So, the National Championship turned out
to be a bit of a yawner, but not in the direction most of the experts
picked it. Best Stat: Satan’s WORST LOSS EVER since he left the
NFL!! That’s 12 seasons of
football and on the biggest stage, Satan proved to be as incompetent as anyone
else…
I liked Clemson going into the
game based on the fact that I felt that Clemson had an edge when it came to
their passing game. Lawrence
and the plethora of receivers that Swinney has at his disposal I thought would
be a challenge for the questionable secondary of the Tide. The Tide has been susceptible to the pass all
season. Teams that exploited that were
able to hang with Satan’s warriors. And
Swinney was not afraid to expose that weak link.
It turns out that not only was
Clemson able to hang close, they ended up exploiting just how much of a fraud
the Tide’s secondary was. Lawrence
had his way with them and I’m not even sure he was touched by Bama’s defense
until somewhere in the 4th quarter.
If anyone can recall Lawrence getting pressured or sacked early in the
game, please remind me.
On the other hand, the Tide
tried to play a “classic” Satan game by running the ball (after throwing some
bombs early to get the score back to even) and winning the time of possession,
a stat that I have become less and less respectful of as college
offenses evolve into “quick strike” mechanisms that can score at will, assuming
you have the weapons.
Michigan has those kinds of
weapons, Coach H. I would suggest
re-watching this game several times in the near future to understand exactly
why you want to put the ball into the hands of you most highly recruited and
most athletic players. They
make things happen…but I digress…
In winning the rushing game and the
TOP, Bama found themselves continuing to come up short in the red zone. 4 Trips inside the 20 and never get
it over the goal line…Wait, that sounds eerily familiar. While I don’t think Bama failed to perform
(OK – That fake FG attempt had to be the WORST CALL EVER!!!), what I did see
was a bend but don’t break defensive show on display with Clemson. That’s a good defense. When it was critical, Bama didn’t have
answers.
Tua proved to be a player that
could be rattled with the first pick 6 of his career early in the 1st
quarter. Add to that a 2nd INT
that can only be described as the worst pass of his career and the Tide ended
up spotting the Tigers 14 points.
Probably not a real good idea against a really good Clemson Defense.
After Bama managed a Figgie
late in the 1st half, I would have loved to have seen what the odds
were of Bama not scoring again FOR THE ENTIRE GAME! They would have had to have been in the high
3 digits to 1 range, maybe even 1,000 to 1. That would have been a fun bet to make just
for giggles…16 points was all Bama would score.
And Clemson could have put
more points on the board at the end. I
believe that Swinney took his foot off the gas knowing that this might not be
the last time he has to face Satan in the CFP. And Clemson loses a lot on defense next
season, but will still be considered a favorite with Lawrence under center.
Anyway, all that being said,
is everyone happy with Clemson winning?
I know it’s a breath of fresh air, but again, it now seems the dynasty
has moved from the over-rated SEC to the over-rated ACC. It’s Clemson and everyone else at this
point. Lawrence is there for at
least 2 more seasons and the defense will be sound. Even though I do believe Bama and Georgia,
who both were completely embarrassed in their bowl games, will be back.
I heard and saw a lot of chatter
from folks that pointed to Satan’s high turn-over on his coaching staff. Apparently, Satan has had 20 coaching changes
and that’s viewed as “very bad” in Tide Fan World. Please remember that this is a coach who is
potentially one of the “Greatest Ever” BUT has now been beaten
twice by a former Tide Player in Swinney.
Strangely, there’s two sides that are CLEARLY DIVIDED in this fan
base. One side: NEVER DABO!
NEVER IN A MILLION YEARS!!! And, Yes,
there is a myriad of fans screaming for Satan’s head on a platter and
want the collective brain trust to go out and hire Swinney as the Tide’s next
head coach! Regardless of money. This has to happen NOW!
Don’t believe me? Here’s a link:
So, isn’t that fun? Isn’t that classic? Satan loses one game this season and his
seat will be hot due to the fact that it was a somewhat “favorite son” of Bama
that beat him. Such is life in
the coaching world. Some of the better
tweets out there:
So, that could be Michigan
fans moaning and groaning on a Tuesday morning in January and still talking
about, “Hey, we’ll always have hoops!”
And would it have been any more or less painful? I dunno.
I guess it would have meant that we beat THE STU and somehow also beat Bama in
the semi-final. Which would have been
seen as pretty successful, regardless of the NC outcome. In a weird way, watching Satan’s Warriors get
boat-raced and embarrassed was somewhat refreshing. I mean, it can happen to anyone.
Clemson was the better team
last night and everything went Clemson’s way.
Everything. So even take the 14-point
spot away and the Tide still loses by 14.
It was a Tiger night.
Mattison Leaves For THE STU
I sent out a link yesterday as
soon as I learned and heard that this was happening. Just a refresher of some of the details of
Mattison’s career:
- Worked
under
Lloyd Carr and was the DC up until 1997 when he bolted for the domers. Michigan would win the NC in 1997 behind the
defense that Mattison recruited and built up.
- Worked
at
Florida with the Urban Legend during the Championship runs. The two formed a “lifetime” bond while
working together and Florida arguably had some of their best defenses
ever during that run.
- Returned
to Michigan when Brady Hoke returned as the HC.
Many saw Mattison as the “Bigger Win” than Hoke was. I was one of those fans…
- Had
reportedly cleaned out his office when Harbaugh was hired, even though Jack
Harbaugh was the first to give Mattison a DC position at Western Michigan
- Ended
up staying at Michigan but took a demotion to DL coach and recruited arguably
some of the best talent that’s played at Michigan over the last 6-7 seasons at
the DL position.
- Is
going to be 70 and is starting a “New Chapter” as a “co-DC” at the STU.
So, how big of a deal is this
really? Well, it could be viewed as a huge
middle finger at Harbaugh and Michigan at an odd point in Mattison’s
career. I get where this would have made
a WHOLE LOT MORE SENSE when Harbaugh was first hired, but why now? That’s the question. I have a couple of theories and some of you
have sent me yours also. In short:
Don Brown and Mattison probably
had very “spirited” meetings regarding defensive schemes and man to man vs.
zone coverage. Michigan’s 1997 defense
played both man to man and zone really well.
The one thing 1997’s defense had was a blanket in Woodson
covering one half of the field. While
everyone saw and recognized DC Ron English as the “genius” of 1997,
everyone that knew anything realized that it was Mattison’s recruits and his
scheme that made the ’97 Defense legendary.
Currently, Brown
was getting a lot of praise and recognition for the Defensive success and Mattison
was sitting in the shadows but contributing more than anyone would recognize or
acknowledge him for. From
recruiting to game management, Mattison was being overlooked and it pissed him
off – or at least, that’s my guess.
I think a guy can only take so much
when he was “The Guy” for several seasons only to be the 2nd fiddle
to a guy that, really, when you look at how Michigan has been getting beat, is
very one-dimensional with his approach to Defense. Yep, Brown’s scheme works very well when it
works. But as soon as someone has the
tools to expose it, it breaks down fast.
And I’m guessing Mattison had ideas about how to not let the defense
get exposed but Brown wasn’t listening.
Anyway, what’s done is
done. Mattison is at THE STU and will be a thorn
in our side for at least a few seasons to come.
Let’s see what rabbit Harbaugh
can pull out of his hat to recover from this one.
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