New Champions Use Old School Form

First of all, no human should have to leave one city in short sleeves and return home to a temperature where three parkas wouldn't keep a Southerner warm. However, on January 7th, it could have been any temperature in Pasadena, CA and no Alabama fan would have even acknowledged the elements. The Crimson Tide knocked off Texas for the first time in school history 37-21, to claim the school's nation leading thirteenth national championship. It may have not been pretty or the "modern" way to do it, but hard nose running and physical defensive play led to the win.

This game couldn't have started out any more opposite than how it panned out. Alabama takes the ball after winning the toss? Bama fakes a punt on 4th and 23 from their own 20? Colt McCoy is taken out of the game because of injury after one hit running the ball? It was one of the most bizarre national championships in some time. Texas jumped out to a 6-0 lead before Bama and the powerful running duo of Ingram and Richardson started to take over. A sustained drive capped off by Ingram made it 7-6 and shortly after Bama shut down the backup QB of the Longhorns (Gilbert), Richardson went 48 yards untouched to make it 14-6. Texas looked to still be in the game, only trailing 17-6 right before half with a freshman quarterback trying to guide the Horns through the tough SEC defense. Then disaster struck. Marcell Darius picked off a flip pass up the middle and returned it for a TD to put Bama up 18, when Texas should have just taken a knee.

While it appeared to be all but over, the Tide got conservative in the 3rd quarter with running the ball and the clock at the same time. Texas struggled to ignite any offense until late in the quarter. Gilbert finally settled in though as Texas scored two Jordan Shipley touchdowns in ten minutes to cut the lead to 24-21. The Horns even got the ball back down three on their own five yard line, but that's when the defense stepped up for the soon-to-be champs. Erik Anders forced a fumble that Courtney Upshaw recovered and Mark Ingram scored three plays later to make it 31-21. After a late Trent Richardson score, the Tide finished off Texas 37-21 and another national championship was claimed by Alabama and the SEC.

Of course there are always the "what-ifs" in a game of this magnitude with Colt McCoy being the center of that topic. Of course everyone would have loved to see McCoy play the whole game (even Bama fans for the most part would have liked it), but that didn't happen. And no you can't say Texas would have won because look at what the Tide had done to so many great quarterbacks throughout the year (Mallet, Jefferson, Snead, Tebow). All were victims of the Tide's top ranked D. Also, McCoy doesn't play defense the last time I checked. The number one rush defense in the country that the Horns sported coming into the game was gashed by the Heisman winner and his running mate. Each back put up over 100 yards for Bama and each scored two touchdowns. People may want to criticize McElroy's performance, yet why? Who cares if he threw eleven times and only completed six for 58 yards? When you can run the ball for over 200 as a team, why change your plan? I don't want this to be a Bama excuse party or put down Texas, but these are answers to all the questions surrounding the game. Plus, don't forget the Bama miscues on kickoffs that gave the Horns two gift wrapped possessions.

Finally, I want to thank the Texas fans. I have gobs of respect for them and their program after the game. 99% of them were genuine, nice and respectful all the way around. The team fought hard. They never quit and even made a run at the championship late in the game. Who knows how things would have turned out had Colt played? We will never know. But after watching and experiencing the championship, you can't taint a title that was won off of defense and ground game. That's the SEC way and is and always has been, the Alabama way.