Bama blows out Irish for a BCS title

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — The coach no longer wears houndstooth. The result is the same. Another Alabama dynasty.

Quieting the Irish by the first play of the second quarter, Eddie Lacy, AJ McCarron and the No. 2 Crimson Tide rolled top-ranked Notre Dame, 42-14, for the BCS championship Monday, locking up a second straight national title and third in four years with another laugher of a title game.

The Bear would’ve been especially proud of this one — Nick Saban and the Tide romping to the second-biggest rout of the BCS era that began in 1999.

“We’re going for it next year again,” said Alabama offensive tackle Cyrus Kouandijo, only a sophomore but already the owner of two rings. “And again. And again. And again. I love to win. That’s why I came here.”

Lacy, the game’s offensive MVP, ran for one touchdown and caught a pass for another in the final minute of the opening half. He spun away from the vaunted Notre Dame defense not once, but twice, to cap a 28-0 blitz before the bands even got on the field.

“They just did what Alabama does,” moaned Manti Te’o, Notre Dame’s star linebacker and Heisman Trophy finalist.

Lacy finished with 140 yards on 20 carries, coming up with two of his best performances in the two biggest games of the year. He rushed for a career-high 181 yards in a thrilling victory over Georgia in the SEC title game, and was nearly as dominant against the Irish. McCarron wasn’t too shabby, either, completing 20-of-28 passes for four touchdowns and 264 yards, adding another dazzling effort on top of his MVP in last year’s title game.

You could almost hear television sets around the country flipping to other channels, a hugely anticipated matchup between two of the nation’s most storied programs reduced to nothing more than the second straight BCS blowout for the Crimson Tide.

“We’ve had a lot of really great football players who’ve worked really hard,” Saban said. “Because we’ve had a great team, we’ve been able to have a significant amount of success.”

Alabama (13-1) scored 69 straight points against its title game opponents, going back to getting the final 13 against Texas in 2010, followed by a stifling 21-0 victory over LSU for last year’s crown, then scoring the first 35 points on Notre Dame. Saban’s team made the Irish (12-1) look like a squad that would be hard-pressed to finish in the middle of the pack in the mighty Southeastern Conference, which has now won seven straight national championships.

The Crimson Tide will likely wrap up its ninth Associated Press national title, breaking a tie with Notre Dame for the most by any school and gaining a measure of redemption for a bitter loss to the Irish almost four decades ago: the epic Sugar Bowl in which Ara Parseghian’s team edged Bear Bryant’s powerhouse 24-23.

Bryant won five AP titles during his brilliant career. The way things are going, Saban might just chase him down.