USA TODAY International Edition
Alabama gets rematch it wanted vs. Clemson
Tide motivated by loss in last season’s title game
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – For one year, across two cellphones and with two pictures, Alabama quarterback Jalen Hurts has been thinking about Clemson. As the wallpaper on one phone, with the picture popping up when Hurts checked the time, his texts or the weather: Clemson’s on-field celebration after last winter’s thrilling last-second win. And as the wallpaper on that phone’s replacement, Hurts walking off the field as the loser in a shower of orange and white confetti.
“It’s definitely a motivating factor, and it’s always been,” he said.
Some teams take losses easier than others, typically those teams to whom losing is common. To Alabama, losing is anything but common. Losing in college football’s deciding game is even more uncommon still. Clemson has one on Alabama. It drove the Crimson Tide. This past offseason’s motto or mantra was “finishing,” after the defense tried and failed to keep Deshaun Watson and Hunter Renfrow out of the end zone with the game on the line.
“It’s Round 3,” defensive back Minkah Fitzpatrick said of Alabama’s rematch Monday with Clemson, a Sugar Bowl pairing with no shortage of underlying themes and potential takeaways — including the possibility that Clemson grabs from Alabama the title of college football’s latest powerhouse.
Heading into the first matchup, an eventual Alabama win, Clemson’s coaching staff spoke of the battle between the Tide’s dynasty and the Tigers’ sense of destiny.
There was no poetry heading into the title game last January. The same coaches spoke of just going out and taking it. And they did.
The third meeting in three years again feels different. Alabama might be favored by Las Vegas but is not the favorite, if that makes sense. Clemson is the nation’s top-ranked team. The Tide backed their way into the College Football Playoff, losing their regular-season finale to Auburn and leaving their fate in the hands of the selection committee.
And most of all, Alabama is the team with something to prove.
“We’re thankful for the opportunity,” running back Damien Harris said. “We’re glad we got put in this position to play for another national championship.”
But all along, Alabama wanted this. In a way, the program needed it. So here comes Clemson, the Tide’s desired opponent on the sport’s biggest stage — a matchup seemingly preordained the moment the clocks hit zero nearly a year ago. It’s safe to say the pregame story for the Sugar Bowl is this: Alabama wanted Clemson, and it got Clemson.
“We all kind of get the chance to redeem ourselves and kind of show the world who we really are. Who we are at Alabama,” Hurts said. “So we’re looking forward to it.”
Said defensive back Levi Wallace: “After last year, that game never quite settled with us. So we’re glad that were playing them. It’s starting to feel like a rivalry game, you know.”
Be careful what you wish for. Alabama might want Clemson, but the Tide might not like what they get. In an extreme case of role reversal, it is Alabama that enters the postseason with question marks and concerns while Clemson resembles the more complete team. Few times, if any, has this been said of any Alabama opponent during Nick Saban’s imperial reign atop the Football Bowl Subdivision.
The Alabama offense has cleaned up against the many inferior opponents on its schedule but sputtered against toplevel defenses, as in wins against Florida State and LSU and in the loss to rival Auburn. Hurts in particular has come under increased scrutiny, helped in no small part by the solid play — if in a small sample size, and under vastly different circumstances — of backup Tua Tagovailoa.
Though first in the FBS in yards allowed per play and second in rushing yards given up per carry and total yards allowed per game, the Alabama defense faces its own make-or-break moment, largely because of injuries. No personnel grouping is in worse shape than linebacker, which lost another projected starter when freshman Dylan Moses, the leading tackler against Auburn, injured his foot during practice this month.
The personnel losses have taken their toll. After allowing none of its first six Southeastern Conference opponents to score more than 19 points, Alabama’s defense allowed at least 24 points to Mississippi State and Auburn to close the regular season. Not since 2014 had the Tide allowed at least 20 points in back-to-back games against conference competition. It’s a telling late-season development, if largely because of the high standard Alabama has set for itself.
Then there’s Clemson. Steady Clemson, except against Syracuse. The Tigers replaced Watson, the greatest player in school history, and might be even better. The offense is substantially more explosive, definitely more electric on the ground. The defense sits fourth nationally in yards allowed per play, having held each of its last four opponents to under 230 yards of total offense. The compare-and-contrast tale of the tape favors the Tigers.
“I’m sure a lot of people don’t like Alabama because we’re always so good, each and every year,” Wallace said. “That’s just something that Coach Saban instilled in us, trying to be the best we can be. Whatever you guys say that we are, that’s who we are. But we’re definitely the bad guys in college football.”
But when it comes to Alabama and Clemson, the biggest shift comes in a more concrete case of altered roles. It’s not just that the marquee lists the Tigers first, followed by the Crimson Tide. It’s that Alabama is the hunter and not the hunted. You’d hesitate to say the underdog — but it’s close. To find the last time that Alabama was the challenger and not the challenged on a major stage might take going back nearly a decade, to the Tide’s loss to Florida to decide the 2008 SEC championship.
Hurts put it simply: “They’re the national champions. We’re not.”
The reminder of this fact sits right at his fingertips. It’s been almost a year since Clemson conquered Alabama. In the months and games since the Tigers have illustrated their staying power. The rubber match is finally here, and Alabama gets what it wants: a shot at payback. Maybe the Tide step onto the field at the Sugar Bowl and reassert their dominance. There’s also a chance the Tide won’t like what they get.
“I’m not thinking about the past; I’m not thinking about the future. I’m thinking about the now,” Hurts said. “I think the biggest thing is to focus on us right now and know that we’ve got a challenge in front of us.”