Throwback Thursday: Alabama vs. Georgia in the 2017 national title game

Sports Illustrated went with "Fresh Heir" on the cover, with a big photo of Tua Tagovailoa.

Inside, the January 15, 2018 edition, the story had the headline: "It Takes Tua."

A bold coaching decision. A furious second-half comeback led by a true freshman. A stunning missed field goal. A miracle overtime TD pass. The Crimson Tide had to dig deeper than usual to beat Georgia and win Nick Saban's record-tying sixth national title.

Yeah, there was a lot about the 2017 national championship (which is also called the 2018 College Football Playoff title game). SI writer Andy Staples offered the following:

"He held his headset in his hands, and if he hadn't needed it, he might have thrown it all the way from Atlanta to Tuscaloosa. Alabama coach Nick Saban had put the ball in the hands of a backup true freshman quarterback (by choice). That quarterback was protected by a true freshman left tackle (by necessity). Now, down three in overtime of the national title game, those two had produced a disaster.

"Tackle Alex Leatherwood had replaced injured starter Jonah Williams in the third quarter. Leatherwood had played well until Alabama's first offensive snap of overtime, when he let Georgia linebacker Davin Bellamy slip past. Bellamy chased Crimson Tide quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, who had replaced starter Jalen Hurts to start the second half, backward. Bellamy dived and missed, but teammate Jonathan Ledbetter joined the pursuit. Tagovailoa kept backpedaling. Tagovailoa scrambled the wrong way so long that Bellamy had time to get up, chase again and sack him for a 16-yard loss.

"But the great thing about freshmen is, they don't know what they don't know, and Tagovailoa didn't seem to grasp that the sack was supposed to doom his team."

Since then we've learned that Saban was furious at Tagovailoa for taking the sack, but it obviously didn't last.

One of my favorite stories about Coach #NickSaban is this one from #MiamiDolphins and #Alabama National Championship QB #TuaTagovailoa about the legendary “2nd and 26th” play versus Georgia. Coach Saban was really mad! Watch this … @Tua

pic.twitter.com/yHoeNZcn9g
— Stephen Simpson ProperGander (@BamaStephen) November 18, 2021

The thing about the 2017 title game is one really has to go back and watch it to fully grasp and understand what Alabama pulled off in the heart of Bulldogs territory, Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.

After a horrendous first half, in which the offense managed just 21 passing yards and no points, Nick Saban pretty much turned his team over to his freshmen and asked them to win the championship for the Crimson Tide.

As incredible and improbable as that sounds, they did.

It was more than Tagovailoa at quarterback, who sparked the passing game after the sophomore Hurts was pulled. Wide receiver DeVonta Smith caught the winning touchdown in overtime. Running back Najee Harris led the ground attack and Leatherwood was at left tackle after sophomore starter Jonah Williams left the game with an injury.

There was also a missed field goal at the end of regulation, plus Tagovailoa making a poor decision to be sacked on Alabama’s first play in the extra frame. On the subsequent snap, with Georgia fans once again liking their chances on second-and-26, the quarterback threw a 41-yard touchdown strike down the left sideline to ignite the pandemonium by the Crimson Tide.

The whirlwind finally stopped with Alabama celebrating the extraordinary 26-23 victory. It even included a postgame marriage proposal by senior center Bradley Bozeman (she said yes).

Lost in the excitement was Saban winning his sixth national championship, fifth over the previous nine seasons at Alabama. He tied Paul W. “Bear” Bryant for the most ever, but three by the legend were considered spilt titles including the controversial 1973 title when the coaches’ poll named the Crimson Tide No. 1 before it lost to Notre Dame.

Additionally, there was no longer any doubt that Alabama was still adding to the greatest run college football had ever seen. Miami (1983-92) and Notre Dame (1941-50) could both claim four titles over a 10-year period, but neither was able to maintain it, or stay on top with this kind of consistency.

“This is not something that is just about me, and I think Coach Bryant is probably the best coach of all time because of the longevity of his tenure as a coach and the way he changed,” Saban said the morning after the game, following little sleep. “I mean, he won championships running the wishbone. He won them with Joe Namath dropping back throwing when people never, ever did it. I just think that, for his time, he impacted the game and had more success than anybody ever could.”

Yet in terms of on-field success, Saban had clearly overtaken the legend. This kind of thing wasn’t supposed to be possible any more, especially with the 85-man scholarship limit (which has only been in effect since the 1994 season) and the NCAA continually trying to level the playing field.

“There’s a lot of conversation out there,” said Phil Savage, former executive director of the Senior Bowl and analyst on Crimson Tide radio broadcasts. “The old-guard Alabama fans will always revere what Coach Bryant did. The modern-era Alabama will always revere what Coach Saban has done. But from a national perspective, people will always relate to numbers.”

That’s not to say that Saban’s rise had come at the expense of Bryant’s status. It didn’t. The 2017 season might have been his best coaching job yet, especially considering all the injuries the team endured, but the Bear was still the Bear in the annals of college football.

There also wasn’t a changing of the guard in Atlanta either, as Saban remained undefeated against his previous assistants. With the win against his former defensive coordinator Kirby Smart he improved to 12-0.

When asked beforehand if an Alabama win changed Saban’s legacy in any way, ESPN announcer and Crimson Tide graduate Rece Davis said, “I don’t think it does at all — unless you’re one of the people who is into counting championships. In my judgment, the situation is that he is already the greatest college football coach who ever lived, but when I say that, you’re splitting eyelashes.”

Similarly, the expectation level didn’t change. That’s not just a Saban thing, but an Alabama staple.

“Alabama, we just don’t think like that,” former All-Pro running back Shaun Alexander said. “However you want to label us, this is what Alabama is. We are the home of champions. We don’t care if you call it a dynasty.

“If another team gets hot. If Miami goes on a run for a couple of years, or Clemson goes on a run for a couple of years, we’re going to fix ourselves and then you’ll see us again. That’s what we expect. We expect to be around every decade.”

Regardless, the only way college football fans might enjoy anything like five titles over nine years is if Saban kept adding to his ring collection. One has to look at other sports for comparisons because there just weren’t any in college football.

His domination had been unique in other ways as well. For example, after the 2017 season the list of active coaches who could claim to have a win against Saban was down to Kirk Ferentz, Gus Malzahn, Urban Meyer, Mark Richt, Dabo Swinney and Kyle Whittingham.

Saban had only lost only nine games to conference opponents since 2008, which was even more impressive when you factor in most of those years were during what former commissioner Mike Slive called the golden years of the league.

It was the SEC’s 10thnational title since 2003, with no other conference having more than two. Moreover, Alabama was arguably two plays away, against Clemson and the Kick Six game in 2013, from having two more titles.

“It’s obviously an incredible legacy of achievement,” said SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, who added about the all-conference title game: “A rising tide lifts all ships, and those ships are all reloading.”

So was Alabama. But Saban and Co. were also going to take a little time to enjoy this one.

“This is amazing,” exhausted linebacker Rashaan Evans said while slumped in front of this locker. “We went through so much.”

“They said we weren’t supposed to be here,” running back Damien Harris yelled. “Now look.”

That was after Harris had shed a few tears on the field only to later run out of the locker room yelling to reporters, “I love you. I love all of you. Thank you!”

Saban may have summed it up best, though, when he told ESPN during his postgame interview: “I’m the happiest I’ve ever been in my life."