TSN.ca Best Of: Alabama stuffs Fournette

The annual TSN.ca 'Best Of' tackles the year in NCAA football, including Alabama shutting Leonard Fournette on their way to College Football Playoff, the Georgia running back curse and Buckeyes' QB carousel. 
 

Alabama stuffs Fournette, sends LSU into tailspin By: Mike Hetherington

It was sold as the rematch to 2011's Game of the Century – when the No. 1 LSU Tigers beat the No.2 Alabama Crimson Tide – as No. 2 LSU faced No. 4 Alabama in early November of this year.

LSU entered as the betting favourite, undefeated and running over teams with sophomore superstar Leonard Fournette. Alabama entered at a blemished 7-1, with another loss likely to end their College Football Playoff hopes.

Fournette, the Heisman Trophy favourite, entered the game averaging 193 rushing yards per game and had already scored 15 touchdowns on the season in just seven games.  

However, soon after the game kicked off, it became clear Alabama was ready to contain Fournette and force the Tigers to look elsewhere for offence. Despite Fournette's longest run of the first half being for just four yards, the Tigers went into halftime down just three points – trailing 13-10.

Yet once Fournette remained in neutral in the second half, Alabama pulled away and took a 27-10 lead in the fourth quarter. LSU closed the margin slightly for a 30-16 final but their dreams of an undefeated season had been crushed.

Fournette finished the game with just 31 yards on 19 carries – a dismal 1.6 yard average – and his lowest yardage total on the season by 96 yards. 

Fournette posted 91 yards and a 4.8 yard average one week later against Arkansas, but the magic for LSU was lost as the fell to the unranked opponent 31-14. In their next game, the once dominant Tigers were routed by No.22 Ole Miss 38-17.

In the span of just four quarters against Alabama, LSU went from undefeated with the Heisman favourite to just another team in college football. 

The Buckeyes costly quarterback carousel By: Mitch Sanderson

Heading into the 2014 season, Cardale Jones was the third string quarterback on the Ohio State Buckeyes depth chart. By season's end, he was the breakout star of the first ever college football playoff and happened to have won a national championship.

With a slew of future NFL talent flooding the roster, Jones and the Buckeyes became the first-ever unanimous preseason number one rated team receiving all 61 votes and set their sights on back-to-back national championships.

And rightfully so. 

After a 14-1 season with a freshman quarterback in J.T. Barrett, a national championship and only one team ranked in the preseason top 25 on the 2015 schedule, the expectation was to win every game.

Three-time national champion coach Urban Meyer didn't name a starting quarterback until right before their first possession of the season, but he had a pair of good ones. Barrett had one loss through twelve starts as a redshirt freshman on his way to winning Big Ten quarterback of the year. While his replacement, Jones, threw for 742 yards and five touchdowns en route to winning the Big Ten championship game, defeating #1 Alabama and #2 Oregon.

Meyer also had a Heisman-hopeful running back in Ezekiel Elliott, ESPN's top rated defensive end Joey Bosa, and about nine other players expected to join the professional ranks in April.

The Buckeyes cruised through the first ten games of the season handily defeating the bulk of their opponents with close calls against Northern Illinois and Indiana. 

And then came the Michigan State Spartans.

The Spartans were without starting quarterback Connor Cook, but that didn't stop them from dismantling the Buckeyes offence.

Barrett got the start and that was about all he had, finishing with 46 yards passing and a team-best 44 yards rushing. Elliott managed just 33 yards on 12 carries as the Spartans almost doubled the Buckeyes' time of possession.

Michigan State's Michael Geiger hit a 41-yard game-winning field goal with no time remaining and followed it up a celebration for the ages to sink the Buckeyes out of the Big Ten lead and the college football playoff.

Following the game a pair of OSU stars took to social media to make more news.

On top of the early draft declarations, Elliott also ripped the coaching staff for the play calls after game.

"I'm disappointed in the play calling. I'm disappointed in the situations that we were put in and I wish it all played out differently," Elliot told reporters. "I feel like we weren't put in the right opportunities to win this game. We weren't put in the right situations to win this game."

Meyer was not impressed by the emotional post-loss decisions by Jones and Elliott to disclose their plans to the media before the team's season had ended.

The 2014-2015 national champions finished off their regular season with a pummelling of Jim Harbaugh's Michigan Wolverines 42-13 and a Fiesta Bowl bid against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. But that's far from where the first unanimous preseason number one wanted to be.

Not Again: Curse of the Georgia running backs begins By: Mike Hetherington

In 2014, Georgia Bulldogs fans watched with fear as their star running back Todd Gurley was carted off the field with a knee injury. Hours later, their worst fears were realized as test revealed Gurley's season, and NCAA career, had ended with a torn ACL.

The silver lining for the Bulldogs was the emergence of freshman Nick Chubb, who had filled in while Gurley served a suspension and displayed a promising future for the program.

This season, Chubb was living up to the lofty expectations placed him, averaging more than eight yards per carry and 149 yards per game through five starts. However, in the sixth game of the season, Georgia was forced to relive a nightmare.

On the first offensive play of their game against Tennessee, Chubb suffered a gruesome knee injury on a two yard rush and lay writhing in pain on the sideline. Instantly, it was clear the program had lost another star. 

Chubb tore multiple ligaments in his left knee and, though he did not damage his ACL, his first season as a starter was over.

Unlike in 2014, there was no savior for Georgia, who dropped out of the rankings and finished their season 9-3.

Chubb will return in 2016, with the Bulldogs hoping to snap their unfortunate curse.