ATLANTA -- The four head coaches of the College Football Playoff came blowing into the room like four men in a mighty big hurry, because they were, well, four men in a mighty big hurry. A few days earlier, three of them had won conference championships, and all four of them had celebrated their invitations to college football's final four. The days between then and Dec. 7, barely an hour away from the start of the College Football Awards in Atlanta, had been spent jetting around the recruiting trail ahead of a new early signing period.
Nick Saban of Alabama, Kirby Smart of Georgia and Lincoln Riley of Oklahoma were corralled into a tiny conference room above the lobby of the College Football Hall of Fame and were told to relax and enjoy some finger foods before they were escorted downstairs to walk the red carpet.