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Hash marks and hashtags: College championship wrap up

By Andrew Walker | Posted 1/12/2017

That. Was. Epic.

That’s really the only reaction to one of the better national championship games in recent memory, as No. 1 Alabama and No. 2 Clemson battled it out Monday night at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.

And in a back-and-forth matchup that featured three lead changes alone in the fourth quarter, it was the Tigers that were able to dethrone Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide with a two-yard touchdown pass from Deshaun Watson to Hunter Renfrow with one second left on the clock, giving Clemson a 35-31 victory and the school’s first national title since 1981:

Afterwards, in predictable fashion, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney — who considered Monday night’s national championship “one of the greatest games of all time” — was just as inspiring as ever in his postgame comments to reporters, who asked if he would consider the outcome over mighty Alabama (14-1) as an upset.

After all, Clemson showed what it was made of last year in its 45-40 loss to Alabama in the 2015 national championship game, which was also one of the better title bouts in recent history.

"There was no upset tonight," Swinney told reporters early Tuesday morning. "That's the last thing I told them when we left the locker room. I said, `When we win the game tonight I don't want to hear one word about this being an upset. The only upset is going to be if we don't win the dadgum game."

The Tigers (14-1) wouldn’t have even been in the dadgum game if it weren’t for the performance of quarterback Deshaun Watson, who again shined against the top defense in the country.

Watson completed 36 of 56 passes for 420 yards and three touchdowns — with no interceptions — and also ran 21 times for 43 yards and another score, perhaps proving that while Louisville’s Lamar Jackson had an outstanding Heisman Trophy-winning season, there is no question which player was the best in college football in 2016.

Alabama’s defenders certainly noticed it.

"Unfazed. The guy is remarkable, man," Alabama defensive end Tim Williams said, via ESPN.com. "He's a great player. He is Clemson. Everybody follows behind him. We tried to knock him down a couple times, get in his head. An awesome athlete like that, you just have to take what he gives you."

Watson was no better than in the final 2:07 of the game, after Alabama freshman quarterback Jalen Hurts broke free for a 30-yard touchdown run to give the Crimson Tide a 31-28 lead.

“Let’s go be great,” Watson told his offense as it took the field for its final drive, which the junior quarterback said he hoped would be reminiscent of the one led by Vince Young in Texans’ last-second win over heavily favored USC in the 2005 title game.

Watson on the final drive completed five of his first six passes, including completions of 24 yards (to Mike Williams) and 17 yards (to Jordan Leggett) to get to the Alabama 9-yard line with 14 seconds left.

After a timeout and two plays later, a huge pass interference call on the Crimson Tide set up the Tigers with a first-and-goal at the 2. In the game’s final seconds, Clemson called a pick play to get Renfrow — who came to the program as a walk-on — free, and he hung on to Watson’s pass in the end zone and calmly flipped the ball to the referee before being mobbed by his teammates.

“It’s just special,” Watson said of the title. “That’s how we wanted to end it.”

Swinney, of course, gave his leader a huge hug when the clock struck zeroes.

“I said, 'I love you,'" Swinney told Watson. "I said, 'Man, this is what you came here to do, and so proud of you. We did it. We did it.'"

On the other sideline was Saban, who came into the game with a 4-0 record in national championship games. He would see his team not only give up a 14-7 halftime lead (the Crimson tide were 106-6 when leading at the half under Saban), but lost for the first time under Saban in 97 games when entering the fourth quarter with a double-digit lead.

After the game, Saban, as usual, didn’t make excuses for the loss. But he also was sure not to tear down his team.

“As I said before, one game does not define a team,” Saban said. “I think our team demonstrated time and time again that we were winners.”

Purple reign

End North Dakota State’s five-year national title run? Check.

Become the best team in school history? Check.

In a two-game span, James Madison was able to accomplish both of those huge tasks, as the Dukes captured their second FCS national championship on Saturday with their 28-14 victory over Youngstown State in front of 14,423 fans at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas:

To even get to Saturday’s title game, JMU (14-1) had a huge roadblock waiting for it in the semifinals, where the Dukes had to take on five-time defending champion North Dakota State — in Fargo, N.D. no less.

But James Madison scored first in that game, and didn’t look back from there, holding the Bison to a season-low 132 rushing yards and leaving the Fargodome with a 27-17 victory.

Saturday’s game against the Penguins (12-4) was just as dominant. A blocked punt led to a 14-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Bryan Schor to tight end Jonathan Kloosterman to open the scoring for the Dukes, and it was smooth sailing from there.

Schor would completed just 7 of 12 passes for 112 yards, but had two touchdowns in the air, and the Dukes had 101 yards rushing and two touchdowns from running back Khalid Abdullah to give them plenty on offense. Defensively, JMU picked off Penguins quarterback Hunter Wells once, sacked him another five times, and held Youngstown State to just 21 yards rushing to shut the door.

What a performance by the Dukes and first-year head coach Mike Houston.

"This team won (a school record) 14 games this year," Houston said. "They went undefeated in CAA play. They beat North Dakota State at North Dakota State. They won a national championship on a big stage. I think they go as the best team in JMU history — hands down."

Accordingly, it was raining sports drink in Texas on Saturday:

Bearcats dominate

Twice certainly feels nice for Northwest Missouri State.

The Bearcats on Dec. 17 dominated North Alabama, 29-3, to claim their second straight NCAA Division II national title, sending out head coach Adam Dorrel — who has since been named the new head coach at Abilene Christian University — as a winner once again.

Against North Alabama — in heavy snow and a sub-zero wind chill, no less — it was junior Randy Schmidt who stepped into the spotlight, as he ran for a game-best 96 yards and also completed five passes, one of which was responsible for the game’s first touchdown, while also hauling in two passes for 25 yards to lead the way for the Bearcats. His effort on the day included this impressive one-handed catch:

"This was something we have never played in before so it took a little while to get used to," Schmidt said, via the team’s website. "After a while, we did a good job keeping our footing. We did a good job from there."

UNA (11-2) got a 21-yard field goal with four seconds left in the second quarter to cut the Bearcats’ lead to 7-3, but a Phil Jackson two-yard touchdown run with about six minutes left in the third quarter effectively put the game out of reach.

Northwest Missouri State (15-0) would score three more times from there — once via safety — to claim the title.

"I am not sure where to start," Dorrel said. "I think the last two weeks have been monumental wins in the history of Northwest Missouri State … I thought our kids were resilient in all three phases. I thought we played to win today."

The game wraps up a very impressive showing by Northwest Missouri State’s senior class, which finished 55-2 in four seasons and experienced three national championships.

Now, the next chapter in school history begins with new head coach Rich Wright, who had been on the team’s coaching staff since 2004 and served as defensive coordinator and assistant head coach the past six seasons.

A first for the Crusaders

It certainly wasn’t pretty, but national titles aren’t typically judged on style points.

Mary Hardin-Baylor used 10 second-half points — and a dominating second half overall — to defeat UW-Oshkosh, 10-7, on Dec. 16 to capture the Division III national title in Salem, Va. — the school’s first-ever football championship — in the 44th Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl:

For Mary Hardin-Baylor head coach Pete Fredenburg, the title is the culmination of 19 years of hard work, after he built the program from the ground up in 1997.

“It is so gratifying. It’s just incredible to finally accomplish what we’ve been so close to accomplishing,” Fredenburg said, via the Killeen Daily Herald. “I’m sure people had wonders if we were ever going to be able to do it, but we just knew we were going to. Now we did it.”

After both teams' defenses took over in the second half, UW-Oshkosh (13-2) looked poised to finally put together a game-tying — or possibly game-winning — drive late in the fourth quarter.

The Titans reached the UMHB 35-yard line with 40 seconds left — thanks in large part to two defensive penalties that gave them 30 more yards — but quarterback Brett Kasper was unable to complete a pass on four straight attempts, the last of which was picked off by Matt Cody, giving his team the title.

“Give all the credit to the Mary Hardin-Baylor defense,” UW-Oshkosh head coach Pat Cerroni said. “They’re the best defense in the country. There’s no doubt in my mind.”

UMHB senior quarterback Blake Jackson took home the game’s Most Outstanding Player honors, as he completed 16 of 27 passes for 171 yards and showed off his versatility by running 28 times for 199 yards and what turned out to be the game-winning touchdown late in the second quarter.

Defensively, the Crusaders limited 1,000-yard rusher Dylan Hecker to just 29 yards on 13 carries, and sacked Kasper three times and intercepted two of his passes.

U.S. National Team alumni spotlight

Each week at Hash Marks and Hashtags, we’ll put the spotlight on an alum of the U.S. National Team.

This week’s spotlight is on James Madison University redshirt junior wide receiver Ishmael Hyman, a member of the U.S. team in 2013.

Hyman in 2016 played in nine games and totaled five receptions for 75 yards for the FCS national champion Dukes, who defeated Youngstown State, 28-14, in the title game.

Hyman saved perhaps his biggest play of the season for the biggest stage, as he made a 34-yard reception in the FCS semifinal against then-five-time defending champion North Dakota State. James Madison would end up defeating the Bison — at their place — 27-17.

In his career, Hyman — who missed the first four games in 2016 due to injury — has caught 43 passes for 653 yards and seven touchdowns.

Best of luck to Hyman and all of the U.S. National Team alumni in the future.

Notable quotables:

• "Eight years ago we set out to put Clemson back on top. We came up a little short last year, but today on top of the mountain, the Clemson flag is flying." — Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney, whose Tigers avenged last year’s loss to Alabama in the title game to defeat the Crimson Tide, 35-31, in this year’s title game.

• “Look, there's not one play in the game that makes a difference in a game. We could have done a lot of things a lot better." — Alabama head coach Nick Saban, whose streak of wins in four straight national title games was snapped with the Crimson Tide’s loss to Clemson on Monday.

• “When we got here, that was probably the weakest part of the program. And to see them come in here today and win the national championship, it just makes all the hard work worth it. I’m so proud of that group.” — James Madison head coach Mike Houston on the play of his defense after the Dukes’ 28-14 victory over Youngstown State in the FCS national nhampionship game.

• “The life lessons you learn playing for Coach Dorrel, doing the little things. Going that extra yard for your teammates. He instills that selflessness into the players. I think that helps us really bond and sets us up for success in the future.” — Northwest Missouri State wide receiver Jordan Grove on head coach Adam Dorrel, who led the Bearcats to their second straight NCAA Division III national championship last month. Dorrel has since accepted the head job at Abilene Christian University.

• “I am just flying and still enjoying myself so much. The way our team dedicated themselves to this season and developed their leadership to get us to the point where we could accomplish our goal was amazing.” — Mary Hardin-Baylor head coach Pete Fredenburg, on his team’s 10-7 victory last month over Wisconsin-Oshkosh which gave UMHB its first-ever NCAA Division III national title.

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