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First half

On January 7, 2013 Alabama faced off against the undefeated Notre Dame Fighting Irish in a highly anticipated matchup for the NCAA football National Championship.  In the first half, Alabama started out hot opening up a 28-0 lead.  It seemed apparent in the opening drive when Notre Dame overloaded the box at the 5-yard line that they misread the play Alabama was calling.  They assumed Alabama would rely on their all-star running back to punch it in after successfully running the ball on the previous play to set up a first down and goal situation.  However, in an unconventional play call, Alabama adapted to Notre Dame’s goal line defense, faked the run and found a wide open receiver in the back of the end-zone to complete McCarron’s first touchdown pass of the game.

Upon the first completed TD, Alabama appeared to have outsmarted Notre Dame. The theme continued for the rest of the first half.  For 30 minutes, Notre Dame seemed to be guessing on defense and found little success in shutting down the Tide.  Going into the second half, A.J. McCarron had already racked up 158 yards and 2 TDs (Lacy/Williams) on 12 completions, complimenting another 2 touchdowns converted in the running game by running backs Eddie Lacy and T.J. Yeldon. 28 points later, a comeback by Notre Dame was unlikely.

Second Half

The Tide continued to roll entering the second half – striking first on an AJ McCarron pass to Amari Cooper for a 34-yard TD.  The lead was stretched to 35-0.  With 4:08 left in the third quarter, Notre Dame finally found the scoreboard on a 2-yard rush from Everett Golson.  The Tide scored again with 11:27 left in the 4^th quarter, regaining a 35-point lead on another AJ McCarron pass to Amari Cooper, this time for 19 yards.  Notre Dame answered back on a Golson pass to Theo Riddick for 8 yards and a TD and with 7:51 left in the 4^th quarter, the Tide led the Irish 42-14.

Summary Stats

With under three minutes left in the game, Alabama pulled starters from the game and Lacy was named the offensive MVP having racked up 140 yards on 20 rushing yards and 1 TD in addition to 17 reception yards and a TD on 2 catches.  T.J. Yeldon split carries with Lacy, finishing with one more carry than him (21) for a total of 108 rushing yards and 1 TD.  AJ McCarron completed 20 of 28 passes for 264 yards and 4 TDs.  Amari Cooper finished with 6 receptions for 105 yards and 2 TDs.

Although the Tide went on to win 42-14, Notre Dame reported a couple of notable statistics.  Namely, DaVaris Daniels, TJ Jones and Tyler Eifert racked up 266 reception yards on a combined 20 catches (split 6/7/6 for 115/90/61 respectively).  Quarterback, Golson, completed 21 of 36 passes for a total of 270 passing yards, 1 TD and 1 interception.

The Tide shut down Notre Dame’s running game, allowing just 32 rushing yards on 19 total rushes.  One of those rushes went for 20 yards, meaning the remaining 18 rushes mustered up a mere 12 additional yards.  This would have been the outstanding statistic and likely recognized as the difference maker if it weren’t overshadowed by the fact that Notre Dame’s defense was shredded by McCarron and company, thus leaving little doubt the Tide would have won regardless of whether the Fighting Irish had gotten their running game working.  This is the Tide’s third National Championship in 4 years and with this latest win, McCarron became the first quarterback in history to win back-to-back National Championships.  Three other quarterbacks had the opportunity since 2000 but none were successful in winning the second game.

They did it, the Alabama Crimson Tide are the 2011-12 BCS National Champions.

Coming into tonight and even before tonight’s game, many said that the Alabama Crimson Tide didn’t deserve to be in the National Championship game and that they weren’t good enough as they already lost to LSU earlier in the season 9-6. Many said that this game wouldn’t be a high scoring game. Many said that Alabama would get pounded by the Tigers running game. Many said that Alabama wouldn’t win, but come around 11:30 Eastern Time, the Alabama Crimson Tide were the National Champions.

Defeating the LSU Tigers 21-0, Alabama not only proved that they were the best, but they proved that they could score and stop the Tigers running game as they held them to 39 total rushing yards, 92 total yards, and most importantly zero points.

The Tigers offense crossed the 50 yard line once; they had five first downs, and completed two third downs. They just got out played and they [LSU] looked the team that didn’t belong.

It was a game of field goals in the first half as Alabama lead 9-0 at halftime and it continued in the second half as Alabama hit two more field goals of 35 and 44 in the third quarter. However it wasn’t until the fourth quarter with less than five minutes remaining until the first touchdown was scored when running back Trent Richardson would score on a 34 yard touchdown.

Richardson’s touchdown would pretty much seal the game as the Tigers with 4:36 left on the clock, down by three scores, with only two timeouts were pretty much done as they would suffer their first loss of the season.

This win would mark Alabama’s head coach Nick Saban’s third National Championship and would mark history as Saban’s BCS Title win tonight would make him the only coach in the new BCS era to ever win three National Championships.

It was a game that many said that Oklahoma State should’ve been in, but it was it game that Alabama showed that they deserved to be in by winning 21-0 and shutting out the former number one team in the Nation. Two words…Roll Tide.

The wish of the College football world came true.

During week 10 of this year’s NCAA Football season fans saw what they called this year’s BCS National Championship game; except the only difference was it was happening during the season. It was the number one ranked LSU Tigers versus the number two ranked Alabama Crimson Tide.

Many said that this would be the game of the year and that it would be better than the BCS National Championship game in January as many felt that these two teams were the best of this year’s college football season. They thought right as LSU won the game with a field goal in overtime making the final score 9-6.

Fans, analysts, players, and the college football world were thrilled of the game that they witnessed but they were heartbroken at the same time as everyone wanted to see a rematch between the two teams. Possible right? Not really due to the BCS ranking system and that the fact that it was already late in the season all pointed that LSU, Alabama wouldn’t be played again this season.

However when the BCS rankings came out that following week, the Crimson Tide of Alabama would still have a chance; getting the number one spot was LSU then followed Oklahoma State at number two and then Alabama at number three.

The Crimson Tide still had a chance as all they needed was an Oklahoma State loss. The only problem was; Oklahoma State didn’t lose. However, looking at their upcoming schedule Alabama appeared to have a chance. Reading Texas Tech, Iowa State, and number fifth ranked Oklahoma, a loss for the Oklahoma State Cowboys appeared to possible. Except not possible against Texas Tech or Iowa State, but, Oklahoma ranked fifth in the country seemed very possible.

Though on Friday the 18^th the number two Oklahoma State Cowboys would blow a 17 point lead against the Iowa State Cyclones and lose 37-31 in double overtime. It happened, the Cowboys lost which meant that Alabama pending a victory would move up to the number two spot.

Like expected, the Crimson Tide would defeat Georgia Southern 45-21 locking up the number two spot in the BCS rankings. However, just to make sure the number fourth ranked Oregon Ducks trailing right behind the Tide in the BCS rankings would lose as well.

The Ducks would lose to the USC Trojans 38-35 closing the book to their BCS Championship hopes. And just to make sure that Alabama really had it locked up; the number fifth ranked Oklahoma Sooners would lose to the number 22^nd ranked Baylor Bears, 45-38.

Rather someone wished for this to happen on 11/11/11, or if this is a sign that the world is coming to an end, or maybe it’s just fait; who knows? But what we do know is come January as long as both teams, LSU and Alabama win out, the rematch and game that everyone was hoping and wishing, for will happen. I guess their really is a Santa Claus.