After defeating No. 18 Florida, 29-15, to wrap up the program’s 25th SEC Championship, No. 2 Alabama is free to concentrate on bigger things, like winning its fourth national championship under head coach Nick Saban.
Alabama’s in the Playoff again after beating Florida in the SEC Championship. What’s next?
There have been two Playoff seasons in college football history. Alabama’s now made the top four in both of them.
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The 12-1 Crimson Tide will make their second appearance in the two-year-old College Football Playoff. The team will be looking for redemption after an Ohio State Sugar Bowl upset ended its 2014 season one game short of a National Championship appearance.
Alabama boasts one of the country’s most fearsome defenses, ranking No. 1 in S&P+ and led by a front seven that gave up 79 rushing yards per game in the regular season, the best number in the FBS. The Tide rank in the top five in points allowed, total defense, and fewest first downs allowed.
While Bama’s passing game won’t strike fear in the heart of most opponents (215 pass yards per game), it doesn’t have to. Bama can rely on Heisman Trophy favorite Derrick Henry to shoulder most of the load. Saturday, he broke Herschel Walker’s 1,891-yard SEC record for rushing yards in a season.
How’d the Tide get back into the Playoff?
Alabama got its usual SEC West loss out of the way early this year, falling to current No. 13 Ole Miss in week three and then coming back to destroy everything in its path. The Crimson Tide won their final nine games of the regular season by an average 22.6-point margin of victory, then walked out of the Georgia Dome with the SEC title.
Bama doesn’t have a win over a team that’s currently in the top 20, but its schedule strength is more about volume than any single signature victory. The Tide have beaten nine teams with winning records, the highest total in the country.
Here were the five most important Bama games of the season.
- Ole Miss 43, Alabama 37. The Rebels jumped out to a 30-10 lead early, aided by a bobbled snap, near-sacked, into-double-coverage-and-off-a-defender’s-helmet pass play that went for an Ole Miss touchdown. Sometimes you need a few screwy things to break your way to beat Alabama, as Auburn can attest. Alabama battled back and had two chances to win, but couldn’t make either materialize. This led to some columnists proclaiming Bama’s dynasty was done; we made fun of them.
- Alabama 38, Georgia 10. Alabama came in as the underdog for the first time in years and walked away with a four-touchdown victory. Two of the nation’s premier backs did battle, as Henry ran for 148 yards and a touchdown, while a still-healthy Nick Chubb ripped off 146 yards and a score. That was essentially UGA’s only offense. The Bulldogs would respond months later by stealing Alabama’s defensive coordinator to become their next head coach.
- Alabama 19, Tennessee 14. It was more dramatic than it should’ve been, because that’s how every Tennessee game went for much of the season. Perhaps Bama’s least impressive game of the year, even including the turnover-y fluke of an Ole Miss game. But it did give us this mixtape-cover-worthy photo of Saban and Henry.
- Alabama 30, LSU 16. This game seems to impact the championship race every year. Leonard Fournette was the Heisman favorite until he gained only 31 yards on 19 carries against a straightforward Bama front as his Crimson counterpart ran for 210 yards and three touchdowns. The Tigers collapsed and then clawed back to No. 21 in the Playoff rankings, so this does count as a high-quality win.
- Alabama 29, Florida 15. An early safety had us wondering if that would be all the points Bama would need. It wasn’t, but Florida didn’t crack 100 yards until the fourth quarter was mostly over.
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What happens next?
Oklahoma’s already in the Playoff, and we’ll have to wait through Saturday night’s ACC Championship and Big Ten Championship (and maybe the Pac-12 Championship, if Clemson loses) to see who else is in.
If the season had ended before conference title week, it would have been Alabama vs. Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl semifinal on New Year’s Eve, a rematch of the Sooners’ win in the 2013 season’s Sugar Bowl.
The Big Ten’s winner could jump OU, however, so it could be Iowa or Michigan State vs. Bama in that same venue.
If Clemson loses to UNC, though, Bama’s the No. 1 seed. It would still host in the Cotton Bowl, but its opponent would be more up in the air.
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