Well, even the Death Star has to be destroyed sometimes.
Jalen Hurts of Channelview and the Crimson Tide of Alabama fell to the Clemson Tigers in one of the best national championship games ever played, 35-31. It was a back and forth affair, decided by whichever team ended up with the ball last. One can suppose that it was always meant to be this way, last year’s national championship bout between these two teams ended up being very similar, with a Tide win as the only real difference.
Alabama’s strong defense kept the Crimson Tide in the game longer than anyone thought. The Crimson Tide scored three times on short fields, and if they hadn’t played so well early this one might have got out of hand quickly. Jalen Hurts is a freshman, and you can’t truly expect a dominant performance out of him, but to say he didn’t play his best in this game is accurate. Hurts went 13/31 for a mere 131 yards through the air and 63 more yards on the ground in Alabama’s losing effort. These numbers could be worse, but not by much.
Regardless, Hurts and the Crimson Tide can sleep easily knowing that they’ll be back very soon. This isn’t a dynasty built with one off very special senior classes, this is The Process, something that has been building for a while now. The #1 recruit in the nation, Najee Harris, is already on campus, and the Tide will return many great players next year, including Hurts.
Hurts had some accuracy issues during the national championship game, but the fact that he’s only a true freshman bears repeating. He has anywhere from two to three more years left to shore up his game, and if he does, Alabama might return to unstoppable juggernaut form again.
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