Crimson Tide rolls once again
I don’t know where I will finish in our bowl picks this year, but I do not expect to win.
I said you would not see many predictions from me, but I wanted to join the fun this year. We have all of our bowl picks today on Page 3B from our sports writers James Leigh and Zach Parker, Bob Wisener and photographer Richard Rasmussen.
It is hard to keep up with all of the bowl games now. We picked 41 games in total, including the Celebration Bowl, the only active bowl game featuring teams from the Football Championship Subdivision, and the 2018 College Football Playoff National Championship game between the winners of the two semifinals, the Rose Bowl Game and the Sugar Bowl.
I am going with Alabama. Nick Saban and his staff always make it difficult to pick against them. The Crimson Tide and the Clemson Tigers will close out an historic trilogy in one semifinal, but these are two very different teams than the ones from a year ago.
Clemson is without superstar Deshaun Watson, now with the NFL’s Houston Texans, who put on an all-time great performance and led the Tigers on an epic game-winning drive in arguably the best college football championship game since Vince Young led Texas past USC in the 2006 Rose Bowl. Do not expect the same of Kelly Bryant this year in the Sugar Bowl, held at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans.
Watson threw for 4,593 yards on 67 percent passing and 41 touchdowns in his final college season versus only 17 interceptions. He also ran for 629 yards and nine touchdowns. That’s more than 5,200 yards of offense and 50 touchdowns. The Tigers needed all 463 yards and four touchdowns he put up in the championship game to end Alabama’s perfect season.
Bryant has 2,678 passing yards,
646 rushing yards and 24 total touchdowns, almost half of which have come on the ground. I do not expect that to be enough against an Alabama defense once again leading the nation. The Crimson Tide is only allowing 11.5 points per game.
The key to Clemson competing in the game is the Tigers’ defense, which ranks second in the nation at 12.8 points per game. Saban does not lose a lot of defensive contests, and his former freshman phenom quarterback, Jalen Hurts, is now a seasoned sophomore.
Former Alabama defensive coordinator Kirby Smart’s Georgia defense is tied for third in the nation, giving up only 13.2 points per game. Usually, that is going to be enough, but the SEC Champions are matched up in the other semifinal with the No.
1 yards-per-game offense and the fourth-highest scoring team in the nation, the Oklahoma Sooners, who average 583 yards and 44.9 points per game.
Heisman Trophy winners do not always necessarily fare very well in national championship games, but Oklahoma star quarterback Baker Mayfield gets Georgia in the semifinal Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif. The 2017 Heisman winner began his career as a walk-on and received the Burlsworth Trophy, named in honor of former Arkansas Razorback All-American Brandon Burlsworth, the previous two years.
The Sooners shut down Florida State 13-2 in the 2000 BCS National Championship Game, but have gone 0-4 in their last four postseason chances to earn another national title. Oklahoma lost championship games 21-14 to LSU in 2003, 55-19 to USC in 2004 and 24-14 to Florida in 2008. The Sooners lost 37-17 to the Tigers in the semifinals two years ago.
Mayfield should be able to lead Oklahoma past Georgia in the semifinals, but Alabama is far more daunting. Clemson, Watson and coach Dabo Swinney may have given Oklahoma the blueprint to pull off the same this season, but unless Mayfield can put up 450 yards of total offense against the nation’s top defense, Alabama is likely going to win its fifth championship in the past nine seasons and 17th overall.