By RALPH D. RUSSO By RALPH D. RUSSO ADVERTISING AP College Football Writer MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Alabama romped to its second consecutive BCS championship, and third in four seasons, beating No. 1 Notre Dame 42-14 in a BCS championship
By RALPH D. RUSSO
AP College Football Writer
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Alabama romped to its second consecutive BCS championship, and third in four seasons, beating No. 1 Notre Dame 42-14 in a BCS championship game that was no classic after all.
AJ McCarron threw four touchdown passes and Eddie Lacy ran for 140 yards and scored twice for the second-ranked Crimson Tide, which scored on its first three drives and cruised to the second-most lopsided BCS championship game victory Monday night.
Alabama (13-1) became the third team to win three national titles in four seasons since polls started being used to crown champions in 1936, and the first since Nebraska from 1994-97.
Tide coach Nick Saban now has won four national championships. Only Alabama’s Paul “Bear” Bryant, with six, has more.
The Fighting Irish (12-1) didn’t score until they were down 35-0 late in the third quarter.
In a matchup of tradition-rich programs tied for the most AP national championships with eight, Notre Dame was looking for its first national championship in 24 years. The Crimson Tide got its ninth.
The Crimson Tide marched with ease on the opening drive, going 82 yards on five plays to take a 7-0 lead on Lacy’s 20-yard touchdown run up the middle with 12:03 left in the first quarter.
Notre Dame (12-0) had allowed only two rushing touchdowns in its surprising run to the championship game. The Fighting Irish were the first team to reach the BCS championship game after starting the season unranked. They were trying to become the first team to go from unranked to national champion since BYU in 1984.
Alabama quickly made the Fighting Irish look as if they were in over their heads.
Notre Dame did nothing to respond to Alabama’s opening march, and on its punt back, the Crimson Tide might have caught a break. Returner Christion Jones muffed the kick, but Notre Dame was flagged for interfering with the catch, though it was one of Jones’ teammates that made contact with him.
Lacy and the Crimson Tide went right back to work, hammering away at Notre Dame’s vaunted defense. The Irish struggled to bring down the 220-pound tailback, who even ran through Heisman Trophy finalist Manti Te’o on a screen pass.
In the second quarter, it was freshman T.J. Yeldon slipping through Te’o’s arms in the backfield on a third-down run and getting a first down.
Lacy set up Alabama’s second touchdown with another 20-yard run, this time to the Irish 2. Instead of running into a Notre Dame goal-line defense that has become known for goal-line stands, McCarron faked a handoff and found tight end Michael Williams all alone for the score and a 14-0 lead.
Alabama made it 3 for 3 on the next drive when Yeldon scored from a yard out on the first play of the second quarter.
The Alabama fans seemed outnumbered at Sun Life Stadium by Fighting Irish followers, pumped to see their team try to win its first national title in 24 years. But the folks in Crimson and houndstooth were making all the noise as the Tide rolled.
Lacy landed one more blow with 31 seconds left in the half. McCarron dumped off to Lacy, who spun off two tacklers, and went 11 yards to make it 28-0.
The Southeastern Conference, winners of the last six BCS championships, was storming toward seven in a row. Those familiar “S-E-C!” chants started early in this one.
The Fighting Irish started the third quarter with a promising drive that ended with another Alabama highlight.
HaHa Clinton-Dix made a sensational diving interception, grabbing a tipped pass and tapping his toe inches from the sideline. Alabama turned the game’s first turnover into another long scoring drive. McCarron capped this one with a 34-yard TD pass to freshman Amari Cooper, the longest TD pass the Irish have given up this season.
With the score 35-0 and some Fighting Irish fans in the stadium record crowd of 80,120, Notre Dame finally got on the board with 4:08 left in the third.
Everett Golson took an option keeper 2 yards for a touchdown to break a streak of 108 minutes, 7 seconds in which Alabama had not allowed a point in a BCS championship game, dating to the last 6 minutes of the fourth quarter of the 2009 title game against Texas at the Rose Bowl. Alabama had scored 69 straight points in that span.
Alabama had 529 yards. The Irish defense came in allowing 286 per game.
Golson, the redshirt freshman quarterback who coach Brian Kelly had nurtured through the season, was 21 for 36 for 270 yards.
