Alabama and Ohio State met Monday night with a National Championship on the line. The final episode of Inside the College Football Playoff on ESPN+ documented the experience of the two teams every step of the way leading up to the big game.
The episode opens with a closer look at Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields, who sustained an injury during the semifinal matchup. We see Fields going through interviews, assuring media he will be good to go on Monday night. We also learn that Ohio State will be without 14 other players for the game due to COVID protocols. Head Coach Ryan Day talks about his team’s ability to push through adversity like that.
On the other side, Nick Saban explains how proud he is of his team and everything they’ve accomplished this year as we see his incredibly talented squad go through practices. He also talks about respecting Ohio State and everything they’re able to do, a stark comparison from what Clemson coach Dabo Swinney had to say about the Buckeyes before losing to them in the semifinal.
We then get a look at all of the players and coaches heading to Miami for the championship game as Ryan Day talks about how the goal was never to get to the big game, but to win it. Alabama quarterback Mac Jones shares a video from his phone of himself and a teammate walking to the team plane.
We then finally arrive at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami for the College Football Playoff National Championship game. We hear Coach Day’s pregame speech to his squad and see the two teams take the field to all the fanfare COVID protocols would allow.
The episode gets to another dramatic highlight reel from the championship game. Once again, this show had the task of interjecting seom drama into a game where there wasn’t much. At least in the early going, this game was back and forth, with Ohio State matching Alabama to a 14-14 score. Eventually though, Alabama pulled away, winning by a final score of 52-24.
The highlights are very entertaining, giving us a lot of angles we didn’t get to see while watching the live broadcast of the game. It was also a very high-scoring game, so there were plenty of highlights to show, including a historic performance from Heisman Trophy-winner DeVonta Smith.
Most of this episode was simply highlights from the National Championship game, but it was still an entertaining watch. We only get to see a little bit of the preparations for the big game here, but we do get to see a lot of on-the-field action in ways we wouldn’t normally. And, in the end, this was the perfect stamp to put on the 2020 College Football season.
You can check out recaps of previous episodes here and watch Inside the College Football Playoff exclusively on ESPN+.