Tua Tagovailoa's full-year emergence. 43 passing TDs, 6 interceptions, Heisman runner-up. The Tide's 2018 offense was the Process's highest ceiling.
2018 — Clemson, Again
Alabama went 14-0 into the national championship and lost it 44-16 — the Process's most lopsided title-game defeat and the Clemson era's high-water mark.
The Shape — week-by-week · cumulative W–L below
Who carried it
- Tua TagovailoaQB3,966 passing yards
- Jalen HurtsQB765 passing yards
- Damien HarrisRB876 rushing yards
- Najee HarrisRB783 rushing yards
- Josh JacobsRB640 rushing yards
- Jerry JeudyWR1,315 receiving yards
- Jaylen WaddleWR848 receiving yards
- Henry Ruggs IIIWR741 receiving yards
- Dylan MosesLB86 tackles
- Xavier McKinneyDB74 tackles
- Deionte ThompsonDB73 tackles
- Isaiah BuggsDL10 sacks
- Quinnen WilliamsDL8 sacks
- Christian MillerLB8 sacks
Season leaders, 2018.
SEC Championship Game: Alabama 35, Georgia 28 (close, not comfortable). The defense had yielded more than the era baseline. The title-game matchup with Clemson was set.
Clemson 44, Alabama 16. Trevor Lawrence's freshman title game. Alabama's first loss since 2017 and the largest Saban-era title-game margin.
"We got our ass kicked."
2018 is the chapter that paired with 2016 as a pair of bookending Clemson defeats. The 2018 loss was the harsher of the two: a full-game blowout rather than a last-second heartbreak. In the Process's internal accounting the chapter is filed under 'the defense didn't hold'; in the outside-in read it is filed under 'Clemson's ascension.' Both readings are correct. 2018 is a peak-tier chapter because of where the season reached; it is a crash chapter because of where it ended.