There are 140 or so scrimmage plays in the typical college football game, and rarely does a contest boil down so cleanly to the final one.
On one side, the greatest coach of all time, and a defensive mastermind. On the other, a national title winning coach in his own right, a former lieutenant of the GOAT, and a lightning rod of a play-caller.
Oh, and they hate each other.
That was the situation Saturday night at Bryant-Denny Stadium, where Texas A&M trailed 24-20 with the ball at the Alabama 2-yard line and three seconds to play. Essentially, a 2-point play to decide the game.
Here's how it played out.
ALABAMA SURVIVES. pic.twitter.com/V3fpkMdlqs
— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) October 9, 2022
Here's how each coach described what went into their respective play calls.
"Had it. It was a good read. Just didn't get it executed," Fisher said.
"We had 1-on-1. They were in (cover) zero. We had three options on the front side. (quarterback Haynes King) read it. Same play we had scored on earlier. We had hit Moose (Muhammad) and they changed the coverage and (King) went back and made the perfect read where we were going to. They played it off the first time and we knew if they did it we had a 1-on-1 and if they didn't, we had our two looks on the front side, which we wanted."
The play call was also what Alabama wanted, as Saban details below.
Nick Saban diagrams the final play of Alabama’s win over Texas A&M. pic.twitter.com/KjvsdnfTDh
— Michael Casagrande (@ByCasagrande) October 9, 2022
One thing that didn't factor into either coach's chess moves, but which may have decided the whole thing: good, old fashioned human behavior.
As Alabama corner Terrion Arnold told reporters after the game, he knew the ball was going to A&M super freshman Evan Stewart -- because Jimbo told him so.
Looking over to the A&M sideline, Arnold's eyes met Fisher's lips.
“He’s going ‘Evan, Evan, Evan,’” Arnold told AL.com.
Of course, simple common sense also told Arnold the ball was coming his way. Stewart led all receivers on the night with eight receptions for 106 yards, three of them on the final drive.
The ending of No. 1 Alabama 24, Texas A&M 20 was a perfect distillation of the magic of college football. Hundreds of millions of dollars invested into a product watched by millions, countless man hours devoted to an endlessly complicated game that, at its most important moment, is no less simple than a game of backyard ball.