Dabo & Clemson climb the proverbial mountaintop

After losing to Alabama last year, Dabo Swinney vowed to the Tiger faithful that although it took them 35 years to get back in a championship game, it would not take them 35 years to get back on the big stage - and he delivered.

Not only did he deliver, but along the way to getting to the championship game he knocked down college football titans along the way. When Clemson promoted the former Alabama walk-on wide receiver to the interim head coach, not much was expected of him.

For the majority of his coaching tenure he's been labeled a cheerleader-type and unable to win the big game. In his career, he's beaten the only four coaches currently in college football with championship rings - Nick Saban, Les Miles, Bob Stoops and Urban Meyer. In this season alone, the Tigers beat the four teams that are responsible for the last seven national championships - Alabama, Florida State, Ohio State and Auburn.

With his Heisman-snubbed playmaking quarterback, Deshaun Watson, Swinney took down the titans of college football to prove his program belongs among the elite.

"Deshaun Watson didn't lose out on the Heisman, the Heisman lost out on him" - Dabo Swinney, post-game

On theSKINNY (which you can easily subscribe to by emailing sports.skinny.atl@gmail.com), I predicted that "Deshaun Watson wins the MVP of the game and gets the crowning achievement that he felt scorned of at the Heisman Ceremony," and he certainly did. I think Alabama looked invincible against fraudulent SEC opponents this year, and showed signs of exposure.

In the first half it didn't look good for Clemson but as the game went on, and Bo Scarbrough left with an injury, Clemson found holes in Alabama armor.

The 21-point fourth quarter was an unbelievable effort against a team that hadn't trailed in the fourth quarter all season. Watson's 9/10 passing for 102 yards on the last two drives was what it took to give Saban his first championship game loss.

Congrats to Clemson on the championship they've longed for, becoming the first team since 1999's Florida State to win a championship after losing a championship.

PS - I saw this on twitter last night and the parallel's with this game and the 2006 game are absurd.