left just before halftime with an ankle injury. So I do believe a healthy Perine would have helped Oklahoma’s offense which only rushed for 67 yards total. But regardless Oklahoma isn’t playing in the title game, so now I will focus on Clemson vs. Alabama.

Clemson and Alabama will play each other for the first time since 2008 when ‘Bama won 34-10. Alabama has won 12 straight games against Clemson dating back to, get this, 1909! Alabama has not lost to Clemson since 1905 when they lost 25-0. It’s safe to say this is a bit of a lopsided history in favor of Alabama. The last time Clemson won the title is the only time they won it, in 1981. On the other hand Alabama is trying to win their 3rd in the last 5 years. Clemson has won 1 national and Alabama has won 11 which is the most of any team ever. Needless to say Clemson has a lot to deal with as does Alabama.

Clemson remains undefeated as of right now. They are pretty much perfect and no one has been able to hold a candle to them at least to this point. Clemson definitely deserves to be where they are. They played a stingy defense and a high scoring fast paced offense this year. It has often become referred to as “Clemsoning” when a team has great year but they for whatever reason can’t seem to close out the year and make it to the big dance. However, they finally did it. Alabama is a team that is always here. They are expected to win and when they don’t it’s a shocker. They lost one game to Ole Miss earlier this season, but everyone else has been easy work to them. They’ve beaten 7 ranked teams this year including #20Wisconsin, #8Georgia, #9Texas A&M, #2LSU, #17Mississippi State, #18Florida, and #3Michigan State. It’s scary that they have been able to consistently beat the best in the nation and not even bat an eye. The most shocking win was in the Semi-finals against Michigan State in what I predicted to be the game of the year, but Alabama obliterated the Spartans 39-0.

How will the Championship game play out? Alabama will win and here’s why. The one team ‘Bama lost to this year was Ole Miss and the funny thing is Ole Miss and Clemson run an almost identical offense. Both teams run spread offense which is smart to play against Alabama. The reason the spread works so well is because Alabama is by far the best tackling team in the nation and they specialize in gang tackling so by spreading out the defenders it takes out gang tackling from ‘Bama’s system. However, I believe as we speak Alabama is watching some Ole Miss Highlight tape and they are modifying their system. The deciding factor to me is experience. Alabama head coach Nick Saban is the Bill Belichek of college football meaning he gets the job done and he does it in convincing fashion. So with all that said I believe this will go down as an Alabama victory and a 12th title to their storied history.

Written by Kenny Quinn

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