MIAMI GARDENS — The championship was locked up by halftime. By
the time the confetti landed, Alabama was already looking ahead to the
next one.
Alabama head coach Nick Saban is dunked with Gatorade in the
final seconds of the BCS National Championship college football game
against Notre Dame on Monday in Miami. Alabama won 42-14. (The
Associated Press)
That's the way it is for the latest dynasty in Tuscaloosa.
Win a title. Move on.
Quieting
the Irish on the very first drive, Eddie Lacy, AJ McCarron and the No. 2
Crimson Tide rolled top-ranked Notre Dame 42-14 for the BCS
championship Monday night, locking up a second straight national title
and third in four years with another laugher of a title game.
The
Bear would've been especially proud of this one — Nick Saban and the
Tide romping to the second-biggest rout of the BCS era that began in
1999.
Now, back to work.
"The
process is ongoing," said Saban, still tightlipped as ever and showing
little emotion after the fourth national title of his coaching career.
"We're going to enjoy it for 24 hours or so."
The
Crimson Tide (13-1) wrapped up its ninth Associated Press national
title, breaking a tie with Notre Dame for the most by any school and
gaining a measure of redemption for a bitter loss to the Irish almost
four decades ago: the epic 1973 Sugar Bowl in which Ara Parseghian's
team edged Bear Bryant's powerhouse 24-23.
Bryant won five AP titles during his brilliant career. The way things are going, Saban might just chase him down.
Lacy,
the game's offensive MVP, ran for one touchdown and caught a pass for
another in the final minute of the opening half. He spun away from the
vaunted Notre Dame defense not once, but twice, to cap a 28-0 blitz
before the bands even got on the field.
"They just did what Alabama does," moaned Manti Te'o, Notre Dame's star linebacker and Heisman Trophy finalist.
Lacy
finished with 140 yards on 20 carries, coming up with two of his best
performances in the two biggest games of the year. He rushed for a
career-high 181 yards in a thrilling victory over Georgia in the SEC
title game, and was nearly as dominant against the Irish (12-1).
McCarron wasn't too shabby, either, completing 20 of 28 passes for four
touchdowns and 264 yards, adding another dazzling effort on top of being
MVP in last year's title game.
You
could almost hear television sets around the country flipping to other
channels, a hugely anticipated matchup between two of the nation's most
storied programs reduced to nothing more than the second straight BCS
blowout for the Crimson Tide.
And, it would seem, they're not content yet.
"We're
going for it next year again," said offensive tackle Cyrus Kouandijo,
only a sophomore but already the owner of two rings. "And again. And
again. And again. I love to win. That's why I came here."
While
Saban insisted he was "happy as hell" and "has never been prouder of a
group of young men," it was hard to tell. He was already talking about
reporting to the office Wednesday and getting started on next season.
"One
of these days, when I'm sitting on the side of the hill watching the
stream go by, I'll probably figure it out even more," Saban said. "But
what about next year's team? You've got to think about that, too."
Alabama
scored 69 straight points against its title game opponents, going back
to getting the final 13 against Texas in 2010, followed by a stifling
21-0 victory over LSU for last year's crown, then scoring the first 35
points on Notre Dame. Saban's team made the Irish look like a squad that
would be hard-pressed to finish in the middle of the pack in the mighty
Southeastern Conference, which has now won seven straight national
championships.
Saban, the
diminutive man with the perpetual scowl, has guided Alabama to the top
spot in the rankings three times since arriving in Tuscaloosa in 2007,
and if he's serious about finishing his career with the job he has,
there seems no reason he can't win a few more before he's done with "The
Process."
Already, Saban
is the first coach in the BCS era to win national titles at different
schools, capturing his first at LSU during the 2003 season. Now, he's
the first coach with back-to-back BCS titles, and given the youthfulness
of his team, Alabama figures to go into next season as a heavy
favorite.
In an
interesting twist, Saban's fourth title came in the stadium where he had
the only stumble of his coaching career, a two-year tenure with the
NFL's Miami Dolphins that ended ugly, with the coach insisting he wasn't
planning to leave — then bolting for Alabama just two weeks later. His
tactics may have been underhanded, but it's hard to argue with the call
he made.
Before a record
Sun Life Stadium crowd of 80,120 that definitely included more green
than crimson, Lacy ran right through Te'o and the Irish on a 20-yard
touchdown run before the game was 3 minutes old, capping an 82-yard
drive that was longest of the season given up by the Fighting Irish.
It
would only get worse. Alabama marched right down the field on its
second possession, this one a 10-play, 61-yard pounding that finished
with McCarron completely faking out the defense and lofting a 3-yard
touchdown pass to Michael Williams, standing all alone in the back of
the end zone.
On the first
play of the second quarter, T.J. Yeldon powered over from the 1 to make
it 21-0, the finish to another impressive drive — this one covering 80
yards — that included two long completions by McCarron. First, he went
to Kevin Norwood on a 25-yard gain. Then, he hooked up with freshman
Amari Cooper for a 27-yard gain to the Notre Dame 6.
By
that point, it was clear to everyone that Notre Dame's hopes of winning
its first national championship since 1988 were all done. But Alabama
just poured it on.
"We've
got to get physically stronger, continue close the gap there," said
Brian Kelly, the Irish's third-year coach. "Just overall, we need to see
what it looks like. Our guys clearly know what it looks like now — a
championship football team. That's back-to-back national champions.
That's what it looks like. That's what you measure yourself against
there. It's pretty clear across the board what we have to do."
Lacy's
11-yard touchdown reception with 31 seconds left in the half left the
Irish fans shaking the heads in disbelief, while the Alabama faithful
broke out that familiar "SEC! SEC! SEC!"
Alabama made it 35-0 on McCarron's second TD pass of the night, a 34-yarder to Cooper without a Notre Dame defender in sight.
The
Irish finally scored late in the third quarter, a 2-yard run by Everett
Golson that served no other purpose except to end Alabama's remarkable
scoreless streak in the BCS title games, which stretched to 108 minute
and 7 seconds — the equivalent of nearly two full games — before the
Notre Dame quarterback fought his way into the end zone.
The
only BCS title game that was more of a blowout was USC's 55-19 victory
over Oklahoma in the 2005 Orange Bowl, a title that was later vacated
because of NCAA violations.
About
the only time Alabama stumbled was when McCarron had a miscommunication
with his All-American center, Barrett Jones, in the closing seconds.
The fiery McCarron shouted at Jones, who just shoved him away. But as
the seconds ticked off, they were right on the same page, hugging Saban
and celebrating another title.
Notre
Dame went from unranked in the preseason to the top spot in the
rankings by the end of the regular season, winning two games in overtime
and three other times by seven points or less. But that long-awaited
championship will have to wait at least one more year.
Golson
completed his first season as the starter by going 21 of 36 for 270
yards, with a touchdown and an interception. But he got no help from the
running game, which was held to 32 yards — 170 below its season
average.
Kelly had vowed this was only beginning, insisting the bar has been raised in South Bend no matter what the outcome.
"We made incredible strides to get to this point," he said. "Now it's pretty clear what we've got to do to get over the top."
