The 2016 College Football National Championship is being played as it should be. Both Clemson and Alabama have earned their right to be fighting for the title, but their journeys and approaches in getting to this point have been vastly different. Alabama has risen from early season ashes with physical prowess and tenacity, whereas Clemson has finessed and secured the skies to get where they are now. A championship game pitting two conflicting styles is perfect for fueling the fire in the debate over whether or not ‘new wave’ football or ‘traditional’ football is the way to go. Neither is ever definitive, but Alabama and Clemson now have a shot to give their styles increased merit- at least until the next playoff season.
Offenses (Derrik Klassen)
Clemson Tigers
Deshaun Watson, the face of the Tigers offense, nearly won himself the Heisman this season, placing third behind Derrick Henry and Christian McCaffrey. His presence as a point guard type quarterback who can also burn defenses with his legs has been problematic for defenses all year. Watson tends to make his throw immediately or bail out of the pocket at the first sign of a busted pass concept. With as athletic as he is, this has killed teams who employ a lot of man coverage, and still makes him a threat to zone defenders who may be a bit slow to decide on approaching him. Though, as good as Watson was and is, he is not truly the staple of the offense.
Clemson’s offense is reminiscent of the 2013 Auburn squad; the difference being that Auburn had a mauling offensive line while Clemson’s is a more athletic, ‘beat you to your spot, not beat you up’ type of offensive line. Auburn’s rushing offense also ran a bit more misdirection than Clemson, but still, the ideology of the offenses parallel. Clemson’s passing offense, much like Auburn’s, features a lot of screens out to the receivers, flat throws from backs and tight ends coming from the backfield, and deep shots to vertically down the seam and sideline. On the ground, Clemson runs primarily split zone, zone read and power concepts, sprinkled with a little bit of outside zone and sweeps.
While this sort of offense can be a pass-heavy offense, Clemson’s is not- contradictory to Watson nearly snatching the Heisman trophy. Clemson ran the ball a total of 641 times throughout the season, as compared to 481 passes. The stress on running the ball is expanded even more when considering a fair amount of Clemson’s throws are screen throws, which are extensions of the run game. Watson’s role in the offense is not so much the catalyst, but the finisher. He is who must deliver the deep shots down the field that have been set up by the running game, and he does that well and with confidence.
The true catalyst of the offense is Wayne Gallman. Gallman is a freaky athlete at the running back position who tends to run with extreme confidence and will power. He is not always going to win with raw strength, but his tenacity as a player helps him win extra yards, as if his acceleration and agility had not already earned him enough. What makes him so special is that he is a major threat when executing any of Clemson’s run concepts, be it straight through the A-gap or bouncing outside on a outside zone.
The play below is an example of one of Clemson’s option plays. Watson either hands the ball off to the motioned receiver or he waits and gives the ball to Gallman, depending on how the linebackers look/flow early in the play.
Gallman works this play to perfection. He presses the outside shoulder of his tight end, forcing the linebacker to vacate the middle of the field. He then slashes up the middle of the formation behind the pulling guard for a huge gain. Watson made the right read, and Gallman came through with a great run.
Watson fails to make the correct read more often than assumed, though. Against a defense as disciplined as Alabama’s, making the wrong read will be very costly. Clemson needs to fight fire with fire by way of discipline. While it is not out of the question for Watson to have an outstanding game as a decision maker, he has shown struggles with it all year, at least more so than has been said.
Of course, Watson isn’t always having to make reads. Clemson likes their tight ‘power’ concept a lot and have had success with it with both of their top backs. In short, Clemson slants their linemen away from the play side, save the back side guard. That back side guard pulls to move outside the C-gap and kick out the lone linebacker left from the original contact of the snap. The running back presses the inside shoulder of this pulling guard, only to bounce out into space after the linebacker commits and gets swallowed by the guard. Gallman’s relief back executes the concept well below.
Watson is often used as a runner as well. In addition to option plays, Watson gets utilized on quarterback power and draw plays, both of which have had success throughout the season. Dabo Sweeney likes to cook up some sort of diversion in his quarterback draws, be it splitting out five receivers to vacate the box or asking Watson to turn as if he was throwing a screen before making his run. The power plays may be tough to use against Alabama, but the draw plays may be able to give a little spark to the Clemson offense.
The final key concept to be highlighted is Clemson’s illusion of making a tight end block on a split zone play, only for him to move past the defender and slip out into the flats. The pass play below is based one of Clemson’s most common running plays.
This play requires the defense to have been set up through a number of run plays that look like this pass. After the edge defender seems to be getting aggressive in containing the runner, Clemson whips up this throw to keep the defense honest and open the run game back up, creating a cycle of these two seemingly similar plays making each other more effective.
Clemson’s passing attack, for the most part, is not of note. It functions like many of the other ‘simple’ air-raid offenses in the country, like Auburn, Memphis and Cal. Screens, quick slants, quick outs and vertical seam/sideline are a bulk of the attack, leaving little room for variety or complexity. When a team runs the ball as well as Clemson and has a quarterback as confident as Watson, this normally works just fine and creates a lot of big plays on the veryical passes, though it is prone to be quieted by more disciplined defenses.
Strengths:
- perimiter running and passing
- athletic quarterback who can also stretch field with arm
- talented skill players (Gallman, Scott, Leggett, Cain)
Weaknesses:
- weak offensive line, especially as interior run blockers
- simplistic pass offense vs a sophisticated, disciplined defense
- pass needs to be set up through run, or else it becomes predictable
Alabama Crimson Tide
The Tide is and has always been a shining example of how to pummel teams into submission. Nick Saban wants to run the opposing front seven into the ground. The functioning of the passing offense has differed over the years, but using the run to control defenses is the Saban way. Now, coupled with offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin, Saban has built a wonderful offenses that blends an intimidating rushing attack with a threatening vertical pass game.
As impressive a job Kiffin has done with Jake Coker at quarterback, Derrick Henry is undoubtedly the lifeblood of the Alabama offense. Henry earned himself a Heisman trophy this season, due in part to him becoming the only SEC running back to ever eclipse 2,000 rushing yards in a single season. For the most part, Henry is getting usage on inside zone, power and counter plays. When Bama wants to attack the perimeter, Kenyan Drake often steps onto the field, but that does not mean Henry is never a threat to bounce the ball outside.
On Bama’s counter plays, Henry is sometimes forced to bounce out wide, and he has no issue in doing so. He is much more flexible and laterally explosive than given credit for and his explosion once he begins working up the field is deadly. Below is an example of Ole Miss forcing Henry to the boundary.
The defensive end (#9) gets good penetration off the snap, forcing a bit of a hold up at the line of scrimmage in the lane Henry was supposed to run through. As soon as Henry sees the clogging, he takes steps outside and burns past multiple defenders, the first of whom was in very good position to have made the tackle if Henry was not so explosive. This counter play is a stable of Kiffin’s shotgun rushing attack and should be seen throughout the game.
When Coker is under center with Henry lined up behind him, Kiffin likes to get use out of the power concept. Bama has the strength and adequate pulling ability to punish teams with this concept. It is also maximized by how well Henry is able to work up the field while also keeping himself clean laterally moving to the outer part of the formation.
Bama has no issue leaving a linebacker free on the inside shoulder of the pulling guard because they trust their runners to press that gap well and bounce outside, essentially blocking a player without actually blocking him. Both because of Kiffin’s understanding of his players and the talent of the players themselves, Alabama’s power play is lethal.
As would be expected of a team who runs the ball so well, Alabama utilizes a lot of play-action deep passing in their aerial attack. The idea is that Alabama is going to establish the run so well that the defense is forced to cheat up, and Alabama will then force them to back off with a deep shot or two. With the quality crop of receivers that Alabama has, namely Calvin Ridley, Alabama has no issue trusting their guys in one on one situations. Of course, it is better to get yours guys into space and not have to worry about contention, like Alabama does in the play below.
The fact that the left side of Alabama’s line steps up to run block feeds into how well they were already going to sell the play-action. It gets the linebackers to choke up to the line quickly, and even forces one of them to not run their blitz when they should have. With the pause having given Alabama only three pass rushers to handle and a lot of room over the top of the linebackers, Coker was able to drop in an easy crosser to his receiver.
On more traditional pass plays that do no use play-action, Alabama likes to go to concepts like Smash, Dagger and Mills, all of which are meant to be some sort of high/low play on a defensive back. Aside from Smash, which puts a deep corner route over the top of a short hitch (meant to attack Cover 2 and Cover 4), these pass concepts are rather similar. They combine a deep shot down the seam with an intermediate in-breaking route. The combination of both a deep route and an intermediate route over the middle is designed to attack a lone safety and force him to choose between the two routes. Whichever he does not choose is, in theory, left with 1-on-1 coverage. Below is an example of Alabama running Dagger.
This particular play was not a completed throw- or even a throw at all- because Coker can be a bit impatient, but the route combo worked as it should have. Tight end OJ Howard (#88) travels up the seam, taking both the middle-of-the-field safety and the deep safety with him, vacating the intermediate area for his teammate (#13). The receiver on the dig gets a lot of separation and has plenty of room to run because the middle of the field has been vacated. Though Coker still ends up with a nice chunk of yards on the ground, this pass play could have gone for a good chunk of yards as well.
One final finishing note to Alabama’s offense is that Henry is an outstanding pass blocking running back. He can completely wash out blitzing linebackers and chip well enough on bigger defenders to help out his linemen. With as good as he is at helping out as a pass blocker, this allows the Alabama offensive line some lenience in allowing blitzers to slip through if they know Henry is staying in the backfield to block. If Henry is in the backfield, it is more likely that he is going to pass block on passing plays than catch a pass, as Drake is more of the receiving back.
Alabama is going to come out of the gate with aggression. They are going to pound the ball between the tackles and take their shots down the field to instill fear in the defense as soon as possible. With as good as the offense has been all season, it would be fair to assume ‘Bama is able to get the ball rolling fairly early. If not, it may be a short battle of attrition like Alabama’s Michigan State game, where the game was close through the first quarter then Alabama blew the doors off of a tired, beaten MSU defense.
Strengths:
- running the ball in every way, primarily through power and between-the-tackles concepts
- play-action passing
- winning the war of attrition and brute force
- Derrick. Henry.
Weaknesses:
- passing game can be derailed if Coker is rattled
- offense is heavily dependent on Henry; so if he is slowed, the entire offense is
Defenses (Charles McDonald)
Alabama Crimson Tide
Alabama’s defense has no holes. The Crimson Tide has the most complete defense since the 2011 Alabama team that beat LSU 21-0 in the national championship game. Nick Saban runs a tight ship and that translates directly onto the field; the Crimson Tide has the most disciplined defense in the country. Since losing to the Ole Miss Rebels 43-37, Alabama has allowed only 10.6 points per game including a dominating shutout win over the Michigan State Spartans in the first round of the College Football Playoff.
Everything starts up front and the Tide has one of the more impressive defensive lines in recent memory. Jon Allen, Jarran Reed, A’Shawn Robinson, Ryan Anderson, and Tim Williams will all be early round selections in 2016 and 2017. While Saban has always had physical defensive lines, these players possess some impressive athleticism while also packing a punch.
Alabama doesn’t run anything schematically complex, they pulverize their opponents by being more prepared and extremely physical. Their secondary allows them to be fairly flexible with the looks they can show on defense. Cyrus Jones is one of the best cornerbacks in the country even though he flies under the radar a bit. Freshman corners Minkah Fitzpatrick and Marlon Humphrey are very impressive players in their own right. The presence of these three players allow Saban to run man coverage and aggressive blitz packages without getting burnt on the backend.
Against Michigan State, Alabama was ready for every formation, check, and route combination the Spartans threw. Even Ryan (not Henry) Anderson, who mainly rushes the passer, was ready for backside wheel routes against Michigan State.
bama’s d is so well coached. henry anderson matches on the wheel route before he even makes it out the backfield pic.twitter.com/vYk7dqBzE4
— huey freeman (@McDraft2) January 7, 2016
The second level of Alabama’s defense is wildly talented as well. Reggie Ragland and Reuben Foster are the top linebacker duo in the country. Ragland looks poised to be a top 50 pick this season while Foster should follow in his footsteps in 2017. Despite being bigger linebackers they both show solid coverage ability and work perfectly in tandem within the confines of Saban’s defense.
With the defensive line in front of them, they often have clean lanes to fire through and play sound gap discipline. When Ragland gets a full head of steam going he’s arguably the most intimidating player in the nation, just ask Josh Dobbs.
The one area where Alabama is a little vulnerable is the perimeter of their defense. Ragland and Foster aren’t the fastest linebackers in the world; if plays quickly develop outside the tackle box they’re a bit of a liability to give up long runs. However, this issue is easily mitigated by the presence of stud safeties Eddie Jackson and Geno Matias-Smith.
Alabama is going to dominate up front as they have all year. Wayne Gallman and Deshaun Watson are going to have little to no room to work with on the ground. IF Watson gets enough time to throw the ball, he’ll have a tough time getting the ball to his receivers with tight coverage at all levels of the field. Clemson is going to have to play perfectly to pull the upset.
Strengths:
- Imposing front seven
- More than capable secondary with young, budding talent
- Superior preparation and coaching
Weaknesses:
- A little weak against plays attacking the perimeter at the second level
Clemson Tigers
While Alabama’s defense appears to be impenetrable, beating Clemson’s defense looks like a much more manageable task. The Tiger defense is heavily reliant on the play of their excellent defensive ends Shaq Lawson and Kevin Dodd. Their interior defensive line has promise (especially true freshman Christian Wilkins who looks like a rising star), but it’s a bit of a work in progress. Not exactly what you want to hear with Derrick Henry and the Crimson Tide rolling through for all the marbles.
Clemson also has some outstanding talent in their defensive secondary. Mackensie Alexander and Cordrea Tankersley are an excellent cornerback duo and Jayron Kearse shows excellent range against the pass at every level of the field.
The issue with Clemson’s defense is up the middle. Ben Boulware and B.J. Goodson are average starters at best that need be kept clean or moved around the defense in order make a real impact. The interior of their defensive line isn’t consistently good enough that Boulware and Goodson can roam free uninhibited and make plays at and around the line of scrimmage. While Jayron Kearse shows great range in coverage, he doesn’t possess the physicality to consistently come down and be an enforcer against the run.
Clemson loves to run Cover 3 and that’ll be a heavy portion of the gameplan tonight, allowing them to bring down an extra safety to attempt to slow down Derrick Henry. If (and it’s a big if) Clemson can slow down Henry, they should be able to match up well against Alabama’s receivers; they certainly have the talent at cornerback to do so.
Their potential to win this game depends on their ability to do things they haven’t done all season; be physical and punch Alabama in the mouth before Henry can get rolling. Based on their linebacker and interior defensive line play throughout the season, this doesn’t seem like the safest bet.
However, if they can stop Henry from getting loose a couple of times the matchup slightly tilts in their favor. Lawson and Dodd should be able to get a few good rushes as Alabama’s offensive tackles have struggled some this season. Alexander and Tankersley can definitely matchup one on one with Calvin Ridley and Co. and keep an eye out for redshirt sophomore Adrian Baker, he’s a talented player with tremendous ball skills who may be able to make an impact play or two for the Tigers.
Strengths:
- Talented edge play; Shaq Lawson and Kevin Dodd are future NFL players
- Strong secondary play
- Speed and range on the backend
Weaknesses
- Soft up the middle
- Shaky linebacker and interior defensive line play
Verdict
Both teams deserve to be here. There is no doubt about that. Alabama is easily the better team, though. In nearly every facet of the game, Alabama has the advantage. Clemson’s only blatant advantage on paper is at quarterback, but Watson is not quite the superstar he has been crowned to be and Alabama’s front seven is going to make his night a living hell. Clemson does have a knack for taking the top off of defenses and creating big plays, which they should be able to muster up a few of, but the general efficiency of the offense will not be able to match Alabama’s. On top of that, the Crimson Tide has the edge in terms of physicality and will surely beat Clemson into submission on both sides of the ball, as they have done to so many other teams throughout the year. The Tide is also a hot team right now, beating their last five opponents by at least two scores, including their 38-0 embarrassment of Michigan State.
Granted, Clemson beat Oklahoma rather handily in their playoff game, but only eked by South Carolina and North Carolina to finish their non-playoff season. They won, yes, though it was more of a struggle than Alabama has had winning the past handful of weeks. This is not to say Clemson is a bad team because they evidently are not, but Alabama is so dominant that, as good as Clemson has been, the Tigers will not be able to keep up and overcome the Crimson Tide.
Betting Line (from Bovada): Alabama -7 (Take it)
Score Prediction: Alabama 31 – Clemson 17
Latest posts by Derrik Klassen (see all)
- 5 Plays: Deion Jones, LSU - January 22, 2016
- 5 Plays: Derrick Henry, Alabama - January 20, 2016
- Reality Catches Up Eventually - January 19, 2016