What happens next will seem perfectly general to you. The excitement surrounding the last act of the school football season, whether you have a horse in the race or not, will surface as usual. There will be a sense of history. There will be a feeling of sadness, pride and appreciation. It will be euphoric and empty at the same time. All of this, in a way, will be deeply familiar to you.
The game that will take us to the off-season is full of intrigue and possibilities, but the fact that we’re here, in the ultimate game, is nothing less than a little miracle.
Before we dive into Alabama opposed to the state of Ohio, on Mac Jones instead of Justin Fields and Nick Saban instead of Ryan Day and DeVonta Smith opposed to world football, we’ll first have to go back to how it all happened.
We need to know exactly how we were delivered to this place. It wasn’t easy; this is not yet the case and we do not know how long the case will be another in many respects, but it was also familiar in a way that we did not expect.
The national championship will be played Monday night at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida. This will mark five months until the day Big Ten announced it’s his fall football season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Pac-12 followed suit. Uncertainty has increased. At the time, it looked like the season was running away. A national championship not even planned.
Players and coaches participated in the #WeAreUnited and #WeWantToPlay movement, which was largely intensified by Clemson’s quarterback Trevor Lawrence, who missed a game before reaching the end.
Seasons are delayed. Then the Big Ten returned, followed by the Pac-12.
And then they played. Or at least they tried. Many did so without fanatics, the cornerstone of a game usually imbued with pomp and emotion. Some played a show that looked a lot like a general season. Others were limited to a handful of games. This divergence, much less a topic of conversation now, follows us quite well until the conclusion of school football.
There have been postponements and cancellations. Lots of them. In total, more than 120 games were changed due to the pandemic. Even the national championship was not spared this speculation, with rumors of COVID-19 disruptions in ohio state raising considerations as to whether the game will continue as planned.
The players tested positive along the way. The games are lost. Coaches, adding the two who will walk on the sidelines on Monday night, screamed on their TVs and from home after their own positive tests.
The playoffs made a decision a few days before Christmas. The Heisman Trophy was delivered through a video convention on a Tuesday night in January. It was a year we’ll never come back and we’ll never need to revive. A year of change, doubt, and worry.
And yet we are.
What happens next is familiar. And with Alabama and the state of Ohio, it could be football.
There are two elite neighborhoods with very other styles and courses.
Justin Fields began his career in Georgia as a 5-star rookie and finishes it at Ohio State, with a lot of interest in the NFL around his immense physical gifts, and with a chest box that possibly or possibly wouldn’t heal completely after the brutal blow he took (and played) opposed to Clemson.
Mac Jones never intended to be here. We didn’t expect him to start or play after succeeding Tua Tagovailoa last season when he got injured. 3-star QB on a football device that welcomes and shapes the five-star Jones’ Road to Fame is loud, unpleasant and welcome.
Two runners with very other physical and technical techniques.
Najee Harris weighs 230 pounds – a bowling game, a ballerina set; you can face a team’s most productive supporter or prevent its most productive defensive half. Whatever its functionality will be its last game in Alabama, Harris will leave a legacy left by few of the school’s offensive halfbacks. Given the festival and the festival that preceded it, that means something.
Trey Sermon is a football kite. He left Oklahoma for Ohio State this off-season to spend much of the year recovering. In the last two games, he has run for 524 yards. While the state of Ohio has discovered a new life, Sermon has noticed that his profile explodes. I came here at the right time, especially considering the unknowns surrounding Fields.
Two collections of Wideouts capable of resuming one at any time.
DeVonta Smith is a Heisman winner. An open receiver who has never been the biggest, fastest or highest discussed, a subject that has continued this season, will leave him as one of the top players decorated and celebrated in Alabama history and, as has been the case this season, the maximum is likely to blink one last time.
While the state of Ohio doesn’t necessarily have DeVonta Smith, and this year no one has, Chris Olave and Garrett Wilson aren’t absent, they’re very capable of having that kind of impact. Clemson saw this firsthand, it’s an exceptional duo.
Two head coaches on other issues in his life and not public.
Nick Saban came here ici. Il won this game six times. A seventh would only consolidate him as the greatest coach in the history of school football. While questions about his long career as a coach will continue to exist until the 69-year-old in Despite everything retiring, this doesn’t seem to be his last chance, it’s just another on a long list of championship moments.
His opponent, Ryan Day, is only 41. But youth and inexperience have yet to prevent a coach with a 23-1 record. Your bag of offensive material is very deep. And so Saban has to counter, it’s a completely different challenge.
That’s why we’re looking. Two elite coaches. Two Elite Offenses Two lists full of long-term NFL players. Two of the sport’s most important brands come together in a game that will advance the story.
To get here, the two groups played another number of games. Deviations, well documented, no longer matter. The controversy surrounding the playoffs and their participants has subsided. It has been resolved whether an open receiver can actually win the Heisman.
No more questions. Just a game and a result, but we know how much it took us to get here and we’re grateful for those who made it possible.
It will be the same, the same facet and the same sound, but we know better. We, as teams, players and coaches, have been in the game, but given all it took to get here, uncertainty will persist. to the end – Alabama-Ohio State is a suitable chapter par excellence.
For the first time in a long time, it feels good.
What heroic moment occupied the most sensitive place in our 2020 ranking?