Clemson humbles Alabama to win National Championship: 3 takeaways

The Clemson Tigers tore apart Nick Saban’s Alabama Crimson Tide and it wasn’t even remotely close.

It’s not often that one sees Alabama defeated. It’s even rarer to see the Crimson Tide defeated by double digits in this day and age. And, well, nobody has ever really seen a Nick Saban-coached Alabama team lose by that sort of margin. Clemson came out on top of the college football playoffs national championship tonight in a manner that appeared to be remarkably easy. The Clemson Tigers dismantled Alabama, beating the Crimson Tide 44-16, and it really felt as if the margin was larger than that.

So, what can be taken away from this game?

Trevor Lawrence is next season’s Heisman favorite

What Trevor Lawrence did to Alabama tonight is really unheard of. Lawrence, a true freshman quarterback, completed 20 of 32 passes for 347 yards and three touchdowns. He didn’t throw a single pick all evening.

Alabama was completely unable to even effect Lawrence all evening on the biggest stage of his career. If he can replicate the level of play that he had tonight, and through most of his starts, Trevor Lawrence should be the favorite to win the Heisman Trophy next season.

And, since Lawrence was a huge reason for the Clemson Tigers coming out on top of the Crimson Tide, he’s going to receive plenty of attention and hype over the next few months leading into next season. His Heisman Campaign is going to happen naturally and few will go out of their way to dispute it until next season actually starts.

Dabo Swinney’s Clemson dynasty is the premier program in CFB

Believe it or not, but Saban’s Alabama dynasty isn’t over just yet. The Crimson Tide have been recruiting at as high a level as they ever have been, and Tagovailoa isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. So, should Alabama continue to retain Saban’s services for the foreseeable future, it’s not as if the Crimson Tide won’t be equipped to succeed.

However, there’s another program on the map that is equal to Alabama in the past four seasons. During the past few hours, that program was notably better than the Crimson Tide. And that program is Clemson.

Dabo Swinney and the Clemson Tigers have come a long way since he was first hired there. Swinney has carried the Tigers to the peak of college football. They’re clearly one of the best teams around and will be very successful in the future as well.

Brent Venables deserves every single head coaching opportunity possible.

Prior to the game, no one could even slow Tua Tagovailoa, let alone completely stopping the star sophomore quarterback. Sure, there were times in which Tagovailoa struggled this year, such as a few moments during the Mississippi State game and then also against Georgia in the SEC championship, but injury issues played a large part in both teams of Bulldogs getting after the Heisman runner-up.

Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables found a way to lead his defense against Tagovailoa and force him into having one of the worst performances in his already legendary career. Tagovailoa threw for 295 yards and a couple of scores, but he also had two interceptions, one of which was for a touchdown and the other resulted in a touchdown for the Clemson offense.

Venables has drawn plenty of interest from pretty good college head coaching jobs over the past few years, but now it’s time that just about everyone at every single level of football starts going after the Tigers’ defensive coordinator.