If Alabama won the title again this season they should have had to go through Ohio State and all that talent. Once Michigan State upset Ohio State the college football season was ruined, as far as I was concerned. You could see the path it took from more than a month away. Urban Meyer made one of the dumbest sporting decisions of all time by switching from Cardale Jones to J.T. "Little Game" Barrett and his comical 2.9 YPA against a dreadful Michigan State pass defense. Clemson is a hard trying team but they displayed vulnerability several times, notably a week after they faced the Canes, giving up a ton of points to North Carolina State. Then again against North Carolina. That type of defense wasn't likely to withstand Alabama for four quarters.
Saban can rack up titles at rapid pace in this era largely because the rest of the nation has surrendered to cupcake finesse. Only a handful of teams are legitimate threat to his rugged teams. After all, it's too much work to actually fortify both sides of the ball and push big people around. Heck, we can run fast tempo and sideways and win 8 or 9 games. So much easier. The fans love it. Notice the type of coaches preferred by one college fan base after another. The Big 12 used to be impressively physical. Now they've all but forfeited any threat of credibility in favor of a pinball sideshow.
It reminds me somewhat of Colorado in the early '90s. They had given Nebraska fits for years with a physical style of play and option run oriented offense. It equated to a split national title with Georgia Tech in 1990. Then Bill McCartney brainstormed to switch to a pass happy offense prior to a bowl game a couple of years later. He actually received praise for it, not unlike the conventional wisdom types who praised Meyer for switching to Little Game Barrett. But I knew what it meant. With Colorado no longer a physical threat and Oklahoma likewise tinkering with soft football, Nebraska could dominate that conference physically and essentially have a clear path to national prominence. Tom Osborne knew what he was doing. Instead of overreacting to media pressure and fan mocking, he stuck to basic north/south football while improving his athletes in the trenches and prioritizing pass defense. It turned into a great run for the next 6 or 8 years, including three national titles and arguably a stolen one (refs) against Florida State in 1993. That Nebraska era is as close as we've seen recently to what Nick Saban has accomplished at Alabama.
As much as I despise Nick Saban's personality from his Dolphin years I do appreciate that he's largely rescued college football from the overwhelming ignorance that would accompany this era minus Alabama and its style of play. We'd be reading that the spread is unstoppable and that it's impossible to win anything of consequence with old man football.
Congratulations to Alabama. I just wish they would do it cleanly for a change, meaning without a home defeat. That type of thing on the resume always irks me.
