Step aside, Nick Saban and Dabo Swinney.
Move over, Clelin Ferrell and Jonah Williams.
The national championship stage won’t belong to the two championship-winning coaches or consensus top-10 first-round linemen. It won’t necessarily even be about the two powerhouse programs meeting for the fourth straight year in the College Football Playoff and to decide the champion for the third time in that span.
It will be all about the hotshot young quarterbacks, Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa and Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence, the potential No. 1 picks in the 2020 and 2021 NFL drafts. A year ago, Tagovailoa lifted the Crimson Tide from a 13-point deficit to a thrilling overtime win over Georgia. Now, Lawrence will try to do the same for the Tigers and become the first true-freshman starting quarterback to lead his team to the title since Oklahoma’s Jamelle Holieway in 1985. But he will have to best Tagovailoa, the Heisman Trophy runner-up, for that to happen.
“Not only because they’re good quarterbacks but because they’re both going to be up against the best defenses in college football, it’s going to be so interesting,” Tony Pauline, draft analyst and publisher of draftanalysis.com, said in a phone interview. “You’re going to get to see them play against the type of talent they’re going to play against on Sundays.”
The 6-foot-5 Lawrence was the higher-rated prospect, the No. 1-overall recruit in the 2018 class, while the smaller Hawaiian-born Tagovailoa, a southpaw with a cannon for an arm, was the No. 1 dual-threat quarterback in 2017. They both have handled pressure exceptionally well. Tagovailoa followed up last year’s national championship with a phenomenal season, and Lawrence deftly dealt with a potentially locker-room-shattering quarterback controversy like a veteran. He expected eventually to take over.
“When he committed to me, no drama, nothing,” Swinney said. “He didn’t care who was here, didn’t care who was committed. He was confident in himself.”
The two quarterbacks, who have thrown a combined 68 touchdowns and eight interceptions this year, will be compared to one another in the years to come. They’ll be Heisman Trophy front-runners next year and could very well meet in the championship game a year from now, as well, considering the state of the two programs and the electric weapons at their disposal. Swinney and Saban aren’t going anywhere, not with quarterbacks like these around.
They gave us a mouth-watering sneak peak of what to expect Jan. 7 at Levi’s Stadium, each thriving in the playoff semifinals in easy victories that set up this clash of titans in California. Tagovailoa, showing no ill effects from minor left ankle surgery, was impressive, hitting on all but three of his 27 passing attempts for 318 yards and four scores in a comfortable 45-34 victory over Heisman Trophy winner Kyler Murray and Oklahoma. Lawrence was brilliant in a 30-3 blitzing of Notre Dame, completing 27-of-39 passes for 327 yards and three touchdowns.
“Trevor being Trevor,” Clemson wide receiver Tee Higgins said on the AT&T Stadium field Saturday night.
In many ways, the last time these two teams met, in the Sugar Bowl last year, set the stage for this meeting. Alabama overwhelmed Clemson 24-6, limiting the Tigers to 188 yards of offense in the playoff semifinal. Kelly Bryant had a fine season, but his limitations in the passing game were obvious then. After four games, Lawrence took over, and Bryant transferred. The next game, Clemson nearly fell to Syracuse, in part because Lawrence suffered a head injury in the first half. It hasn’t come close to losing since.
The 19-year-old Georgian freshman began to prove Swinney made the right choice against the Irish. It was his first real test, considering the woeful state of the ACC this year. If there remains any doubt, Lawrence can erase it Jan. 7.