Although the 2012 college football season just ended a short time ago, it’s never too early to look ahead to 2013...which is exactly what I did on Thursday, when I welcomed SEC columnist Barrett Sallee to the show.

If you’re looking for your off-season college football fix you’ll get it here, as Barrett and I recapped 2012 and looked ahead to the major story lines entering 2013. Amongst the topics we discussed included the following:

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- Reflecting back on 2012, what were the biggest surprises to Barrett? Who overachieved, who underachieved and overall, did the season go as he expected?

It was at this time last year, on the morning following Alabama’s 21-0 beat down of LSU in the 2012 BCS National Championship when I wrote a column proclaiming the win “Nick Saban’s Masterpiece.” That morning I explained how the victory was a beautiful convergence of a brilliant coach and talented team, executing a flawless game-plan that was as close to college football perfection as we’ll ever see.

Here is part of what I wrote following that victory:

And as I watched last night’s BCS National Championship, I couldn’t help but think back to that quote.

Because really, reflecting on Alabama’s 21-0 win, it wasn’t just about the victory itself. It wasn’t just about the Tide dominating one of the best teams we’ve seen in recent college football history. It wasn’t about sucking the life out of LSU one tackle for loss at a time. It wasn’t about Jeremy Shelley’s field goals or A.J. McCarron’s emergence. It wasn’t even about one of the best defenses of all-time finally getting their proper due.

Nope, Monday night was bigger than that. It wasn’t just about a championship, but about a team and coach achieving something that is as close to perfection on the football field as we've ever seen.

In every sense of the word, Monday night's BCS National Championship Game was Nick Saban’s masterpiece.

Well if last year’s win over LSU was a masterpiece, what does that make Monday night’s 42-14 beat down of Notre Dame? Sure Saban had a heavy hand in the victory, but he didn’t do it alone. No, no, he got plenty of supporting help from A.J. McCarron and Eddie Lacy, Barrett Jones and 11 members of a defense that made Monday night a living hell for Everett Golson and all his Notre Dame teammates.

Oh, you thought you read it all into the lead-up to Monday night’s title game between Alabama and Notre Dame? Well you had, until now.

Let’s skip the small-talk and get straight to 13 Keys to Decide the 2013 BCS National Championship.

1. Notre Dame’s Front Seven:

It’s the biggest story line entering this game, and quite arguably the biggest story line in all of 2013 outside of Kim Kardashian becoming Kanye West’s new baby momma. It is Alabama’s offensive line going head-to-head with Notre Dame’s defensive line, a battle which is quite literally the immaculate force against the immovable object.

We’ll get to ‘Bama’s offensive line in a second, but before we do, let’s start with Notre Dame, which has inarguably the best defensive front seven that Alabama has seen all year. No, the Irish aren’t quite as athletic as LSU was and don’t have a truly great pass rusher like Texas A&M’s Damontre Moore or Georgia’s Jarvis Jones. But they do have three future pros along the defensive line (you probably have heard of Kapron Lewis-Moore, Stephon Tuitt and Louis Nix) and some guy named Manti Te’o filling in behind them. Not to mention that no one plays better as a unit than the Irish do. Their sum truly is greater than its parts.

“Dad, I’m telling you, if we ever make it back to the Rose Bowl, you’ve got to come. I will fly you out, I don’t care. No, no, no, I can’t explain it. Just trust me. The Rose Bowl is just...different.”

Those words were spoken by Craig, a Palo Alto native and Stanford season-ticket who sat next to me at the Rose Bowl on Tuesday afternoon. Granted, Craig’s words might have been a bit more slurred than they appear in print (he was easily 12 beers deep) and quite possibly just a tiny bit more angry as well (Craig told me prior to kick-off “If my wife knew how much money I had riding on this game, she might literally kill me”). Still, his point remains salient on this morning, a few days after the Cardinal beat Wisconsin 20-14 on Tuesday: There really is nothing like the Rose Bowl. It’s just... different.

I can now say definitively agree with Craig, since after years of watching the game on TV, I was lucky enough to witness it in person on Tuesday afternoon. I live in California now, got tickets the day of the game (I didn’t cover the game as a member of the media but went as a fan) and made my way down to the stadium just moments before kick-off of the “Grand Daddy of Them All.” And now, with a few days to reflect on the experience, I’m ready to give all a little insight into the experience of it all.

And ultimately, that’s what this article is about: The experience of being there on game day. By now the game has long since gone final, meaning that there really is no reason for me to provide any analysis or insight into the game. If you’re looking for that, I’m sorry, but you’ll probably have to go somewhere else.

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During the course of Auburn’s disastrous 2012 season, the cliché tagline that got thrown around about former Auburn head coach Gene Chizik was as follows: The man never did a damn thing as a head coach without Cam Newton as his quarterback. Between stops at Iowa State and Auburn, Chizik has a record of just 24-33 with anyone other than Newton playing quarterback for him. He was 14-0 with a National Championship when Killa Cam was under center.  

Honestly though, I never really thought that argument was very fair. To say that Chizik never had success without Cam would be to imply that the 2009 and 2011 seasons never happened. They did. Auburn improved by three wins in Chizik’s first year on the Plains (from 5-7 before he got there to 8-5 in 2009) and won eight more games against college football’s toughest schedule in 2011 (all five of the Tigers’ losses were to teams which won at least nine games). That is a credit to Chizik and his staff.  

And it’s that last part- where I mention his “staff”- which is why we are here today, and what I find most interesting about Chizik’s time at Auburn. Because while his ultimate legacy was defined by Cam Newton, his ultimate successes was defined by the three years from 2009-2011. And while the players changed and the coaches changed too during those three years and 30 wins, one thing was consistent: During the only point in Gene Chizik’s career where he had any success, Gus Malzahn was calling plays on offense. Chizik went 30-10 with Malzahn by his side. In two seasons at Iowa State and one at Auburn without him, Chizik went 8-28.  

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Early on in his time at Cincinnati, I remember reading a Sports Illustrated profile on former Bearcats and current Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly. The article came out a long time ago and most of the details have long since been lost on me, but there was one that still sticks out. It had to do with the way Kelly handled former Bearcats’ quarterback Tony Pike.

When Kelly arrived at Cincinnati prior to the 2007 season, Pike was buried on the depth chart, the kind of guy who was going through the motions, happy to be along for the ride, and collecting his scholarship money, even if he wasn’t really doing anything to earn it. Well at least Pike was, until one day when Brian Kelly bumped into him and in not so many words, basically told him: “Get the hell out.” That if Pike wasn’t going to start working harder and taking himself more seriously, than Kelly didn’t want him as part of the program anymore.

Well apparently whatever Kelly said worked. Pike eventually went from “buried on the depth chart” to All-Big East first team, and a sixth round draft pick of the Carolina Panthers. Granted, it wasn’t all because of Kelly. But his presence certainly did help.

And really, reading that profile was my “A HA!” moment with Brian Kelly.

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