Alabama vs. Michigan State: Cotton Bowl Predictions

Michigan State is looking for its third consecutive major bowl victory after winning the Rose Bowl and Cotton Bowl to end the last two seasons.

The College Football Playoff is here, and it figures to be glorious.

It’s become a familiar story in East Lansing, Michigan, during Dantonio’s nine seasons leading the Spartans.

Which would have been great if the coach’s name wasn’t actually Mark. “That’s the big thing we emphasize – go out there and finish”.

Bama is in Dallas, TX preparing to take on Michigan State in the semifinal of the College Football Playoff on Thursday.

Alabama has been installed as a favorite in the game, and here are five reasons to expect the Tide to roll the Spartans. Nobody has forgotten how to spell Nick Saban’s name.

WHAT’S AT STAKE A trip to Arizona to play for the national championship on January 11. But, Saban didn’t stop there – he went on to win back-to-back titles in 2011 and 2012.

Saban and Dantonio have gone head-to-head once before. He has built his program with the same philosophies and mindset as his mentor, other than the fact he can’t just open the front door and have “five-star” recruits flood his living room. I have just said really our seniors have done another outstanding job as a group in terms of leadership. Coker is not a bad player but he was 41st in the country in passer rating (139.41) and 52nd in yards per attempt (7.4).

The Spartans rarely overwhelm opponents.

In its second year, the College Football Playoff will feature a gritty semi-final matchup between the Michigan State Spartans and the Alabama Crimson Tide in the Goodyear Cotton Bowl.

After graduating from Kent State in 1972, Saban spent two years as a graduate assistant and assistant coach at his Alma Mater, before moving on to assistant coaching roles at Syracuse, Ohio State, Navy, Michigan State, and the Houston Oilers, for no more than two seasons, with the exception of Michigan State where he spent four seasons from 1983-87.

Michigan State’s strengths MSU’s offense may not pack a high-scoring punch, but it has been effective. “There are similarities, I think, in (Saban’s) philosophies, basic football philosophies and a lot of technique philosophies, but we just try to get there in different ways sometimes”.

“I think we’ve both kind of earned our keep”, Izzo said. LJ Scott, Gerald Holmes and Madre London all average between 48.9 and 53.2 rushing yards per game. He conceded he initially told coaches during a time-out that he did not want to run the option play.

“I’m kicking the ball the best I have”, he said.

“It wasn’t the shoulder”. How much of a factor that will be is yet to be determined, but I really don’t see it as being anything at all. They’re used to it by now.

The Crimson Tide face Michigan State in the Cotton Bowl today at 8 p.m. EST.

Dantonio is only concerned about what he can control, and that’s not magazine headlines or recruiting rankings. Now when you say Michigan State, you think Mark Dantonio. So Sooners coach Bob Stoops sent anyone with a vehicle out to come back with 10 bags of whatever fast food they could find. “It doesn’t speak to their development, and the development is half on them and half on us”. But that statement has even more truth to it than most would assume.