Clemson wins college football championship, routs Alabama 44-16
With stunning ease — and a freshman quarterback -— Clemson toppled college football's greatest dynasty again to become the first perfect playoff champion.
Trevor Lawrence passed for 347 yards and three touchdowns as the second-ranked Tigers beat the No. 1 Crimson Tide 44-16 Monday night in the College Football Playoff national championship game.
In the fourth consecutive playoff meeting between them, Clemson evened the series and beat 'Bama for the national title for the second time in three seasons. Clemson is the first team in the AP poll era, dating back to 1936, to finish with a 15-0 record.
"We're gonna enjoy this (trophy). We've got a nice spot to put it in our facility, right next to that other one," Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said. "We've got twins!"
Coach Nick Saban and the Tide (14-1) were looking for a sixth national championship in 10 years, trying to add to an already unprecedented run in the sport. Instead, Clemson crushed Alabama, becoming the first opponent to beat the Tide by more than 14 points since Saban became coach in 2007. It was, points out CBSSports.com's Tom Fornelli, the first time Alabama lost a game by more than 20 points since a 27-3 loss to LSU in 2003. LSU's coach in that game was — Nick Saban.
The Tigers sealed their status as a superpower, no longer just 1A to Alabama's 1.
"We're 15-0, we beat the best team ever, nobody's taking that away from us," Clemson All-America defensive tackle Christian Wilkins said.
Two seasons ago, it was Deshaun Watson dethroning the Tide with a last-second touchdown pass. Clemson's new star quarterback didn't need late-game heroics. The long-haired Lawrence cut though Alabama's defense with the help of another fabulous freshman. Justyn Ross made a juggling, one-handed snare and broke for a 74-yard touchdown about midway through the third quarter that made it 37-16 and had Swinney high-stepping down the sidelines.
Ross, who scored two touchdowns in the semifinal rout of Notre Dame, had six catches for 153 yards against his home-state team.
Lawrence "put on a performance that will go down in college football history as one of the most impressive outings by any quarterback on the game's biggest stage," writes CBSSports.com's Barrett Sallee.
Swinney takes a different approach than Saban, running a more fun-loving program than Alabama's all-business organization. But the results have been every bit as good. And on Monday night at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California, in a championship game played more than 2,000 miles away from Clemson's South Carolina campus, the Tigers were way too much for an Alabama team that had spent the season mauling its opposition by an average of 31 points per game.
Alabama's Tua Tagovailoa threw two crucial interceptions in the first half, the first returned 44 yards for a touchdown by A.J. Terrell to put Clemson up 7-0. The Tide came in scoring 48 points per game, but was shut out over the final 44 minutes by an opportunistic Clemson defense that stiffened in key spots.
Tagovailoa, the sophomore who came off the bench to win the championship game last year for the Tide, went 22 for 34 for 295 yards and two touchdowns.
The Heisman runner-up was also the second-best quarterback on the field in the championship game. Lawrence finished 20 for 32, but went 18 for 25 for 277 yards over the final three quarters.
