GLENDALE, Ariz. — They had run the play before, time and time again, and it had failed. Over and over again, the ball had hit the ground or bounced out of bounds. It was not ready for Clemson or a stage this magnificent.
In fact, days before Nick Saban won his fifth national championship by a very un-Saban-like score of 45-40, he watched the play—appropriately named "pop kick"—flop one last time.
In Thursday's walkthrough, with Saban wanting to execute one more dry run, Marlon Humphrey let the football hit the ground.
"It was 50-50,"special teams coordinator Bobby Williams said, seeming completely at ease with those percentages as confetti danced around him after the game.