Winners and Losers from 2019 CFB National Championship

Winners

Clemson Offense

I don't believe that many people saw this coming? I mean seriously, who in their mad mind would think that Clemson would put 31 points on Alabama in the first half? All the credit needs to get spread to the whole offense. I will start with the O-Line. They did a great job blocking all night, allowing zero sacks against a fantastic Alabama defense. The running game was solid, with RB Travis Etienne racking up 86 yards on only 14 carries and two touchdowns. But the real breakthrough was the in the air. Freshman QB Trevor Lawrence perhaps had his best game of his career, going 20/32, 347 yards and three TDs. The offensive line would give him two-to-three seconds, and that is all he would need. His vision and accuracy was out of this world, and the maturity for a true freshman was outstanding. Finally, the two WRs I thought had fantastic nights were Justyn Ross and Tee Higgins. Both were running great routes and had stellar grabs. The future of this offense is unreal, only if everyone that can actually stays.

Dabo Swinney

Dabo Swinney may have cemented his place in Clemson history. With the win, he became only the second current Div. 1 coach to have two National Championships. Ironically, the other current coach is none other than Nick Saban. Swinney has turned the whole university around since taking the interim head coaching job during the 2007-08 season. Ever since then, they have been bringing in quality recruits and coaches and have been successful ever since. Since taking the job, he is 116-30 with five conference championships. Dabo is obviously doing something right in Clemson, and he has no plan on slowing down. I would assume that he will be coaching for the distant future, and may have a legacy in the making for both him and Clemson as a whole.

College Football's livelihood

I know this winner is a little different, so let me explain my reasoning. Since 2009, Alabama has won five National Championships. Eventually, the non-Alabama fans are going to get sick of watching the Crimson Tide winning. But on Monday, they were absolutely embarrassed on the biggest stage in college football. This may be an end to a decade legacy, which I will dive into later in the article. It is perhaps a shift in the tide to the field, rather than the SEC. More and more teams are getting near Alabama's level of performance. More people will watch college football because it is not just Alabama killing everyone every season. Heck, maybe even next season Clemson and Alabama won't be the teams in the final. Just a thought.

Losers

Tua Tagovailoa

It was the wrong day to have an off day. I feel bad for sophomore QB Tua Tagovailoa, he didn't have his greatest performance. He did throw for 295 yards and 2 touchdowns, but also had two horrible interceptions and a QBR of only 21.5. It is not all his fault, his offensive line wasn't as great as is should've been. He was battling an injury throughout the game. But if he was hurting that bad, why did he even start the game? The Tide had Jalen Hurts on the bench, which was a factor late in the game when Tagovailoa was benched in the fourth quarter. Don't get me wrong, Tua will still be a possible top draft pick whenever he decides to declare, it just sucks that one of the worst games of his career was in the season finale.

Nick Saban

I know he perhaps is one of the best college football coaches of all-time, but some of those play calls were just awful. Come on Saban, you know not to do a fake field goal if the defense is already suspicious of it. In the second half, Alabama had three turnover on downs in the red-zone! Just take the field goals and try to gain some momentum back. I understand that they were down by a lot, but they still shouldn't be stupid. You have one of the best quarterbacks in college football playing for you, utilize him! I just don't know what to think of Saban. He needs to review his coaching staff and figure out what needs to change. They have one of the best recruiting classes coming in for next season, so they are definitely not out of next year's conversation.

Legacy?

This may be a stretch, but is the Crimson Tide legacy at risk? It is not like other years where they barely lost an important game, they got blasted out of the stadium all the way back to Tuscaloosa. It may be a turning point for the rest of the country for the better. But in the same sense it is a turn in the wrong direction for Alabama. Their future personnel wise is still fantastic, but was their overall momentum hurt? I am not going to go out and say that Alabama won't win the SEC next season or Nick Saban will be fired, but the chance of the dynasty have that amount of lasting power has been wounded. We will probably all forget about this in a month, and a year from now will be praising Saban for his greatness. Until then though, we will be criticizing him for three horrible fourth-down play calls.