For much of last season, the college football world clamored for an Alabama-Clemson rematch of the previous year’s Playoff National Championship. The Tide’s 45-40 victory over the Tigers to cap the 2015 season was one of the most exciting and back-and-forth title games the sport had ever seen. Then we got exactly that rematch.
A Bama-Clemson Round 3 would feel different. Should we root for it?
Lightning doesn’t usually strike three times in the same place, but let’s consider the possibility of Tide-Tigers III.
Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images
What we got from the rematch was 60 minutes of a hard-fought game, but in the end, it yielded different results than the previous year’s game. Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson became the hero Tigers fans deserved, orchestrating nine-play, 68-yard touchdown drive capped off with a pass to Hunter Renfrow to win with a second left.
Clemson dethroned the champs, and the Tigers were the new kings of college football. Naturally, as the offseason is now fully upon us, the question has to be asked: What would a Clemson-Alabama Round 3 be like? And do you want one? Let’s check in.
Bama’s had a lot of staff turnover. Clemson has not.
Alabama’s coaching staff, particularly on the offensive side of the ball, looks quite different. Former offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian, who ran the Tide’s offense against Clemson that put up 31 points and 376 yards in the defeat, has since accepted a job with the Atlanta Falcons. The move was made after Nick Saban and Sark began having disagreements in system philosophy, a source said.
Bama has reportedly replaced Sark with New England Patriots tight ends coach Brian Daboll, who has coached 17 NFL seasons, 11 of those with the Patriots. He was also on Bill Belichick’s staff for each of the franchise’s five Super Bowl victories.
The turnover on Bama’s offensive staff didn’t stop there. In fact, the unit’s staff has been pretty much a revolving door in terms of coaching turnover recently. Longtime Saban assistant and receivers coach Billy Napier took the offensive coordinator position at Arizona State. Offensive tackles coach and top recruiter Mario Cristobal left for a job at Oregon. Even newly hired graduate assistants are getting jobs elsewhere.
Clemson’s staff, on the other hand, has remained well intact on both sides of the ball. Swinney has successfully maintained his coordinators and assistants through the coaching carousel season. The Tigers did lose defensive tackles coach Dan Brooks to retirement and ends coach Marion Hobby to the NFL. Todd Bates is filling in.
Swinney and his staff were rewarded for last season, too, earning more than $2.8 million in bonuses with the team’s national and ACC title runs.
Both teams kept adding plenty of talent.
As far as recruiting goes, both programs managed to finish strong on National Signing Day. Alabama’s class was particularly impressive, finishing with the seventh-straight No. 1 overall class, this year’s being the highest-rated class of the Tide’s streak.
Clemson’s class finished with the nation’s 16th class, and it featured 11 blue-chip recruits. The Tigers didn’t sign a big class because of scholarship limits.
Some of the players in these classes were already on campus when the title game was played, because they were early enrollees. They’ll be heard from in the years to come.
That’s good, because both have tons to replace.
Clemson’s near the bottom of the country in overall returning production, while Alabama’s right in the middle of the pack.
Alabama loses a ton of defensive talent, including the likes of Jonathan Allen, Tim Williams, Reuben Foster, and Eddie Jackson, who was injured down the stretch last season. Bama’s defense has reloaded before, so we’ll likely be meeting future defensive stars next season to replace them. On the offensive side of the ball, the Tide look to be in good shape. They do lose star tackle Cam Robinson, tight end O.J. Howard, and receiver Ar’Darius Stewart, as well as the previously mentioned coaches.
Clemson has more of a reload than the Tide on the offensive side of the ball. Gone is Watson, along with running back Wayne Gallman, and receivers Artavis Scott and Mike Williams and tight end Jordan Leggett. The starting point here is figuring out a replacement for Watson, whose performance won’t be replicated. Five-star freshman Hunter Johnson is one candidate, but there’s a long way to go.
The good news the majority of Clemson’s defense returns, and it was already No. 2 in S&P+. There’s so much talent here that it wasn’t surprising when lineman Scott Pagano, a really good player, announced he’d pursue a graduate transfer.
Without Watson (and with Bama’s new staff), it’d feel different.
Given Bama’s staff turnover and the different-looking rosters on both sides, there’d be a different feel to a Bama-Clemson III. Part of that’s just how college football is. Teams don’t stay the same for long, and everything moves in cycles.
You can never have too much of a good thing, but when is more too much? It obviously would take a lot for both teams to make it to the National Championship three years ago. It’s highly unlikely, and it would be unprecedented in college football.
Gut given how these two games went, you can’t help but wonder if a third matchup would be just as good. Do you want one or not?
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