Just as a college football fan with no emotional ties to either team…I thought this game turned into a very interesting game in the second half.
I mean it was 26-18 with Alabama driving to tie the game and send it into overtime in the last two minutes. Considering what we got in last year’s playoff this game was the best game of the last six playoff games played in the last two years.
It had a little bit of everything. It had Stetson Bennett a preferred walk-on playing the part of of Rudy and winning a national championship over Nick Saban and his five star Heisman winner Bryce Young. Stetson Bennett still has eligibility left…it will be interesting to see what he does. I would think he has to come back and see if he can direct the Dawgs to a repeat.
A walk-on winning a national championship in the era of NIL and the transfer portal is analogous to Mitt Romney winning a GOP presidential primary over Trump in Alabama. One for the ages for Stetson Bennett.
And his offensive coordinator Todd Monken the former Oklahoma State coordinator in 2011 who himself had some redemption on Championship Monday. Monken after leaving Oklahoma State had less than stellar results at Southern Miss as a head coach. Then as the offensive coordinator with the Tampa Bay Bucs got let go when Dirk Koetter was let go. Then the same thing with the Cleveland Browns as he tried to mold Baker Mayfield as an NFL quarterback when the whole staff got let go again.
I love Todd Monken. If Coach Venables hadn’t hired Jeff Lebby…I’m that rare OU fan who would love to have Coach Monken at some point in his career running the OU offense. Stick that one in a drawer if Jeff Lebby isn’t at OU for more than two years.
Then Kirby Smart. He finally exorcised the Saban monkey off his back. Kirby Smart finally beat Nick Saban.
To Saban’s credit he’s still the best. He got his team to the national championship game missing significant pieces in his secondary. Then late in the first half he lost Jameson Williams to go along with the loss of John Metchie in the SEC Championship Game.
From that point forward the Georgia defense made the field shorter and narrower for Bryce Young. Space and time became harder for the Heisman winner on every offensive snap because in essence the Tide didn’t have a dependable long threat in the game to push the Georgia safeties back a few yards.
Williams wanted to come back in the game, but to Saban’s credit he wouldn’t allow Williams to return and possibly damage his NFL draft status for the upcoming draft.
So for me as an OU fan who’s been watching the transfer portal as if it were a religous ritual since Lincoln Riley’s departure…Stetson Bennett is a reminder there’s still a lot to love about college football even in the Wild West days of NIL and the transfer portal.
Look for the good in the game..it’s still there. Even with bitterness the Oklahoma State fans harbor towards OU for heading off to the SEC…you know what finally happened in Stillwater this football season? O State football finally grew up along with their coach Mike Gundy. In a season which almost paralells what Stetson Bennett just did…Oklahoma State beat OU, Texas, and Notre Dame in the same football season.
Think about that…and they did it with a junior redshirt in Spencer Sanders who’s right there at the top of Mount Redemption along with Stetson Bennett.
There’s still a lot to love about college football if you just look in the right places.
Embrace the game and hope it finds its way through NIL and the transfer portal. Hope some reasonable adults institute a twelve team playoff and include some nuanaced changes to the NIL and the portal.
But don’t just blindly hate on the game…because there’s still quite a bit to love about college football.
Todd Monken… August, 2012 Joe C… stick this in your drawer for Coach Venabales. Put this in your El Prez file. Trust me on this.
Todd Monken…January 2013 Head coach at Southern Miss. The trails coaches travel in their careers are fascinating. What they learn or absorb at every stop….how they evolve.