Looking at last year’s top games
As we keep rolling on towards the 2016 college football season, this week I wanted to take a step back and look at the great games from last season.
Ole Miss vs. Alabama. This was a big game that took place in just the third week of the season at Bryant-Denny Stadium. Alabama was trying to get revenge for being upset by the Rebels the year before. This was also one of the year’s weirdest games. Alabama swapped quarterbacks halfway through, Chad Kelly looked to be the next breakout star and there was also the touchdown where he threw it off a Bama player’s helmet and into the hands of a Rebel. Ole Miss looked to be on the verge of blowing the game open twice before Bama came back twice. The Rebels still managed to win the shootout 43-37 and defeat Alabama twice in a row.
Notre Dame vs. Clemson. The circumstances of this game were what made it an epic matchup. A top ten matchup in prime time in the middle of Hurricane Joaquin, it doesn’t get much better than that. Clemson took a 17-0 lead and looked to be on verge and blowing it open until Notre Dame overcame their four turnovers and roared back in the second half. The game ended in dramatic finish as Clemson stuffed Notre Dame on a two-point conversion to win as time expired.
However, the best game of the season was without a doubt the last game. The National Championship which took place in Glendale, Arizona, between Alabama and Clemson was everything that is great about football. It featured a perennial juggernaut in Alabama vs. the underrated newcomer in Clemson. This game featured plenty of fireworks as each team had the clear cut best rosters in college football. What made it even better was how Clemson took to Alabama like no other team had in a national championship game in the Saban era. Clemson quarterback torched Alabama with over 500 all-purpose yards and had Alabama on the ropes until Nick Saban made a huge gamble with an onside kick and then Kenyan Drake retuned a kickoff for a touchdown. Alabama’s 45-40 victory over Clemson will go down as arguably the greatest National Championship in history.