A few thoughts after Monday’s overtime thriller between Alabama and Georgia...

It really is about the “Jimmy’s and Joe’s.”

There is an old sports saying: “It’s about the Jimmy’s and Joe’s, not the X’s and O’s,” meaning, coaching is important, but having better players is key.

And that wasn’t more apparent than in Alabama’s 26-23 overtime win over Georgia in the College Football Playoff National Championship.

Both teams are loaded with five-star talent and future NFL players, so it wasn’t surprising they were playing for the title.

But Alabama proved to be more talented in the second half.

When Georgia successfully shut down Alabama’s offense to the tune of 21 passing yards and zero points in the first half, Crimson Tide quarterback Jalen Hurts (a former four-star high school recruit) was benched for true freshman Tua Tagovailoa, also a former four-star recruit.

Tagovailoa led Alabama back in the second half, completing 14-of-24 passes for three touchdowns, including a game-tying fourth-down conversion late in the fourth quarter, as well as the game-winning, 41-yard precision pass that landed in the hands of freshman receiver DeVonta Smith (also a former four-star recruit).

When the Alabama running game was smothered by Georgia in the first half, Head Coach Nick Saban threw in freshman Najee Harris (former five-star recruit), who had rushed the ball just 55 times all season.

Harris tallied 64 yards on six carries Monday to lead the team.

There are few teams in the country that can substitute future NFL players for future NFL players, and nobody is as deep and talented as Alabama.

Nick Saban cements his legacy.

Yes, players are the most important part of a program.

But it’s not as easy as recruiting an all-star team and letting them go out and play.

Monday’s win gave Saban his sixth national title, which is enough to end any arguments about him being the greatest college football coach of all time.

Saban has dominated the sport in an era where it isn’t supposed to be this easy to dominate. Fifty years ago, the talent wasn’t as spread out as it is today.

Coaches like former Alabama great Paul “Bear” Bryant or Ohio State’s Woody Hayes could stockpile 100 great players and overpower the competition.

These days?

Players have more options.

They transfer, or leave early for the NFL.

Down years are understandable.

Not for Saban, who has won five national titles in the last nine seasons.

Mizzou missed its chance.

The Tigers joined the SEC East in 2012, and the perennial powers in the division were dormant.

Florida was limping toward the end of the Will Muschamp era and lost 15 games from 2012-14.

Tennessee was — and still is — a mess, despite top-10 preseason rankings nearly every year.

And then there was Georgia, which won double-digit games four-out-of-five seasons from 2011-15, but fired Head Coach Mark Richt after the 2015 season.

Fans and boosters believed the Bulldogs were a sleeping giant that wasn’t reaching its potential.

And they were right.

The school hired Alabama Defensive Coordinator Kirby Smart in 2016, and he immediately upgraded the talent level.

Georgia was third in the 2017 recruiting rankings and first in 2018.

In just his second season on campus, Smart took his team to overtime of the national championship with a true freshman quarterback.

And they’ll have even more talent to work with next year.

Mizzou took advantage of a weak division and played for the SEC title in 2013 and 2014, losing to Auburn and Alabama.

But it’s hard to imagine anyone passing Georgia for the foreseeable future.