TAMPA, Fla. - Clemson's winning touchdown catch against Alabama early Tuesday morning in the College Football Playoff championship game had to land on the sticky fingers of a former walk-on wideout, didn't it?
How could it not?
What better way for Tigers coach Dabo Swinney - a walk-on wideout himself once upon a time with the Crimson Tide - to win his first national championship than with the former walk-on Hunter Renfrow catching the most important touchdown in Clemson history?
"I appreciate Hunter, ol' Hunter Renfrow," an emotional Swinney said after the gam. "He's just incredible."
It all remained incredible throughout Tuesday. The king of college football, Alabama, had been shockingly dethroned, done in by Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson's throw to Renfrow with exactly one second on the clock in the Tigers' 35-31 win.
"I've dreamed about it since I was a kid," Renfrow said as he shared the postgame winners' podium with Swinney and Watson. "I played every snap except one. I just knew I was going to have to give everything I had. I couldn't let these seniors go down like they did last year."
Good as Watson was - and he was brilliant in tossing three touchdown passes, throwing for 420 yards, running for another score and throwing no interceptions against the nation's most feared defense - the third-year sophomore Renfrow may have been an equal reason for Clemson's first national championship since 1981.
And his 10 catches for 92 yards and two touchdowns were only part of the reason. In terms of momentum denied, the Myrtle Beach, S.C., native's tackle of Alabama linebacker Ryan Anderson following a Tigers fumble less than two minutes into the second half was monumental.
Had Anderson scored on that recovery instead of being brought down at the Clemson 16, the Tide wouldn't just have owned a 21-7 lead, or scored yet another of their signature defensive touchdowns - they would have sent a loud message that there was no way they were surrendering their national championship. Instead, Renfrow's stop forced Bama to run its struggling offense, which it couldn't do.
Though the defending champs kicked a field goal to extend their halftime edge to 17-7, it didn't have near the emotional impact on the Tigers that a touchdown might have had.
"That tackle was huge, HUGE," Swinney said during a Tuesday morning news conference.
Not that Renfrow's tackling skills are what his teammates discussed in the moments immediately after the game.
"We call Renfrow 'White Chocolate,'" running back Wayne Gallman told USA Today. "He's just one of the greatest receivers I've seen at Clemson. He just does everything right. You look at him and don't think he can do anything that he's doing, but he is."
Added receiver Artavis Scott - who set the pick that drew two Alabama defenders on the final play, allowing Renfrow to spring free - in the same article: "He's just a little sniper. When you look at him, you think, 'Who's this white receiver?' He lulls people to sleep, and he's an amazing guy. He's just so low maintenance, relaxed and has a knack for the ball."
White Chocolate is indeed a little sniper, standing 5-foot-11 and weighing 180 pounds according to the Clemson media guide. He was recruited by Appalachian State and Furman, but, in his words, "coming and playing for a guy like Coach Swinney, and a quarterback like Deshaun is pretty special."
You could close your eyes, go back 28 years to 1988 and no doubt hear Swinney say the same thing about his decision to walk on at Alabama after growing up less than an hour from the school's Tuscaloosa campus in Pelham, Ala.
After all, this was a guy who referred to himself as "a crawl-on. I was one notch below a walk-on. But to get to go out that spring and be a part of the Crimson Tide was unbelievable. I mean, I grew up in a small town, first one to go off to college, and I was one of those kids that watched the Bear Bryant show every Sunday, and every time Alabama was on the radio, I was listening. I'd fight you in school if you talked bad about them."
And now he's beaten the Tide, stopped their 26-game winning streak, the champs dethroned by one of their own.
And that win, however unsettling to Houndstooth Nation, continues a trend of remarkable team championships, dating back to last year's Super Bowl win by Denver and Peyton Manning in his final professional game, continuing through Villanova's last-second NCAA title win over North Carolina and the Chicago Cubs' historic World Series triumph, and now this by the Tigers. Makes you wonder if the Atlanta Falcons - who've never won a Super Bowl - aren't next line to shock the world.
Yet when Renfrow spoke about his coach, he didn't talk about the 28 wins in the Tigers' last 30 games. He didn't talk about the scholarship he received a year after walking on or how Clemson must now be considered one of the top five programs in the sport, even as Alabama is the early, early pick in Las Vegas to win it all next season.
Instead, Renfrow said of his coach, "Coach Swinney really does try to serve our hearts instead of our talents. I think that's why he's so special and why he's the greatest coach in college football."
From one former walk-on wideout to one former crawl-on wideout, that's huge, HUGE praise, and a perfect way to wrap up a change at the top of college football.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.