And if Quarterback Cook doesn’t come back 100 percent ready; the Tide won’t have any trouble besting the Michigan State Spartans in this Year’s Cotton Bowl.
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The high-scoring champions out of the Big-12 Conference were on the outside looking in for much of the playoff conversation this season, with an embarrassing loss to 5-7 Texas and a lackluster schedule preventing the Sooners from entering the CFP top five until Week 13, but a seven-game winning streak, that included impressive victories over Baylor, TCU and Oklahoma State propelled OU into the playoffs.
Dantonio describes him as a mentor and says that he’s borrowed ideas from Saban in order to incorporate strong defense and mental toughness into the team identity at Michigan State.
The committee slotted Clemson (13-0) at No. 1 with Oklahoma (11-1) checking in at No. 4 for a showdown in Miami. Crowder was replaced later in the game. It was an easy choice for the committee to move the Spartans up to the No. 3 spot to face Alabama in the first of two playoff rounds.
Less than a year ago, Michigan State lost at home to Texas Southern in overtime.
“It’s just the ability to stay focused over a course of a month to get ready to play what you hope will be your best game”, Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio said during Sunday’s coaches teleconference. This represents crunch time for players like Alvin Ellis and Kyle Ahrens to show what they can do. The junior had at least 22 carries against each of Alabama’s remaining SEC opponents, including a whopping 90 in the last two games. But committee chairman Jeff Long said there was no debate this week.
Two days before, then No. 1-ranked Kentucky had struggled against Illinois State.
Valentine, not to mention fellow senior Bryn Forbes, knows all about having to defend against those types of teams-the ones that want nothing more to than to knock off the top-rated for the sake of knocking off the top-rated. Undefeated ACC champs. Really very little discussion.
For the last three or four weeks, we have been reporting that Oklahoma is the top-ranked team in ESPN’s Football Power Index, which ESPN defines as a measure of team’s strength and a predictor of a team’s performance going forward, In the current context, that means how a team is expected to do in the postseason.
Clemson defeated North Carolina on Saturday to win the ACC Championship.
It wasn’t a game, it was a grind and for most of the showdown between Iowa and Michigan State, it was a defensive masterpiece on both sides. They will play at Northeastern next week followed by a neutral-court matchup against Oakland and Big Ten road games against Iowa and Minnesota. Oklahoma seeks to make a clean sweep of every team that beat them in 2014. “We lost early in the season and responded well and improved throughout the season”. Henry was a bulldozer with 1,986 yards rushing and 23 touchdowns in the regular season.
-LB Reggie Ragland is the man in the middle for Alabama. An undersized two-time walk-on isn’t supposed to play for a national championship.
-P JK Scott could be a secret weapon when it comes to flipping field position if Alabama’s offense does struggle.
“You better give us 110 scholarships then….” He’ll have the same responsibilities in this one.
The programs meet again in the Cotton Bowl on New Year’s Eve, this time with a national championship berth on the line.
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It’ll be the second consecutive season Alabama will open the College Football Playoff against the Big Ten champion, an experience that didn’t turn out well for the top-seeded Tide last season, when No. 4 Ohio State pulled off a 42-35 upset in the Sugar Bowl semifinal January 1 in New Orleans. I was rooting for the Spartans after being there for 10 years myself and rooting for my former assistant Mark.
