Hungry for seconds?
Tigers will have to defy odds to successfully defend crown
The Associated Press has been crowning college football champions for more than 80 years, long before the College Football Playoff and its dumbass older cousin, the Bowl Championship Series joined the fray.
So before any semblance of a playoff, this rotating collection of college football newspaper writers was the sport’s primary arbiter.
That’s not to say they were the only arbiter. The United Press, the Football Writers Association of America, the National Football Foundation and the USA Today all had a hand in crowning national champions in the days before the BCS and CFP. But the AP is the most consistent way of looking at national champions dating back to the 1930s.
And in their eyes (or hands, if you rather), only 10 teams have managed to win back-to-back titles.
Three accomplished it by the end of the 1940s, and seven by the time Danny Ford and his Clemson Tigers won the program’s first national championship in 1981.
But in the 40 years since the Alabama Crimson Tide repeated in 1978 and 1979, only three programs have won back-to-back championships in the eyes of the Associated Press.
Put another way, reigning national champions are rocking a less-than-healthy 10-for-82 mark in defending their titles.
Such is the task facing Dabo Swinney’s Clemson Tigers in 2019, as they take on the challenge only managed by 1995 Nebraska, 2004 Southern Cal and 2012 Alabama by winning their second national championship in as many years.
What makes it so hard to repeat as a college football champion?
Heck, you could ask the question of all sports teams. Baseball hasn’t had a repeat champion since 2000 (the Yankees), while the NFL hasn’t since 2004 (the Patriots). Hockey had one in 2017 (the Penguins), but it was its first since 1998. Basketball and soccer — particularly in the world’s biggest leagues — are more prone to repeat champions, but rarely are college football teams afforded the same luxury of a recurring cast of superstars like those franchises enjoy.
Alas, that’s where Clemson would seem to have the advantage on a lot of college football’s championship defenders who failed — how many of those teams returned a high-powered offense essentially intact? How many had a Trevor Lawrence, a Travis Etienne, a Justyn Ross or a Tee Higgins, let alone all four?
It’s what separates the Tigers from a lot of those teams, including their predecessors of two years ago. While that Clemson team, fresh off the program’s second national title, returned many key elements from a star-powered defense, the Tigers had to replace its starting quarterback (Deshaun Watson), running back (Wayne Gallman), top two receivers (Mike Williams and Artavis Scott) and top tight end (Jordan Leggett). Kelly Bryant stepped into Watson’s shoes admirably and led the Tigers to the №1 seed in the College Football Playoff, but the offense’s limitations — particularly in the downfield passing game — were exposed by the SEC-West-runner-up, probably-didn’t-deserve-a-seat-at-the-table Alabama Crimson Tide in the semifinal.
So what are the most apt comparisons between this Clemson team and their defending champion predecessors?
To start, it’s easy to point to the Ohio State team that won the sport’s first playoff in 2014. The Buckeyes returned all three quarterbacks who started games in the year before (J.T. Barrett and Cardale Jones, plus now converted wide receiver Braxton Miller), plus future NFL stars in running back Ezekiel Elliot and wide receiver Michael Thomas. Urban Meyer’s team started 10–0 and faced very little opposition. In early November, the Buckeyes were still ranked №1 in the Associated Press poll — the last time a team not named Alabama or Clemson was ranked №1, for the record — but on a cold, rainy night in Columbus, Ohio, they were held to just 132 yards of offense and 14 points by №9 Michigan State, who kicked a last-second field goal to win 17–14 and leap-frogged the Buckeyes as the Big Ten’s CFP favorite.
They ran into a team who was hungrier.
The year before, it was Florida State who was trying to defend its crown. Sophomore Jameis Winston was still at the helm of the offense, along with top receiver Rashad Greene (finally finishing up his long tour of duty in Tallahassee) and tight end Nick O’Leary. While the Seminoles no longer had top running back Devonta Freeman, they did have freshman running back Dalvin Cook. But the same Seminoles who ran riot over the ACC a year prior couldn’t figure out how to pull away in defense of their crown. Time and time again, Jimbo Fisher’s men had to play the role of escape artists until their act ran out in the College Football Playoff semifinal, as a second-half barrage from Oregon sent the Ducks to their first ever national championship game in a 59–20 blowout.
They ran into a team who was hungrier.
Perhaps you’re starting to see a pattern develop.
2009 Florida had Tim Tebow going into his senior year with upstanding citizens Riley Cooper and Aaron Hernandez as receiving threats. But in the SEC Championship, Alabama knocked the Gators off their perch en route to the first title of the Nick Saban era.
2005 USC may be the best modern era comp for these Clemson Tigers with Matt Leinart, Reggie Bush, Lendale White, Dwayne Jarrett and Steve Smith going for what some could argue was a three-peat, albeit with a split-title making up the first of those titles. But in an epic Rose Bowl, Texas was willed to victory by the immortal Vince Young to win its first title in 35 years.
2002 Miami returned many elements from arguably the most talented college football team in history, but Ken Dorsey, Andre Johnson, Roscoe Parrish, Willis Magahee, Sean Taylor, Vince Wilfork and Antrel Rolle weren’t enough to overcome Ohio State (and an auspicious line judge) in the Fiesta Bowl, as the Buckeyes won their first title in 32 years.
They all ran into teams who were hungrier.
Hunger is the element that defending national champions seem to lack when the going gets tough and the season’s on the line.
When you delve deeper into those three teams mentioned earlier in the piece who repeated as champions over the past four decades, you see all three won their first championship under disputed terms. 1994 Nebraska and 2003 USC won split national titles, while many were skeptical of 2011 Alabama’s worthiness as a BCS candidate after losing to LSU earlier in the season and not winning their division — sound familiar?
In short, all three could still play the “everyone doubts us; prove them wrong” card that seems to work so well in college football.
It’s not exactly something that Clemson will be able to do easily this year, but if anyone could manage to conjure up an “everyone doubts us” narrative out of being the defending national champion with more firepower at its disposal than most countries, it’s Dabo Swinney.
And at the end of the day, Clemson will be more talented than any team it plays before the College Football Playoff. Talented enough to give them another shot at the sport’s greatest prize.
But there they will run into a very talented team not carrying the weight of last year’s trophy on their back. Instead, the other team will be playing with a diamond-crusted void in their stomach.
It’s up to the Tigers to be hungrier for a second title than the other team will be for a first.
Odds suggest they have a 10-in-82 shot.
But if there is anything that the Swinney era at Clemson can be summarized as, it’s that the odds are there to be defied.
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Robbie Tinsley is an award-winning columnist from his time as the sports editor of The Journal in Seneca, S.C. He now works on a freelance basis from his home in Massachusetts. For compliments, he can be reached either via Twitter @RTinMan13 or email robtinsley13@gmail.com. Any complaints can be directed to esprott@upstatetoday.com.
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