Alabama vs. Clemson 2016: Comments, Reaction After College Football Championship

After a forgettable bowl season, fans were treated to a show in the national championship game as the Alabama Crimson Tide held on for a 45-40 win over the Clemson Tigers.

The matchup featured just about everything you would want to see in a title game. There were heroic performances on both sides of the ball, huge plays that will be remembered forever and two teams that simply wouldn't quit. Although the favorite came out as the winner, there were twists and turns throughout with the outcome not decided until the final moments.

Jason Whitlock of Fox Sports 1 might have been the most excited in describing the game:

The win for Alabama continues a dynasty in Tuscaloosa, giving the school four national titles in seven years. Head coach Nick Saban also has a title with LSU, totaling five in 11 years for the historically good coach.

"I think this is the most impressive run of the modern era," former Florida State coach Bobby Bowden said, per Pete Thamel of Sports Illustrated. "I think it all goes back to Saban. He’s the most complete football coach in the nation today, and maybe ever."

Considering how many wins Bowden had in his career, this is pretty high praise for Saban.

Although the current Alabama coach remains behind Bear Bryant with six national championships, you could argue what Saban has done is even more impressive in this era of parity. ESPN's Mike Greenberg didn't hold back in his assessment of the coach:

Pretty much every NFL fan wants him to leave to coach for his or her team, but it seems much more likely he will close out his career doing what he does best: leading college teams to championships.

He was proud of the effort displayed from the current group in overcome obstacles from earlier in the year:

It certainly didn't seem like the Tide were winning a championship after a home loss to Ole Miss in September, but improvement is one of the keys in any sport. One man who showed this off more than anyone was O.J. Howard, who was the star of the day for Alabama.

Although Howard came to Tuscaloosa as one of the top recruits in the nation, the tight end hadn't been used much in his first three years. He had 394 receiving yards coming into the game but blew that away with five catches for 208 yards and two touchdowns in the win over Clemson.

Outside linebacker Tim Williams—who also finds a way to put up big numbers despite little playing time—provided his thoughts on Howard after the game, per Matt Zenitz of AL.com:

"

They didn't have no answer for him. O.J. only caught the ball like six times before this game, so we knew they didn't have any film on him really ballin' and stuff like that. It's a mastermind, our offensive coordinator, Lane Kiffin. He knows that the team didn't even game plan for O.J., and O.J. had five receptions for 208 yards. That's crazy. That's crazy.

"

Saban joked after the game that it was all part of the play, per Stewart Mandel of Fox Sports:

Howard wasn't the only star to show up Monday night. Heisman Trophy winner Derrick Henry somehow had a "quiet" 158 rushing yards and three touchdowns, including a 50-yard scamper into the end zone early in the game. 

Dave Pasch of ESPN was impressed watching the big man run in the first half:

Quarterback Jake Coker also finished with solid numbers after a poor start to the game, totaling 335 passing yards and two touchdowns in the win. As ESPN's Stephen A. Smith noted, he also had some clutch plays to help the team win:

Despite all the numbers from Alabama's players, they were all arguably overshadowed by the performance of Heisman runner-up Deshaun Watson, who had himself quite a day in a losing effort.

The Clemson quarterback finished with 405 passing yards, four touchdowns and just one interception to go with 73 rushing yards all against an elite defense. One of ESPN's broadcasts showed head coaches in a film room discussing the game, and no one had a legitimate answer for how to stop Watson, according to Chris Burke of Sports Illustrated:

Former Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow praised Watson despite the loss:

On the plus side for the Tigers, Watson is only a true sophomore and likely to return to school for at least one more year. This certainly gives head coach Dabo Swinney confidence in coming back to this point, per Sports Illustrated:

"

There’s no doubt that we will be back. It won’t be 34 years before we’re going to be back, I promise you that. ... Our team is built to sustain success. We’ve got the right ingredients from a toughness standpoint, talent standpoint, and then just, again, the will to win and the culture that we have in our program.

"

The scary thing is when Watson asked where he can improve, he responded, "Just my whole game," per Ted Miller of ESPN. You can imagine just about every FBS coach shivering at the thought of a quarterback of this ability getting better.

With all the comments and reaction from this game, there were still some great moments where no words were needed, like this hug between Henry and Watson after the game:

Two top competitors putting it all on the line for 60 minutes before having nothing but pure respect afterwards is really what sports are all about. The only hope is that every other title game in the future can match the battle Alabama and Clemson provided.

Follow Rob Goldberg on Twitter for year-round sports analysis.