On January 13th, Clemson faced off against LSU in the College Football Playoff National Championship. Clemson started the game off strong by forcing Joe Burrow and the historically great LSU offense to a few quick three-and-outs before Burrow adjusted and dominated the rest of the game. LSU won the game 42-25 behind Burrow’s six touchdowns and 463 yards passing. While Burrow dominated the headlines all season, there were plenty of wildly intriguing teams and individual performances throughout the year.
Ohio State’s defensive end Chase Young put together one of the most dominant individual defensive seasons of all time: racking up sixteen and a half sacks, thirty-two solo tackles, and most impressively forcing six fumbles. In any season not including Joe Burrow, Chase Young certainly would have been the first defensive player to win the Heisman trophy since Desmond Howard did it back in 1991.
Alabama, the perennial superteam of college football, experienced a down year, due in part to superstar quarterback Tua Tagovailoa’s scary hip injury in the middle of the season that derailed the Tide’s ambitions. Alabama went on to lose to both LSU and Auburn without Tua in the lineup. The SEC championship game that produced the eventual national champion was played between LSU and the University of Georgia Bulldogs, who were without four of their starting five wide receivers. Their superstar running back D'andre Swift also received limited touches due to an injury of his own.
Needless to say, LSU smacked Georgia up and down the field, winning 37-10 and guaranteeing a spot in the College Football Playoff. The bottom line of this season is how much wildly better LSU was than everybody else, and how transcendent of a player Joe Burrow truly is. It will be interesting to see if he can be successful in the NFl, especially because it looks like he’ll end up with the 2-14 Cincinnati Bengals.