GLENDALE, Ariz. — Nick Saban won his fourth national title in seven seasons on Monday night, and his fifth over all, with an Alabama team headlined by Derrick Henry, the second Tide player, after Mark Ingram Jr., to win the Heisman Trophy. The Heismans bookending Saban’s first and fourth titles since 2009 buttress the belief outside Tuscaloosa, Ala., that Saban is the beneficiary of bountiful talent.
Who couldn’t coach an Ingram or a Henry, right? Clemson Coach Dabo Swinney took a scythe to that sentiment. “Not everybody can coach a great team,” he said on the eve of Monday’s championship game at University of Phoenix Stadium. “Not everybody can coach a great player, and I think that he has a gift to be able to do that.”
Henry contributed 158 yards rushing and three touchdowns Monday to ignite Alabama’s 45-40 victory against Clemson. Along the way, he supplanted Shaun Alexander as the Tide’s career rushing yards leader by breaking his record of 3,565 yards.
The Tide were also led by tight end O. J. Howard, who scored two touchdowns. Kenyan Drake returned a kickoff 95 yards to put Alabama up by 38-27 with 7 minutes 31 seconds left in the game. Quarterback Jake Coker was 16 of 25 for 335 yards and two touchdowns.
But the seal of authenticity on Saban’s stamp of greatness was provided by three young defensive backs who played like upperclassmen. Ronnie Harrison and Minkah Fitzpatrick, both one year removed from high school, broke up passes in the end zone in the third quarter.
And Marlon Humphrey, a redshirt freshman, recovered an onside kick in the fourth after the Tide had tied the score at 24 with a field goal, setting up the score that put Alabama ahead for good.
The Tigers, who had won 51 straight when leading after three quarters, were outscored by 24-16 in the final 15 minutes. To a man, Alabama players reflect Saban’s attention to detail and his focus. The Tigers, who were bidding for their first national championship since 1981, lost their concentration for a moment, on the onside kick, and it cost them. “Just a few plays,” Swinney said.
Like objects in Alabama’s side mirror, the top-ranked Tigers were closer than they appeared. Since 2011, they have an overall record of 56-12 to the Tide’s 62-7. The Tigers will have their day. But Monday belonged to Alabama.
“We’ve just been laying in the weeds for seven years just doing what we do,” Swinney said of the Tigers, who clawed their way up the ladder the old-fashioned way, by stockpiling talent.
From Saban to his doppelganger, Bear Bryant, one truth has remained incontrovertible in college football throughout the decades. To win the national championship battle, one first has to prevail in the recruiting wars, which requires attracting talented reserves that could be starting at other schools.
“I think that’s critical,” Swinney said, “and I think Coach Saban obviously does a phenomenal job of that.”
Clemson’s defense offered proof of Swinney’s success in developing his own pipeline of talent. It was ranked in the Top 10 nationally despite losing several players from last year’s top-ranked unit. If Clemson was going to climb the last remaining rung to the top, its depth on defense was going to have to be served.
The Tigers squared off against an Alabama offense averaging 204.4 yards rushing per game with two of their best players, defensive end Shaq Lawson and cornerback Mackensie Alexander, hobbled by injuries. Alexander played with an injured hamstring and lasted a half. Lawson, slowed by a sore knee, had two sacks in the first half of his collegiate swan song. He has announced his intentions to enter this year’s N.F.L. draft.
The matchup between Alabama’s freshman receiver Calvin Ridley and Alexander, who had allowed only 12 passes in his direction this season to be completed — none for touchdowns — was the most eagerly awaited individual clash within the team battle. Ridley caught a pass for no gain on the first play from scrimmage, foreshadowing his night. He finished with six catches for 14 yards as Cordrea Tankersley and Adrian Baker helped take the air out of Alabama’s passing attack.
The Tigers felt Alexander’s absence on the Tide’s first possession of the third when Coker hit a wide-open Howard on a 53-yard touchdown to break a 14-14 tie. Howard also scored on a 51-yard pass play set up by the onside kick to break a 24-24 deadlock. He finished with five catches for 208 yards and was named the offensive player of the game.
Swinney described the long scores by Howard and the onside kick as “the three critical errors” that blotted out Clemson’s positives: the 550 yards of total offense (to Alabama’s 473) and quarterback Deshaun Watson’s 4,000 yards passing and 1,000 yards rushing in a season. Watson was 30 of 47 for 405 yards and four touchdowns.
Clemson had been plugging holes since the first series of the season when Mike Williams, whom the Tigers expected to be a key contributor, was lost to injury. The Clemson coach, who is fond of using acronyms, watched his team all year perform at its BEST (backups earning Swinney’s trust).
Swinney was not a ballyhooed recruit of Gene Stallings when he played at Alabama. He walked on as an undersized receiver. At 5 feet 10, Swinney was about the same size as Hunter Renfrow, one of the two walk-ons to whom Swinney awarded scholarships this season. Renfrow, who had 26 receptions before Monday, matched Henry’s score and raised him one with two touchdowns in the first, on catches of 31 and 11 yards, as the Tigers went ahead, 14-7.
Henry capped a 42-yard drive with a 1-yard run with 9:35 left in the second. The game-tying score was set up by the interception of Watson by safety Eddie Jackson, who received defensive-player-of-the-game-honors.
The Tide’s only loss of the season, to Mississippi in September, came on a day when they were uncharacteristically charitable, with five turnovers. Though Alabama lost that game, it settled on its quarterback, as Coker replaced Cooper Bateman in the second quarter. After the defeat, Saban’s players redoubled their commitment, which made an indelible impression on Saban.
“I really wanted to do the best I could for this team as much as any team I’ve coached, because I wanted them to have a chance to win this game,” he said.
Coker, who began his collegiate career at Florida State, carried the offense on his shoulders in the national semifinal against Michigan State. With Henry deployed essentially as a decoy against a Spartans defense that stacked the line of scrimmage, Coker torched Michigan State for 286 yards passing and two touchdowns in a 38-0 victory. On Monday, Henry had 128 yards in the first half on 20 carries, equaling his workload against the Spartans.
Henry, 21, became the first player to lead the Football Bowl Subdivision in rushing yards and win a national title since Charles White of Southern California in 1978. But the night belonged to Saban, who recalled his first game as the head coach at Michigan State, a 50-10 loss in 1995 to Nebraska, then ranked No. 2. The Cornhuskers were coached by Tom Osborne, who guided four teams to unbeaten regular seasons in the 1990s.
After that game, Saban said, Osborne told him, “You’re not as bad as you think.” Two decades later, Saban is driven by the belief that he is not as good as everybody thinks.
“As long as you do this it’s always about the next play, the next game,” Saban said.
