We’re living in Saban’s world

Published 10:14 am Wednesday, January 13, 2016

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">It’s hard to argue with the results, and certainly that onside kick — right out of Sean Payton’s devious playbook — came in handy.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Sure Alabama won its umpteenth national championship and Nick Saban won his fifth with an entertaining romp of a 45-40 victory over Clemson on Monday night.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But maybe Alabama should have given the ball to Derrick Henry a few more times.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Well, a bunch more times.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Yeah, it’s hard to argue with the results, assuming winning the national championship is the ultimate goal.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">And maybe it is.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But national championships are a dime a dozen in the SEC, particularly for Alabama and Saban.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">That’s — what, now? — eight of the last 10 years that the trophy has come home to the SEC.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Mostly Alabama, granted, but there’s four SEC schools with a trophy of recent vintage in their lobbies.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Go back just a few more years and LSU has another one, and a fifth school, Tennessee, also has one from the prehistoric BCS days.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">So most everybody in the neighborhood has one of those silly trinkets.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">As far as that trophy goes in the Southeast, if they don’t show up on “Pawn Stars,” you can probably pick one up at Stuckey’s.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But, kudos, anyway, to the Crimson Tide and what must now be called an unquestioned dynasty.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Surely, your rare Tide fan co-workers are handling the latest windfall with all due grace and humility.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Or maybe not.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Well, here’s what you do.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Mainly, stay classy, which is to say you run up to a Tider, stick a thumb in each ear, wiggle the other fingers at him, stick out a tongue and go “Nyah-nyah-nyah-nyahhhhh-nyah” before demanding:</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“Yeah, sure, but who won the NCAA rushing title?”</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">And wait for it …</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">They’ll probably try to tell you their own Derrick Henry, who did, in fact, win the Heisman Trophy, even though he’d probably be third in a re-vote behind an either/or 1-2 pick of Clemson’s Deshaun Watson and Stanford’s Christian McCaffrey.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But give him that.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Also give him 2,219 yards rushing for the season, the most of any player in the country.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Admit that.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Then wait for it (smug grin optional).</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">It’s about then that you point out that the official and certified NCAA rushing title belongs to LSU’s Leonard Fournette.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">True. It’s a little-known loop hole in the NCAA statistical quagmire.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">In fact, the race for the rushing title wasn’t even close.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Maybe the Tide were unaware. Perhaps Saban isn’t interested in individual accolades.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But Henry, with the most rushing yards in the country, would have needed to have been quite the workhorse to catch Fournette.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">He probably would have needed at least another half to toy with, say, a Texas Tech-quality defense to catch the LSU star.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The key here is that Fournette AVERAGED 162.8 yards per game. Henry was a distant second at 147.9 yards per (McCaffrey was third at 144.2).</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">And it’s the AVERAGE per game that the NCAA recognizes as your bona fide rushing champion.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">It’s not a new development.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The NCAA began doing it on a per-game basis way back in 1970. Before that, yeah, it was total yards.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">With that measuring stick, Henry would have needed 223 more yards Monday night to catch Fournette’s average.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Of course, Henry played three more games than Fournette did — LSU had the McNeese State game canceled because of the weather and the Tide got extra games with the SEC championship affair and the CFP title game.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Good for them.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Better for Fournette.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Don’t let them tell you that the national championship trophy is a bigger deal.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The SEC has more national title trophies than spare-tire flower pots in the front yards.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The rushing title. Now, that’s a real rarity.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Fournette is the first SEC running back to win it since John Dottley of Ole Miss — way back in 1949 (when it was still total yards; he had 1,312).</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The only other SEC back, in history, to win it was Georgia’s Frank Sinkwich (also the first Heisman winner from the SEC) in 1941 with 1,103.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">So LSU has that, far more of an oddity than some national championship trophy.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">And that’s about the best I can do for you.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Otherwise, it’s Alabama’s world. And Nick Saban runs it.</span>

<span class="R~sep~AZaphdingbatdot7pt">l</span>

<span style="font-weight: bold;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">Scooter Hobbs</span> <span class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">covers LSU</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">athletics. Email him at</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">shobbs@americanpress.com</span>