Clemson resists Tide to take title
IT BEGAN with a walk. Eight years ago, Dabo Swinney took over Clemson’s football program as an interim head coach and instituted a pregame constitutional for his players before every home game, a “Tiger Walk” that sent the players through a mob of fans on their way into the stadium.
The purpose, Swinney said, was to instill a greater sense of pride and purpose. The larger hope, he thought, was that it could be the beginning of Clemson’s rise from a should-be-great programme to one of real prominence. It was. From that first walk, Swinney pushed and prodded and raised Clemson – finally – to the place he had always imagined.
The coronation came at Raymond James Stadium late on Monday, when Swinney and his players upset Alabama, 35-31, to win Clemson’s first national championship since the 1981 season.
How did Clemson do it? With an indefatigable quarterback and a stout defence. With a slew of slinky, stretchy wide receivers and an unbending will. With a goal line leap from a bull of a running back. And with Swinney in the middle of it all, screaming and shouting and cajoling and inspiring.
Over the past six seasons, only one school had won more games than Clemson and it was Alabama, which also defeated Clemson in last year’s national championship game.
Given a reprieve, Swinney and his players were determined to seize their second chance at glory.
They did, in a finish that was frenzied and frenetic. Trailing 24-14 at the start of the fourth quarter, the Tigers cut the deficit to three with a 4-yard touchdown pass from Deshaun Watson to Mike Williams.
Last second touchdown
After both teams traded several missed opportunities, Clemson finally took the lead for the first time with just four minutes remaining when Williams made an acrobatic catch to extend a drive and Wayne Gallman dove into the end zone from a yard out.
Alabama, which had been moribund on offence for most of the second half, nearly stole the game away when it scored on a 30-yard touchdown scramble by quarterback Jalen Hurts, but Clemson stormed back down the field – shredding Alabama’s vaunted defence – and scored the winning touchdown with just one second left.
Hunter Renfrow caught Watson’s rollout pass at the side of the end zone to send the Tigers fans in the announced crowd of 74,512 into jubilation.
Moments after the game ended, Swinney embraced Alabama coach Nick Saban at midfield. Swinney was a part of the Crimson Tide’s national title in 1992 (he was a wide receiver) so he knew as well as anyone what Saban was hoping to accomplish on Monday: five national titles in eight years – a run that would have pushed Alabama beyond the dynasties of Notre Dame or Miami and into a rarefied place in the sport’s history.
Instead, the night was about Watson, Clemson’s quarterback, who was 36 of 56 passing for 420 yards and three touchdowns. It was about four Clemson receivers recording more than 90 yards receiving each.
It was about Alabama’s offence, working under Steve Sarkisian as offensive coordinator for the first time, struggling to mount anything productive. It was about the Crimson Tide’s defence being ripped open at the most critical time.
And it was about Swinney, who has an inimitable smile and affability that serves him in recruiting, and a sharp savvy as an in-game manager to motivate his players to pull off an upset they will always remember.
This year Clemson did not buckle, even after Alabama pulled off a lateral trick play on its way to scoring what it hoped would be the decisive points. Instead of wilting, Clemson simply punched back.
Alabama was a juggernaut this season, to be sure, but Swinney clearly defined the challenge before his players – and his confidence in them – when he said before the game that, in his mind, “No other team can beat Alabama – I think we’re the only team that has a chance to.”
They did.