When talking about the decade and college football things can get tough. Players only get 3 or 4 years to show their talent (unless you're Donovan McNabb who was at Syracuse for what seemed like 8 years), so you can't have the normal discussion of guys who made it 10 years or even 5 years, you're basically looking for who had the best 1 or 2 seasons, and rarely a someone who dominated 3 seasons.
Even more fascinating is the head coach carousel, from my count there are 14 coaches who have been at their schools from 2010-2019, Nick Saban Alabama, Kirk Ferentz Iowa, Brian Kelly Notre Dame, Kyle Whittingham Utah, Gary Patterson TCU, Ken Niumatalolo Navy, Mike Gundy Oklahoma State, Mark Dantonio Michigan State, Troy Calhoun Air Force, Pat Fitzgerald Northwestern, Dabo Swinney Clemson, David Cutcliffe Duke, Rick Stockstill Middle Tennessee, Doc Holliday Marshall. Now that's a list, from the power 5 (which at the start of the decade was the power 6) the Pac-12 has 1 which Utah wasn't a part of in 2010, SEC has 1 DUH, ACC has 2, Big 12 has 2 and again TCU wasn't a part of the Big 12 in 2010, then finally the Big Ten checks in with 3, and man are they the 3 most boring dudes on this list, plus Notre Dame, of the 61 P5 teams 51 have had at least one coaching change and in some cases multiple changes. Four of the guys on the list have made the playoff, 2 of them have multiple National Titles. Just amazing.
The decade was maybe one of the busiest off the field decades in the game. It started in 2010 with the massive realignment, then another one in 2012. After that the NCAA decided to scrap the BCS format for crowning a National Champion and creating the Playoff that started in 2014. Conferences expanded, conferences retracted and some conferences disappeared from the football landscape (Big East). Now it's 2019, the Big Ten has 14 teams, the Big 12 has 10 teams, the Pac-10 became the Pac-12 and the ACC is Clemson and FCS schools. The playoff created an entire other discussion every year and I shared my thoughts on that a couple weeks ago.
It was a decade dominated by Alabama and Clemson (the last 5 years for Clemson). It also gave us some sweet new terms like "Grad transfer" and "the transfer portal." The grad transfer rule has grown on me, I remember hating it at first but it's fine. I think the NCAA is a few years from telling guys they get 5 years and 1 free transfer in their time. Let us also not forget the new Redshirt rule, where players can play 4 games in a season and not lose a redshirt.
Now I'm not going to make an All-Decade team, instead I'm just going to talk about some memorable moments and memorable players.
Moment #1: The Kick 6
In 2013 in the Iron Bowl, undefeated Alabama and 1 lost Auburn were tied when Alabama was trying to get into field goal range. The clock ran out, or so we thought, Nick Saban challenged the final play and got 1 second back on the clock. The Tide attempted a 57 yard field goal, Auburn put a guy in the end zone in case the kick was short. The kick was short and Chris Davis returned the kick 109 yards to the other end zone and shocked the Tide and winning the game for Auburn. With the win Auburn won the SEC West, eventually the SEC and made the BCS National Championship game where they lost to Florida State. For Alabama, they lost a shot at another Natty, and Saban was let down by another kicker. Find the play and watch it.
The Oklahoma QBs: Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray, Jalen Hurts
The last 5 years of Oklahoma football were dominated by 3 amazing QB's. 2 guys won the Heisman in 17 and 18 in Mayfield and Murray. Combined the 3 have taken the Sooners to 4 Playoffs, and even though Hurts has been there with Alabama his role at Oklahoma is much bigger. Plus, all three were transfers, Mayfield from Texas Tech, Murray from Texas A&M, and Hurts from Alabama. It's an incredible story and something that should be talked about more.
Moment #2: 2015 Michigan State vs Michigan
This play is up there with the greatest gaffes of football history. Leading by 2 with 10 seconds left, Michigan was facing a 4th down and 2 from the MSU 47. All they had to do was punt it deep and the game was essentially over. Instead all hell broke lose, on the snap the punter fumbled the ball and little known Michigan State player Jalen Watts-Jackson, scooped the ball up and ran 38 yards to a game winning touchdown, The camera cut to the Michigan fan with his hands on head and a look of utter disbelief. To add to the lore of the play, Watts-Jackson suffered a hip injury when scoring and was in terrible pain as his teammates mobbed him in the end zone and it took almost a minute for anyone to realize he was in an extreme amount of pain and needed medical attention.
The Alabama vs Clemson Saga:
Do you remember the term "Clemsoning?" It was used affectionately to describe Clemson football for most of my adult life, Clemson would rise up and get close only to be embarrassed in a big game or beat by a lesser team, it happened time and time again. The climax of "Clemsoning" happened in the 2012 Orange Bowl, where West Virginia crushed Clemson 70-33. Clemson was higher ranked and just pissed their pants. Then the later part of the decade happened and Dabo Swinney stopped the Clemsoning and started winning Championships. In the 6 playoffs Alabama or Clemson have been in, and they've played each other every time both have made the playoff (2015, 2016, and 2018 Finals and 2017 Semi-Finals). They are 2-2 when playing each other in those 4 match-ups, with each winning 2 National Titles. The fact Dabo is a former Alabama player just adds to the fire. Clemson started off as the baby face, but I think they are slowly becoming the other villain of college football. Obviously this fight is far from over and could continue until Nick Saban retires.
The Champions:
2010: Auburn defeated Oregon (BCS Championship Game)
2011: Alabama defeated LSU (BCS Championship Game)
2012: Alabama defeated Notre Dame (BCS Championship Game)
2013: Florida State defeated Auburn (BCS Championship Game)
2014: Ohio State defeated Oregon (CFP Championship)
2015: Alabama defeated Clemson (CFP Championship)
2016: Clemson defeated Alabama (CFP Championship)
2017: Alabama defeated Georgia (CFP Championship)
2018: Clemson defeated Alabama (CFP Championship)
2019: TBD, but probably LSU, right? or maybe Ohio State? I don't know, Clemson I guess?
Favorite Players: Instead of making an All American team and putting my foot in my mouth I'll just talk about of a few of my favorite guys to watch play.
Desmond King DB Iowa, Des is by far my favorite player of the decade. He got in the 2nd series of his true freshman series and played the rest of his 4 years. King could've left after 2015 when he won the Thorpe Award and was a Consensus All American, while leading Iowa to a 12-2 record. He plays the game beautifully, can cover almost anyone and was a sure tackler on the outside. Rarely did Des make a mistake at Iowa. He's in the NFL now with Chargers and is still doing big things.
Deshaun Watson QB Clemson, Watson was basically a 3 year starter at Clemson and lead them to the mountaintop after the 2016 season, winning the Natty. Watson was so fun to watch at Clemson, he made so many awesome throws and also moved his feet well. He ended his 3 year career with 10,000 yards passing and 1,900 yards rushing. He's playing for Houston in the NFL but don't tell Bears fans that.
Johnny Maziel QB Texas A&M, is Johnny Football the best college QB of the decade? That's a very loaded question, but I think he's in the conversation. In 2012 he became the first Freshman to ever win the Heisman Trophy, in 2013 he finished 5th in Heisman voting. What Johnny didn't get in stats, which he had a shitload of stats, he made up for in play making ability. The guy would just run around behind the line of scrimmage and wait for receivers to break open and then fire darts without looking it seemed. If Johnny wasn't the best QB of the decade he was certainly the most polarizing, you either loved the guy or hated him. He did eventually prove the haters right with his performance in professional football, but his college game was elite.
The decade was crazy, it started with 6 Power conferences, it ended with 5. It had scandals at some of the bluest of blue bloods, the Penn State news broke in 2012. There was so much change and evolution of the game and it's only going to continue into the 20's, when there will be another round of realignment and maybe a different system for how we watch and who pays for watching. Plus you never know when the next playoff expansion might happen. So go ahead look back, go on Youtube and watch John Football toy with Alabama, Jadaveon Clowney run over that Michigan RB, the Iowa Wave start, the kick six, the turnover chain (plus Paul Chryst saying "turnover chain my fucking ass)" and of course the Michigan kid with his hands on his head. It was a decade with so many highlights it would take me 3 more days to hit them all, let me know some of yours. Hit me up on twitter @derekbredeson or comment on the Facebook link.
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