The regular season is over, the conference champions have been crowned, and now we have made it to the bowl season, and the College Football Playoff. Here’s a closer look at each of the four teams have been chosen to play for the national championship:
#1 Alabama rides their third straight SEC championship and a national-best 25 game winning streak into the CFP. Alabama’s offense is led by true freshman quarterback Jalen Hurts; if Alabama wins the playoff, Hurts would become just the second true freshman quarterback to lead a team to a national title (Jamelle Holieway did it for Oklahoma in 1985). The defense is its usual impressive self, ranking first nationally in rushing defense (63.4 ypg), total defense (247.8 ypg), fourth-down conversion defense (19%), and scoring defense (11.8 ppg), and of course there are the highly-publicized defense touchdowns – ten of them, which leads the nation as well. Counting special teams touchdowns, that number increases to 14. Contrary to last year’s Heisman Trophy winner in Derrick Henry, Alabama relies on numerous runners to get the job done. They have four different players with over 500 yards rushing. Finally, there’s this little tidbit: with two more wins, the Crimson Tide becomes the first major college football team to finish 15-0 in the modern era – and the first team playing in the highest level of college football at the time to finish with 15 wins since 1899! (Chicago, coached by one Amos Alonzo Stagg, went 16-0-2 that year. Can you imagine the outcry over an eighteen-game schedule today?)
#2 Clemson is the ACC Champion for the second straight year. With their 12-1 record, Clemson has won ten or more games for the sixth-straight year, the longest such streak in the history of the program, and the second-longest active streak behind Alabama. What does Clemson do well? Lots of things, but one of the things they’re really good at is getting first downs. The Tigers rank second in the country in number of first downs gained this season (with 348; only Texas Tech had more), and sixth in third-down conversions at 51.5%. Deshaun Watson has put up another impressive season on the heels of his 2015 Heisman finalist campaign; with 3,914 passing yards, he’s just shy of his second straight 4,000-yard passing season. He also has more passing touchdowns, completions, and passing yards per game than he did in 2015. Defensively, the Tigers are led by senior linebacker Ben Boulware, who has 105 tackles, including 10 tackles for loss, and 4 sacks, a fumble recovery, and an interception. Clemson is 12th nationally in scoring defense at 18.4 points per game. With wins in the Fiesta Bowl and the National Championship Game, Clemson wins their second national title (1981 was the other) and would have 60 wins over the past five years.
#3 Ohio State is the first entrant in CFP history that is not a conference champion. While the Buckeyes do not have a conference crown themselves, they are the only CFP team that has beaten another Power 5 conference champion by virtue of their 45-24 win over Big XII champion Oklahoma early this season. Coach Urban Meyer has a 61-5 record in Columbus since taking the reins in 2012 – at 92.4%, the best winning percentage in the country during that time. (Thought it had to be Alabama? The Tide are 65-6 during that span, good for a 91.5% winning percentage.) This year’s version of the Buckeyes is incredibly good against the pass. Ohio State is first in the nation in pass efficiency defense, fifth in passing yards allowed, fourth in pass interceptions, and first in the nation in interceptions returned for touchdowns – seven of the nineteen Buckeye picks have gone for six. While they are good at picking the ball off, they’re also quite good at keeping it themselves; they are second in the nation in turnovers lost, with just nine all season. This contributes to their ranking 5th in time of possession per game. With two more wins, Ohio State claims its ninth national title in the poll era.
#4 Washington is the Pac-12 champion and the only first-time participant in the College Football Playoff. The Huskies won their first conference title since 2000 and stand two wins from their first national title since 1991, when they claimed a share of the crown with Miami. Washington makes you turn the ball over; the Huskies are third in the country in fumble recoveries, fourth in interceptions, first in turnovers, and first in turnover margin, having a difference of +21 for the season. 1.62 more turnovers than your opponents per game contributes highly to a 12-1 record. The Washington offensive attack is very balanced; it’s the only offense of the four CFP teams to average over 200 yards rushing (210) and 250 yards passing (267.2) per game, is fourth nationally in team passing efficiency, and also ranks fourth in the nation at 44.5 points per game. In fact, the Huskies have been held under 30 points only once all year. Myles Gaskin totes the mail for the rushing attack; he’s picked up 1,339 yards and ten rushing touchdowns. John Ross is the man to watch out for in the passing game. The wide receiver is second in the country with 17 receiving touchdowns; almost one in every four catches he’s made this year has resulted in a score.
Congratulations to G8RbamaLover, who wins week 14 in a tie-breaker over AUBrian and Jeff4Bama! Each finished with 34 points.
Stay tuned for the season wrap-up and the announcement of the winners!