The inches and yards that led to this College Football Playoff
— -- With all due respect to Ronald Reagan's George Gipp on his deathbed, Denzel Washington's Herman Boone at Gettysburg or even Robert Loggia's halftime talk with the Texas State Armadillos, Hollywood's greatest football speech was Al Pacino's in "Any Given Sunday."
"You find out life's this game of inches. So is football. Because in either game -- life or football -- the margin for error is so small. I mean, one half a step too late or too early and you don't quite make it. One half second too slow, too fast, and you don't quite catch it. The inches we need are everywhere around us. They're in every break of the game, every minute, every second. On this team we fight for that inch."
On Sunday afternoon, the College Football Playoff selection committee announced the four teams that will compete for the national championship: Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State and Washington. The season started with the 128 FBS squads, all hoping to make that final four. Those teams played a total of 837 games. Those contests produced more than 640,000 yards of offense. That translates to roughly 360 miles, almost precisely the distance between Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa and Clemson's Death Valley.
Yet somehow, the entire season came down to only a handful of key plays, the outcome of each determined by merely a few yards here and, yes, Mr. Pacino, a few inches there. Yet the sum of their tiny parts shaped the most unpredictable season of the still-young playoff era.
Week 1: Two inches
That's what LSU running back Leonard Fournette needed to be added to his vertical leap. With two minutes remaining, down 16-14 to Wisconsin, the Tigers' offense was finally waking up. Having just crossed midfield, they handed off to the preseason Heisman favorite, who busted off a run deep into Badgers territory, but when he tried to leapfrog a defender, he caught a helmet to his right leg just below the knee. He limped off the field and never returned. It was the first of a series of nagging hurts that would dog Fournette all season. LSU lost, and head coach Les Miles was walking the plank. Meanwhile, Wisconsin had a big cross-conference win that it -- and the entire Big Ten -- could, and would, hang their hats on all season.
Week 4: Ten fingers
The two hands of Arizona quarterback Brandon Dawkins weren't able to cleanly catch a fourth-down red zone shotgun snap against Washington at home in overtime. His bobble was just enough to cause a twinge of panic. That millisecond's difference in timing was just enough for the would-be tying TD pass play to break down into an overthrown dying quail pass that sailed over the head of the receiver. Washington survived 35-28 to keep its playoff hopes alive.
Week 5: 1? yards
In perhaps the best game of the season, Louisville's Lamar Jackson took Clemson's best shots and repeatedly returned serve. If he does win the Heisman Trophy on Saturday, this will be the game many point to ... but the Cardinals lost. With 13 seconds remaining in a six-point game, Jackson threw a strike to James Quick. It was fourth-and-12 at the Clemson 14-yard line. Quick, confused as to where the first-down marker was, stepped out of bounds at the 3. It was less than 2 yards too short. Clemson's playoff season continued, while Louisville's season took its first step toward eventually becoming derailed.
Week 7: 1 foot plus 5 feet, both to the right
Back to Death Valley, South Carolina: As the game clock zeroed out to end regulation, a would-be game-winning 33-yard field goal attempt by NC State kicker Kyle Bambard squirted just wide of the right upright. The Tigers won in OT 24-17. Meanwhile, at damp Camp Randall Stadium, also in OT, Ohio State's J.T. Barrett tossed a back-shoulder fade to Noah Brown, a ball that found its way past the outstretched fingers of two Wisconsin defenders and floated into the back-right corner to Brown. The Buckeyes won 30-23.
Week 8: Ten fingers, two inches, OK ... pretty much all of the above
Second-ranked Ohio State's magic ran out at Penn State. The Nittany Lions trailed 21-17 when a drive-stopping interception slipped through their fingers with 4:39 remaining. It turned out to be an accidental blessing. The resulting field goal attempt was blocked and returned for a touchdown. Penn State won 24-21. It was the first blemish on OSU's record but also the first spark of the question, "Can the Big Ten get more than one school into the playoff?"
Week 11: 1 yard
On fourth-and-1 at the Pittsburgh 35, Clemson ran a sweep with tailback Wayne Gallman. He was grabbed around the ankles by nose tackle Jeremiah Taleni and was dropped 1 yard short of the first down. Pitt took over on downs with 52 seconds remaining and drove 34 yards on six plays to kick the winning field goal as time expired.
Week 12: Two steps
After a touchdown pulled them to within 17-16 with 4:41 remaining, Michigan State Spartans head coach Mark Dantonio elected to go for two points in a bid to upset Ohio State, which had crawled back up to second in the rankings. Tyler O'Connor saw an open receiver at the goal line, but Jamal Lyles moved one step to his right as two defenders took opposite steps toward the inbounds pass and shared an interception. The game essentially ended there, as did Michigan State's chances to brighten an otherwise disappointing season.
Week 13: The Game, The Spot, The Inch
Hey, it's Ohio State again! In the second overtime period, on fourth-and-1, head coach Urban Meyer looked over his team's shaky day on special teams and elected not to attempt a game-tying field goal. Instead, Barrett ran a keeper that carried him to the edge of the white yard line he needed to reach. Did he make it? Did he not? The officials -- with help from the replay booth -- said he did. But the ruling is still being debated on either side of the Ohio-Michigan border. Last week a nuclear physicist at Wayne State told the Detroit Free Press that math and chemistry make it incredibly difficult for anyone to get that call right, humans or video cameras. Then again, he's also a Michigan grad.
Week 14: 1 foot forward, 1 arm left
On Saturday night, almost simultaneously, two conference championship games were determined by about 12 inches each. In Orlando, Virginia Tech was down a TD and down to a fourth down, at the 23 with 1:11 on the clock and thinking overtime. Quarterback Jerod Evans dropped back to throw. Clemson linebacker Kendall Joseph blitzed. Tech knew it was probably coming, and that's why the Hokies had running back Travon McMillian stay home to block. But he was waiting on the right, not the left. As Joseph streaked by, McMillian threw his arm out and grabbed, but got ahold of nothing. Joseph hit Evans as he threw, the pass fell short of tight end Bucky Hodges (who appeared to be wide-open), and the playoff chaos -- at least any involving the ACC -- was avoided. Meanwhile, in the Big Ten championship, Wisconsin was in a nearly identical situation, trailing Penn State 38-31 and deep in enemy territory. Corey Clement was handed the ball on fourth-and-1 with 1:05 remaining. He was met head-on by DBs Marcus Allen and Grant Haley and stopped 1 foot short at the 24-yard line. Penn State saved its game and title. But 12 hours later, it was the Nittany Lions who came up short.
Sunday afternoon I stared at my computer monitor, looking at the just-revealed final College Football Playoff rankings. Then I got out a tape measure and checked the distance on that screen between Ohio State in third and Penn State in fifth.
It was exactly an inch.
So, no offense to the guy from Wayne State, but when it comes to 2016, it doesn't take a doctorate in physics to realize that one of the oldest clich?s in sports isn't a clich? at all. "It's a game of inches" is a rock-solid fact. Just ask any fan who watched any big game of this college football season.
Or Al Pacino.
