Sure, Alabama won the national title on Monday night, and did so in phenomenal form, with an unstoppable offense and game-swinging special teams.
Deshaun Watson is officially a megastar after his Vince Young-like performance vs. Bama
We’ve never seen anything quite like what Deshaun Watson did last night.
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The Crimson Tide didn't have the best player on the field, though. That was Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson, a revelation to much of the nation and college football's newest superstar.
Watson threw for 405 yards against Alabama, the third-most a Nick Saban-built Crimson Tide defense has ever allowed. He stressed the Crimson Tide in ways that only players like Johnny Manziel, Cam Newton and Tim Tebow have, prompting Saban to call Watson "the most dynamic quarterback (we faced) since we played against Cam Newton." His offense outscored Alabama's on a great night for Alabama's offense. And he became the first quarterback in Division I history to top 4,000 yards passing and 1,000 yards rushing.
Greatest of all, he accounted for 478 yards of total offense, just more than the 467 Vince Young tallied against USC in a game often cited as the best any college football player has ever had, and did it against one of the best defenses in modern college football history.
Deshaun Watson broke Vince Young's record for total yards in a national championship game. pic.twitter.com/jySYGlNbiT
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) January 12, 2016 His 405 passing yards were the most Bama’s given up since November of 2014, and his 73 on the ground nearly doubled Clemson’s second leading rusher. His one turnover against a defense loaded with five-stars and led by the game’s greatest defensive coaching staff stands as the one reminder he’s only a sophomore.
Yep, he’s coming back, and is poised to be the sport’s alpha dog.
We've seen some big title games by underclassmen set up the next year's biggest men on campus before, of course. Ohio State's Cardale Jones and Ezekiel Elliott dominated the 2014 College Football Playoff, and each returned to school. Jameis Winston played well in leading Florida State to the 2013 national title. Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush figured prominently in USC's 2004 national title.
But those players were mostly sharing the spotlight on their own teams (and in Jones’s case, at his own position).
Watson is far and away the star of this Clemson team, which should return fine running back Wayne Gallman in 2016, but was so emaciated at wide receiver by Monday that walk-on Hunter Renfrow ended up on the receiving end of two gorgeous Watson touchdowns.
Mike Williams was Clemson's leading receiver in 2014 and sidelined for essentially all of 2015 with a neck injury; Deon Cain led these Tigers in yards per catch, but didn't play in the College Football Playoff after a suspension for violating team rules; Artavis Scott, who led Clemson in both receptions and receiving yards this season, had just four catches for 33 yards and a score.
For Clemson, it’s a boon to likely have all of Gallman, Williams, Cain, Scott, and tight end Jordan Leggett back in 2016 for Watson to utilize. It’s no secret that Watson didn’t do all of this alone. But for Watson, that’s a loaded arsenal that pundits will only consider long after endlessly discussing the trigger man.
And for more casual fans who maybe didn’t see him throw for five touchdowns against N.C. State in October, Monday night was a coming-out party that marked him as one of the best players in America.
Watson’s also the sort of humble, decent person whom fans and pundits alike will swoon over, given how he’s risen from growing up in a home built by Habitat for Humanity to giving back to the organization. That will contribute to how he’s treated by both fans and media members.
The most interesting and, perhaps, important part of his narrative may be how Watson handles the only defeat he’s taken in a game he started and finished. Newly minted stars are rarely forged in defeats. The two players on that list of title game stars above to lose said game were both Oregon QBs playing in their final collegiate contests.
So we’re headed for an offseason of Watson being called “hungry” and “unsatisfied” while looking for a ring, which will be new. While the value of that talk is nil or close, it’s hard not to think that Watson and his fellow Tigers will be eager to push even harder toward Clemson’s first national title since 1981.
It would be foolish to expect Watson to top what he did in 2015, because what he did was enough to make SB Nation’s Bill Connelly, among others, think he deserved the Heisman this year. It is lunacy to say Watson’s even a prohibitive Heisman favorite, given that Stanford’s Christian McCaffrey, LSU’s Leonard Fournette, and Florida State’s Dalvin Cook stand near him at the starting line of what could be the best Heisman race ever. Given college football’s wonderful capacity for elevating unknowns, it is not even a sure thing that Watson will be the nation’s best player in 2016.
It is almost inarguable that he was the best player vying for a national championship on Monday night, however. That means we’re going into a long offseason with memories of Watson nearly toppling yet another magnificent Alabama team fresh in our minds.
On Monday, Watson broke the mold. In the fall, he’ll fit the college football superstar mold perfectly.
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