Of course, Alabama’s utter demolition of Michigan State – the Spartans rushed for 29 yards – suggests a team that is playing on another level.
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That was also a pivotal year for the Tigers. Be sure that number is now eight after he became the first Tide player to score take four punts back for TDs in the same year. And I just said we’re going to go back to that and make their safeties cover our guys in the slot. “It was just a matter of when”.
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Clemson wide receiver Hunter Renfrow (13) runs for a touchdown during the second half of the Orange Bowl NCAA college football semifinal playoff game against Oklahoma, Thursday, Dec. 31, 2015, in Miami Gardens, Fla.
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Saban said his team came into this playoff with a different attitude.
“I’m just proud as hell of them for getting where they are and doing what they did all year long since the Ole Miss game”, Saban said. So the next time we did it, that’s when we made a big play.
With 11 days to salivate over the College Football National Championship game in Glendale, Ariz., we give you five storylines to watch between top-ranked Clemson and No. 2 Alabama. They’ve held the top two spots since, leaving no doubt they’re the best teams in the country. Given the Tigers’ performance earlier, a 37-17 win over Oklahoma, it’s shaping up as a great title game.
Deshaun Watson, who finished third in the Heisman Trophy voting, will be the best quarterback the Tide have faced this season. The defense did the rest, shutting down Baker Mayfield and a Sooners offense that was averaging 52 points over its previous seven games.
Bama would wind it up with another quick touchdown, the last one of the night, midway through the fourth quarter. He had two 50-yard receptions, one for a touchdown and one that set up a one-yard Henry TD. Yet with Michigan State bunched in to stop Henry – he gained 75 yards on 20 carries – Coker made precise throw after precise throw.
We say attempted, of course, because it’s unclear if what Nick Saban does on the podium actually qualifies as dancing.
Alabama leads the all-time series 12-3, but the teams have played only once since 1975 – a 34-10 Tide win in the 2008 opener. Clemson coach Dabo Swinney has pushed numerous right buttons in leading the Tigers to the first 14-0 record in school history, but will have to call a ideal game to maintain the Tigers’ team-of-destiny status.
So Kiffin loaded up the game plan with Coker, who began this season as an inexperienced fifth-year senior and, this is not meant as damning with faint praise, has blossomed into a competent quarterback who is careful with the ball. He was diagnosed with a sprained medial collateral ligament.
One of the biggest sticking points for Alabama heading into the contest was Michigan State quarterback Connor Cook.
Before the Cotton Bowl, Coker’s best statistical game came against Arkansas when he complete 24 of 33 passes for 262 yards and two scores. On their first play in the red zone, at the Alabama 12 with 15 seconds left in the half, Cook underthrew a pass to Aaron Burbridge that Jones picked off at the Tide 2-yard-line. But the Cyrus Jones 57-yard punt return for a touchdown looked like a classic example of “outkicking the coverage” with a deep punt and not enough hang time. But Coker, with the help of Ridley, showed Thursday night that the Alabama offense is more than a one-trick thoroughbred.
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He often looked off on his throws, and certainly hassled by Alabama’s rotating band of ill-tempered trespassers up front – particularly Ryan Anderson and Jonathan Allen, the latter sliding through for two first-half sacks. “It’s the first time all year that that’s happened to us”, Michigan State Coach Mark Dantonio said of his team’s rushing inability.
