usatoday_20170111_USA_Today

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11, 2017 SECTION C

Derrick Rose

is back with

the Knicks

after going

AWOL for

what he said

was a family

issue, 5C

Rose

returns

USA TODAY SPORTS

USA SNAPSHOTS©

Sack master

SOURCE Pro-Football-Reference.com
ELLEN J. HORROW AND JANET LOEHRKE, USA TODAY

Sacks recorded by the

New England Patriots’

Willie McGinest on Jan. 7,

2006, most in one NFL

playoff game

4 ½

TIGERLINE

FIRST WORD
IT WAS CALM. NO
ONE OVER THERE
PANICKED. ... I SAID LET’S BE
LEGENDARY, LET’S BE
GREAT.”
Clemson quarterback Deshaun
Watson, on what he told his
teammates before the final
drive that ended with the
game-winning touchdown with
one second left against Ala-
bama.

NAMES TO KNOW
ALABAMA, AUBURN, OHIO
STATE, FLORIDA STATE

MAGIC NUMBER

1
Ranking on four recruiting sites
(247, ESPN, Rivals, Scout) for
Alabama’s projected football
signing class. National signing
day is Feb. 1. Clemson is tied for
13th.

TWEETS OF THE DAY
@RepJeffDuncan
To win it in under two
minutes after blowing the
first and only lead you had
all night! Clemson Tigers
2016 National Champions!
Rep. Jeff Duncan, R-S.C., and
1988 Clemson grad.

@MarkIngram 22
Congrats to Clemson and
coach Dabo!! Them boys
were the better team to-
night! We will be back, be-
lieve that!! #RollTide
Mark Ingram II, the former
Alabama running back and
2009 Heisman Trophy winner,
congratulating Clemson.

ALMOST LAST WORD
“I TOLD THE PLAYERS I WAS
PROUD OF WHATTHEYAC-
COMPLISHED THIS YEAR. ...
ONE GAME DOESN’T DEFINE
WHO YOU ARE.”
Alabama coach Nick Saban.

LAST WORD
“ON THURSDAY, I HAVE MY
FIRST MEETING WITH THE
2017 TEAM. ALL I CAN TELL
YOU IS THE BEST IS YET TO
COME WITH CLEMSON.”
Clemson coach Dabo Swinney.

Edited by Thomas O’Toole

MARK J. REBILAS, USA TODAY SPORTS

KIRBY LEE, USA TODAY SPORTS

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Death of North-

western wom-

en’s basketball

player’s hits

home for col-

umnist Christine

Brennan, 3C

Tragedy

on campus

The name is Hunter Greene.

You might not know him, but

every team in baseball recogniz-

es that he’s perhaps the most

gifted amateur baseball player in

this country, projected to be the

first player chosen in June’s

draft.

Greene, who first attended the

Urban Youth Academy in Comp-

ton, Calif., when he was 7, also

represents Major League Base-

ball’s potential star role model in

its battle to reverse the indus-

try’s scarcity of African-Ameri-

can players.

Greene, who is 6-4, 205

pounds and throws 98 mph with

a solid slider and changeup,

could become the first right-

handed high school pitcher se-

Greene model

in MLB pitch

for diversity

CAYLOR ARNOLD, USA TODAY SPORTS

Hunter Greene could be the

top pick in the 2017 draft.

v STORY CONTINUES ON2C

Bob Nightengale

[email protected]

USA TODAY Sports

When junior quarterback

Deshaun Watson led Clemson

past Alabama in a championship

game thriller Monday night, it

was another reminder of a life-

blood to the multibillion-dollar

college football industry: a mo-

nopoly on players three years or

fewer removed from their high

school graduating class, who by

rule are ineligible to enter the

NFL draft.

What if some of those players

didn’t have to wait to go pro?

The people behind a new pro-

fessional league that hopes to

launch in 2018 say they don’t in-

tend to compete with the NCAA.

They have a long way to go finan-

cially and otherwise just to get

their venture off the ground. But

if they can play even one season,

paying the bills and cutting 18- to

22-year-olds in on the action, it’s

easy to see where the impact

could be significant.

“It’ll make sense for a lot of

young men and a lot of families,”

longtime NFL receiver Ed Mc-

Caffrey, one of the nascent Pacif-

ic Pro Football League’s co-

founders, told USA TODAY

Pro option in the works

Proposed league to offer pay

for college-age football players

v STORY CONTINUES ON 4 C

Tom Pelissero

[email protected]

USA TODAY Sports

TAMPA The celebration was al-

ready swirling on the sideline,

but the selection committee

member urged caution.

“We’ve got to get that one sec-

ond,” Clemson athletics director

Dan Radakovich said, to no one

in particular but anyone within

earshot. “One more second!”

A second stretched into sever-

al minutes during an official re-

view. But then, finally, an instant

classic was finished: Clemson 35,

Alabama 31. And as the party

really cranked up, it was time to

pick your story line.

Dabo Swinney and the Tigers

finally climbed all the way to the

top, completing an eight-year

building project, winning the

school’s first national champion-

ship since 1981.

“There was really only one lid

left on the program,” Swinney

said, “and that was to win the

whole dadgum thing.”

The problem for Clemson, like

so many others, was Alabama.

But with Deshaun Watson’s

touchdown pass to Hunter Ren-

frow with one second left, the Ti-

gers knocked off college football’s

biggest dragon.

It was the ultimate ending for

a program whose coach likes to

say stuff like, “Bring Your Own

Guts” — and whatever that

means, no one doubts Swinney

means it. No one doubts this,

either.

“Clemson has arrived,” senior

linebacker Ben Boulware said. “It

MATTHEW EMMONS, USA TODAY SPORTS

“Clemson has arrived,” Tigers linebacker Ben Boulware said after Monday’s victory. “It took us 35 years, but we’re here now.”

CLEMSON SAVORS MOMENT

Climb culminates with hard-fought win vs. mighty Alabama

v STORY CONTINUES ON5C

George Schroeder

[email protected]

USA TODAY Sports