HOW OREGON DUCKS SAVED COLLEGE FOOTBALL FOR ALABAMA

“It’s called temp. The faster you line up and play, the more chances you have to score, Nick.” Chip and Nick in 2013. via klear.com

Alabama takes CFP Championship 45-40 over Clemson with TEMPO.

By now alert college football fans understand tempo is code for Oregon in the Chip Kelly era.

It wasn’t a travel accident that Kelly dropped in on the Crimson Tide last week.

The coach now being called ‘toxic’ by NFL experts offered some tempo advice to Nick Saban?

If he did, it worked.

Hard as it was watching the Ducks fly into a second half wall in the Alamo Bowl, it’s still rewarding to see how they changed the game.

Where did Alabama go right? Tempo.

How did Clemson keep up? Tempo.

A team’s ability to get plays off in quick succession blurs the line between winning and losing.

Last night’s title game would have been different if Alabama didn’t adapt, or didn’t have a quarterback willing to speed things up.

If all things were equal, Clemson would have had it’s forty with their version of Marcus Mariota in Deshaun Watson.

Without tempo, Alabama wouldn’t be celebrating their win today.

Not so long ago Nick Saban worried that tempo was dangerous to college football players. Playing fast paced football would tire them out and make them more susceptible to injury.

Not to worry.

That was just Coach Saban protecting his turf until he understood his players could tire the other teams out the same way he worried about his guys.

The end result? Nick Saban is the King of College Football.

The real end result?

Fans don’t have to endure the God awful boring football games played for the purist, the sort of fans who want to see players run through walls when told to run through a wall.

No one wants to see that except fans of the winning teams of pound the ground, of three yards and cloud of whatever the stuff that comes off artificial turf. Black rubber chunks instead of dust.

Grass stains on Alabama white showed real grass, no dust, but run and block wasn’t the only game plan.

Neither was defense.

The true miracle of Alabama football is finding someone who throws the ball. The big guys up front will always be a staple of the SEC, but a passing quarterback taking them to the promised land?

Unheard of.

How does Alabama end up on top, or near the top, so often? Bleacher Report broke it down a few years ago.

And they do it all without NCAA sanctions.

Back when Oregon got on the title track they had a few problems with a ‘street agent/alleged lady’s man’ who the Ducks and others used for scouting Texas.

Coaches from NW colleges seem to have problems understanding the southern way of conduct. Washington State’s Mike Price didn’t get it, either, which isn’t to say his behavior role models for anyone.

Alabama ditched him faster than a Notre Dame coach with a bad resume. Well, not quite that fast.

Price lasted five months, George O’Leary five days.

Tempo can change the fate of great teams. Without it, Alabama might be the second best team in the land. Instead, they turned the corner at History and Dynasty.

Nick Saban showed coaching greatness by hiring assistants and coordinators others might shy away from.

He allowed the new owner of the Toxic Crown, Chip Kelly, into his inner circle.

Will Dabo Swinney do the same next year?

If a visit from the former Oregon Duck coach means the difference between winning it all with tempo, or losing the last game, Kelly ought to have an open invitation to every top football school to win the day.

The rest of us will benefit by watching a better brand of football.

Last night Alabama did it all and it was prettier than a Nick Saban smile.