ESPN writer: Alabama ‘got their fannies kicked last year by a better football team’

Unlike his ESPN and SEC colleague, Paul Finebaum, SEC writer Chris Low said on the Sports Talk Radio Network Monday evening that Alabama “got their fannies kicked last year by a better football team” when he was asked about all the excuses Alabama fans and media have made since the Crimson Tide was beat, 44-16, by Clemson this past January in the College Football Playoff National Championship Game.

“Whether the Alabama people want to accept it or don’t accept it, they got their fannies kicked last year by a better football team,” Low said.

The ESPN writer, who has been covering the SEC for ESPN since 2007, understands the argument that an SEC schedule is tougher than an ACC schedule, but he believes that’s no excuse for what the Tigers were able to do to Alabama in last year’s title game.

“I think when you sit there and you line up who Alabama plays and who Clemson plays and you see the grind of the ACC week in and week out, it is not what it is in the SEC, but that is an excuse,” Low said. “The fact is you know that there is a playoff. You know when you get to the playoff that you have to be playing your best football. And that to me is what was so surprising about last year.

“Every other year, under Nick Saban, when Alabama got to that stage, they were ready to play. And they played their best football. Well, whether they did or didn’t, Clemson was a lot better, a lot more physical, better at quarterback. They just beat them.”

And Clemson is not going anywhere anytime soon, something Low acknowledge way back in the 2015 season when the Crimson Tide had to use trickery to beat Deshaun Watson and the Tigers in the national championship game that year.

“Dabo has built a program that is not going away,” he said. “I said that when they lost that great game to Alabama in the championship game. I said right after that game that this is a program that is going to be right there in the national limelight for a long time to come.”

Since then, Clemson has downed Alabama twice in the national championship game. Watson got his revenge a year after losing that great game in the 2016 CFP title game and then last year Trevor Lawrence and the Tigers’ offense shredded Saban’s proudful defense.

As for what Low thinks will play out this season.

“I think those two teams are clearly the two to beat again this year,” he said.

SportsTalk 7-1 with ESPN’s Chris Low https://t.co/PgaEnrB0nA — SportsTalk (@sportstalksc) July 2, 2019

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