National Championship
Preview
#1 Notre Dame vs #2
Alabama – 7th January, 01:00 on ESPN
After weeks of talk
and preparation it’s come down to this, the Crimson Tide of Alabama take on the
Notre Dame Fighting Irish in Miami for the Coach’s Trophy. Here’s my favourite,
and last preview of the season, enjoy!
Notre Dame Fighting Irish, 12-0
Key Facts
- Have claimed
the National Championship 13 times.
- Last won
the title in 1988.
- Has a
4-0-1 record when ranked as #1 and is facing #2.
Best Player
Manti Te’o, LB #5. The
undoubted leader of his team and this year’s Heisman runner up, he is a tackling machine in
the middle and will be the one entrusted with making those critical on field adjustments.
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| A site that's imposing for any college QB |
Best Team Performance
27th October @ #8 Oklahoma – won
30-13
Easily the most
complete that the Irish looked all season, both running backs had 74 yards and
a touchdown whilst the defence held the nations 9th ranked scoring
offence to just 13 points.
Worst Team Performance
3rd November vs Pittsburgh – won
29-26 (3OT)
Despite securing the
win, they were pushed all the way by a Pitt team that finished the regular season at 6-6 and were trailing 20-6 in
the fourth quarter. Now the sign of a championship calibre team is that they
win these games, but which #1 gets themselves in a 20-6 hole to a .500 team?
Reason to Root for the Irish
Two reasons, tradition
and to break the dominance that the SEC has had on the National crown. Not only
are the Irish the best representation of the pageantry and tradition of college
football to most, but their players are the true embodiment of the
student-athlete in the high academics that they ask their players to achieve as
well as the high standards on the field.
Do we really want to
see an SEC team pick up the 7th title in a row? Granted, they have
the best teams, athletes, facilities and some of the better traditions, but for
parities sake it would be refreshing to see a team end this dominant streak.
Why I would like them to win
For me, I saw the
Irish open the season in Dublin by putting 50 on Navy, if they managed to pull
off the upset it would be extremely gratifying for to have seen a team that
went undefeated.
Alabama Crimson Tide, 12-1
Key Facts
- 14 time
National Champions.
- A win
would make them champions in 3 of the past 4 years.
- Current squad has 5 first team All-Americans.
Best Player
Chance Warmack, OL
#65. He’s going to be a top 10 pick in the upcoming draft and if there’s ever a time for him to prove it, it’s against the Irish’s D-line where he’ll have to
go up against Stephon Tuitt and Louis Nix III. If there’s going to be any
running game, Warmack will need to be at his best to shift those two.
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| Pretty sure they don't make them this size in BUAFL |
Best Team Performance
1st December vs. #3 Georgia – won
32-28.
Tough to pick one game
out, and despite giving up 28 points, when I weigh up everything I think it’s
fair to say that Alabama put together a very complete performance. Here’s how I
see it, McCarron played a solid game, both Lacy and Yeldon had over 150+ yards
and the defence played just well enough to stifle a very good Georgia offence. Alabama
had wins where they blew teams out, but a win against Georgia in the conference
championship game goes down as their best.
Worst Team Performance
10th November vs. #15 Texas A&M – lost
29-24.
In comparison this one
was a no-brainer, the teams only loss on the year so far came at home where
they were ambushed early on and then never recovered. McCarron threw 2 picks
and their RBs didn’t break 100 yards whilst the defence was almost at a loss as
to how to handle Manziel, but lets be fair, no ones quite figured that out yet,
right Oklahoma?
Reason to Root for the Crimson Tide
To see that third
championship in four years and complete that mythical journey to become know as
a modern day dynasty. You also have to respect the way the Saban gets the job
done, time after time bringing in less heralded players and turning them into
stars each year so that his teams can achieve consistency, if you don’t like
that, you don’t like football.
Why I would like them to win
Since watching college
football, Alabama have always held a certain kind of intrigue for me, whether
it was the fanaticism of southern football fans or the fact that they play old
school football behind a running game and defense, I just love to watch the Crimson
Tide play – and win.
Key Matchups
A.J McCarron vs. Manti Te’o – The junior McCarron now has a lot of trust
from his coaching staff and conducts a fair old amount of on field adjustment
and he’ll be in a direct chess match with an inside linebacker that will
diagnose a lot of what he’s seeing from the offence and adjust. This may not be
a Peyton Manning vs. Ray Lewis calibre of matchup but it will certaintly be one
of the most important aspects of the game.
Notre Dame’s Run Game vs. Alabama’s Front 7 – Alabama have the number one ranked rushing
defence in the country and only allow 79 yards/game on the ground and whilst
Cierre Wood and Theo Riddick are very good backs, they lack the size to really
push the pile up front. Notre Dame have a varied run game with some fly sweeps
and reverses in there to keep defences honest, but you don’t want to be going
east and west against the Crimson Tide and the ability for ND’s two backs to
get those tough inside yards could decide how the Irish perform on offence.
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| The 'Bama defenders won't be this soft! |
Saban vs. Kelly – What I am most intrigued about here is
whether Kelly has the ability to call his best game when it really matters. There’s
no doubt that he’s good, but will he make the right decisions under the
scrutiny of the Championship game? Saban has been here before and called games
against the best through honing his skills in the SEC pressure cooker and has
earned the right not to be second guessed, so is Kelly up to the task?
Safe Bet: This is rather bold of me to be even making a call and labelling it a
safe bet, but I think that there will be at least one defensive score between
these two teams.
Long Shot: Slightly easier to be bold on this one but I think that Tyler Eifert
will end up with 2 touchdown grabs tonight against the Alabama secondary.
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| Irish fans will be hoping to see a lot of this tonight. |
Key Stat: At the end of the night I think the telling factor will be how each
team has performed in the run game. All stats are relative to how the game is played, but if you see either team crack the 175 yard and over mark then I think you could be looking at the winner.
Pick: Alabama - it's one of those situations where my head says Alabama but my heart says Notre Dame, if I get this pick correct then I win the Pick'em league so I'm backing the favourites!
Confidence: 14.
