UCF earns four first-place votes, No. 6 finish in final AP poll

It’s not an official national championship, but it is some level of validation to all of their very public preening.

Following up on its bowl win over Auburn that capped a perfect 13-0 season, UCF made quite the public spectacle in declaring itself national champions, replete with the university paying title bonuses to assistants who left for Nebraska, a parade and the governor of the state of Florida issuing an official proclamation naming the Knights the best team in college football. Of course, Alabama won the official title on the field Monday night, with the Associated Press rubber-stamping the Crimson Tide as the No. 1 team in the country in its final poll of the 2017 season.

‘Bama wasn’t a unanimous national champion, however, as four of the 61 first-place votes went to, you guessed it, Central Florida. This marks the first time in the College Football Playoff era, and the first time under any system since 2011 — that was the year Alabama beat LSU in the BCS title game — that the No.1 team in the country failed to be a unanimous selection of the AP voters.

The sixth-place finish for UCF is also the highest for a Group of Five team since Boise State ended the 2009 season fourth in the country.

National runner-up Georgia finished No. 2, while the other two playoff participants, Oklahoma and Clemson, finished third and fourth, respectively. Ohio State was the highest-ranked non-playoff team at No. 5. The remainder of the Top 10 was rounded out by Wisconsin (No. 7), Penn State (No. 8), TCU (No. 9) and Auburn (No. 10).

As you may have noticed, no Pac-12 teams were ranked in the Top 10. The highest-ranked team from that Power Five conference was USC, which came in at No. 12.

For the third time this season, Arizona State has lost out personnel-wise to the NFL.

This time around it’s Christian Sam, with the linebacker confirming on Twitter that he is throwing his hat into the NFL draft ring. Sam’s decision was likely made easier by the fact that he preferred to not play his last season under a new head coach after Todd Graham was fired.

Thank You 🙏🏾.. Thank You SDN!! Next Chapter! #GLORYTOGOD pic.twitter.com/vYqA2wiTge
— Christian C. Sam (@ShowinStatsSam) January 8, 2018

After missing most of the 2016 season because of injury, Sam led the Sun Devils in tackles with 127. He was also fourth in tackles for loss 9.5 and fifth in sacks with three.

In addition to Sam, offensive lineman Sam Jones and defensive lineman JoJo Wicker have also left the Sun Devils early for the NFL.

A very familiar face has been added to Justin Wilcox‘s Cal coaching staff.

The football program announced in a press release that Wilcox has hired Burl Toler III as his running backs coach. Toler played wide receiver for the Golden Bears from 2001-2004 and began his coaching career at his alma mater as well.

“Burl is an excellent addition to our staff who has been very successful as a football coach and recruiter early in his career,” the head coach said in a statement. “I’ve known Burl since he played on Cal teams when I was an assistant coach in Berkeley, and I think the world of Burl and his family. As an alum and with his family’s history at Cal, he has a deep understanding of and a strong connection to the university that will prove important. We’re looking forward to having him rejoin our Cal family.”

After his playing career at Cal ended, Toler embarked on a professional playing career that included stops in the NFL, CFL, Arena League, NFL Europe and an Italian football league.

With his playing days over, Toler spent 2013-15 as a quality control coach at Cal. His first on-field job was in 2016 as receivers coach at Fresno State; he spent the 2017 season in the same job at UC-Davis.

“It’s amazing to be back home at Cal,” Toler said in his statement. “I’m beyond grateful for the opportunity coach Wilcox has given me to join his tremendous staff, and I’m excited to get to work coaching and recruiting elite student-athletes at Cal. I’m also thankful for the experience of working with the coaches and players at Fresno State and UC Davis. Those experiences have prepared me for this unbelievable opportunity at my alma mater.”

Nick Saban has won a handful of national championships, but what better way to move into a tie for first place on the all-time leaderboard with the one and only Paul “Bear” Bryant than by cooking up the most unique national championship coaching job of his career to date.’

For the first time with the national championship on the line, Saban was going up against a former assistant coach. As the previous 11 matchups between teacher and student have gone, Saban once again came out on top of a former understudy, Georgia’s Kirby Smart. But boy oh boy did Saban have to try a few new things in order to get it. For the first time, Alabama was flustered and overmatched in a championship game. Even the last two years against Clemson were back-and-forth types of games, but Georgia was playing like a true home team hungry to end a national title drought in front of their home fans. Alabama’s offense was non-existent for the first 30 minutes, leading Saban to make a drastic call to change his quarterbacks at halftime and roll with a true freshman in Tua Tagovailoa.

Jalen Hurts had been Alabama’s starting quarterback for the past two seasons, but a rough first half performance led to Alabama digging a 13-0 hole. Saban needed a spark, so for the first time in a championship game, he made the switch in hopes of sparking something on offense. After a rough first drive, Tagovailoa came through in wild fashion. Tagovailoa connected on 14-of-24 passes for 166 yards and three touchdowns, including the game-winning 41-yard pass to Devonta Smith just one play after being taken down for a loss of 16 yards on a sack. Amazingly, Saban’s freshman quarterback looked like a freshman making a freshman mistake only to shrug it off and connect on a pass that will go down in Alabama’s storied history as one of the best in program history.

Saban is now tied with Bryant for the most national championships in the AP poll era with six apiece. Saban had already cemented his spot among college football’s hierarchy of coaches before Monday night, but for anyone who was still holding back on suggesting Saban belongs in the conversation for best coaches of all time, there is no more room to allow that conversation to be avoided. Saban is absolutely one of the best coaches of all time with six national titles to his name at two different schools (one at LSU, five at Alabama). But for anyone who does want to hold off on the Saban conversation, what more could you possibly need? Do you need Alabama to win another national title?

If you do, then watch out. Alabama was fueled Monday night by a freshman quarterback (Tagovailoa), a freshman running back (Najee Harris) and a freshman wide receiver (Smith). Alabama’s not going away anytime soon, because Saban has established a factory of college football talent in Tuscaloosa that is built to compete, have players step into big roles at any moment, and win.

Saban has won national titles with crippling defense. He has won a national title with an offense coming alive in a shootout. Now, Saban has won with freshmen leading the way. And ogh yeah, he also did it without winning a division title.

There will come a day when Saban decides enough is enough and he settles into retirement with time away from a sideline, but there does not appear to be an end in sight to the Saban dynasty in Tuscaloosa. Until Saban calls it a career, Alabama will continue to cement Saban’s legacy as the greatest coach of all time.

Follow @KevinOnCFB

ATLANTA — A year ago in the final game of the season, Nick Saban thought he had won his fifth national title at Alabama behind an incredible comeback from a true freshman quarterback.

Turns out, that storyline had to wait a year.

Crimson Tide freshman signal-caller Tua Tagovailoa came off the bench to start the second half and cap off an epic comeback that won’t ever be forgotten around Tuscaloosa, beating SEC rival Georgia 26-23 in overtime on Monday night at Mercedes-Benz Stadium to deliver the school’s 13th recognized national championship.

Tagovailoa was a clear spark for the Tide from the moment he jogged onto the field out of the locker room to replace ineffective sophomore starter Jalen Hurts (3-of-8 passing, 47 yards rushing), who was part of the reason why the team was shutout in the first half. The five-star freshman from Hawaii was dynamic with the ball in his hands, scrambling out of near sacks numerous times (to go with 27 yards rushing) and throwing for 166 yards and three touchdown passes.

That second to last of those two scores came with just 3:21 left on the clock after he evaded the rush on fourth down to find superstar wideout Calvin Ridley waiting in the middle of the end zone for a seven yard strike. That tied the game at 20-all and sent a chill down the naturally pro-Georgia crowd who witnessed an all to familiar Atlanta sports moment in the process.

Bama kicker Andy Pappanastos missed the 36 yarder wide right as time expired but Tagovailoa didn’t mind, finding DeVonta Smith from 41 yards out to send up the confetti for the Tide in one of the most indelible moments in college football on the grandest stage the sport has to offer.

The story was a familiar one for the most part up until those final few minutes for the Bulldogs.

True freshman quarterback Jake Fromm made several clutch throws and the team got some incredible stops from linebacker RoquanSmith but it wasn’t enough in the end as the team played their second straight overtime game of this College Football Playoff. The former looked far from a youngster despite throwing two interceptions (one an arm punt on the second play of the game, the other off a tipped ball) and finished with a career high 32 attempts through the air to rack up 232 yards. Fromm was a big reason why the team was able to move the ball after a tough night on the ground.

The normally reliable UGA run game found things much harder to get going than it did against Oklahoma in their semifinal win out at the Rose Bowl. Sony Michel did rip off a 26 yard run to help keep a scoring drive alive early but was otherwise held in check (98 yards) along with teammate Nick Chubb (25 yards) as the team couldn’t hold onto a 20-7 lead in the second half.

The win keeps Saban a perfect 12-0 against his former assistants after beating Kirby Smart in what might be the most satisfying victory of the coach’s career. Not only did the Alabama legend tie Bear Bryant with sixth national title ring, he kept the dynasty rolling with the program’s fifth championship in eight seasons. After last year’s heartbreak with one second left on the clock, this time it was Alabama who reigned supreme to cap off the 2017 season in thrilling fashion with an ending that nobody will forget in the decades to come.

Let's block ads! (Why?)