Crimson title wave continues

Published 7:00 pm Wednesday, January 10, 2018

This isn’t a particularly good week for the Bama Haters, who seem to be legion in our fair state, least ways those who haven’t been kidnapped by Nick Saban and enlisted into the cause.

I wish I could help. But in the wake of Monday’s national championship, I’m afraid there’s not much consolation I can provide, nor much in the way of encouragement for the future that this crimson world domination is going to end in our lifetime. 

But let’s review where things stand anyway.

Spoiler alert — the hard core among the haters might want to go ahead and skip to your crossword puzzle. A lot of it will hit close to home with LSU faithful.

Saban won his fifth national championship with the Tide — his sixth overall (and you know where it all started)- — without winning their conference division (SEC West). This was not unprecedented, of course.

Alabama had done groundbreaking research on this ploy and was at the forefront of proving it was mathematically possible as far back as 2011 — again, at LSU’s expense when it got the rematch with the division/conference champion Tigers in the natty.

The key decision Monday, however, was the bold move by Saban to switch quarterbacks at halftime, benching a two-year starter in Jalen Hurts, who was 25-2 in his role, for true freshman Tua Tagovailoa, who’d done only mop-up duty.

Who in the world knew that was an option? Apparently Saban had even planned for the necessity, somehow grooming Tagovailoa for that role since day one.

For LSU it brought back “what-if?” nightmares and Jordan Jefferson-Jarett Lee flashbacks from the Tigers’ 2011 disaster. Remember when Les Miles stood pat amidst the carnage and Lee never budged from the bench? But Lee couldn’t get an at-bat even though he was a fifth-year senior who’d started most of the season. This was more like if Miles had thrown untested Zach Mettenberger into that dumpster fire.

Which couldn’t have hurt.

So Alabama won this national championship with what is not considered a vintage Saban team.

I don’t know what else Georgia could have done. Its game plan worked to perfection and it seemed to have control of the game most of the way.

The Dawgs just couldn’t quite nurse it home.

It reeked of LSU’s 2012 and 2014 regular-season frustrations, when one play here or there, any of which could have clinched it, never quite happened.

It begs the question that, if Alabama, which needed some convenient fortune to even make the playoffs, didn’t lose that game against that team, then when will it ever happen?

It’s looking more and more like never. 

Georgia, which was given no chance by virtually anyone in advance, outplayed Alabama for the most part.

It only seemed to annoy the Tide.

And there’s no relief in sight.

With Tagovailoa — check spelling — unexpectedly at quarterback, Alabama’s leading passer, rusher and receiver Monday were all true freshmen.

And that doesn’t count DeVonta Smith, the true freshmen who caught the unlikely winning pass in overtime.

You probably don’t need or want to know that Smith is from Louisiana — Amite, to be exact.

Maybe Saban bought himself a dandy quarterback controversy for the offseason — except that Hurts looked like the consummate good teammate while cameras took delight in catching him watching his successor become an instant legend.

And furthermore …

The 66-year-old Saban apparently isn’t going anywhere. He’s under contract, which he signed in April, until 2025.

Saban watchers, in fact, may have noted that, for once, he seemed to truly enjoy the victory. His postgame actions bordered on meaningful celebration, with scattered sightings of actual “smiles.”

Next thing you know he’ll be spewing champagne all over the place.

If he ever starts enjoying this stuff, they’ll be no getting rid of him and no sating his appetite.

You’re going to need help.

Big Ten officials, who were on the scene in Atlanta and overall did a fine job, aren’t any better at catching the Tide holding than are SEC officials –— and their headquarters aren’t in Birmingham.

On the positive side it did look as if Georgia was at least on to something –— a blueprint, maybe. And the Bulldogs, maybe a little ahead of schedule, seem to be building a semi-worthy challenger to Saban Nation.

The bad news for LSU?

Georgia is on LSU’s schedule next season as the Tigers’ crossover SEC East opponent.

In the meantime, the only place the Tigers appear to have pulled even with Alabama is in the dicey art of field goal kicking.

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Scooter Hobbs covers LSU athletics. Email him at

shobbs@americanpress.com