Alabama stars keeping focus on playoff
The second semifinal game of the College Football Playoff will kick off in primetime in a state known for doing everything in a big way.
Nevertheless, MSU head football coach Mark Dantonio and Alabama head football coach Nick Saban are just fine with the current setup.
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.
Cook played the two games after Ohio State and said earlier this week that his shoulder is “100 percent”. This was a tired UA team playing for the eighth week in a row going into a bye week against a UT team that was coming off an open date.
COOKING: Michigan State has won more games (34) with Connor Cook starting than any other quarterback in school history.
“I’ll probably not have any player play on another team that loses the turnover margin six times and is undefeated”, Swinney said. No one has done more for the proliferation of the spread offense than Chip Kelly at OR and Urban Meyer has used the spread to help him win national titles at Florida and Ohio State. “They struggled as a group to get separation against Iowa, and now you come into this game, and you wonder, against a better secondary, can Aaron Burbridge and company do a better job of separating?” But if the game comes down to a late field goal attempt, he’s the better bet. The Crimson Tide has won the last 12 games in the series, the last 34-10 in the 2008 regular-season opener in Atlanta.
Lansing State Journal writers Graham Couch and Chris Solari and Detroit Free Press / LSJ MSU beat writer Joe Rexrode predict the outcome of today’s Cotton Bowl College Football Playoff semifinal between MSU and Alabama. But players got a surprise on the plane when they found out they were instead going to Texas to see the Spartans play Alabama in the Cotton Bowl.
Alabama is an eight-point favorite in this game and the Over/Under (O/U) is sitting at 49 points.
“I always joke with Riley (Bullough) and Jon (Reschke), we work in the weight room to get the bodies we have, we weren’t just born with them”, said linebacker Darien Harris, a three-star recruit.
In the end, Henry will be too tough to stop and the inconsistent Michigan State offense will falter against the stingy Alabama defense.
Michigan State quarterback Connor Cook (18) makes a photo of himself with fellow quarterbacks Tommy Vento (16), Damion Terry (6) and Tyler O’Connor (7) during the media day for the NCAA Cotton Bowl college football game Tuesday, De… By comparison, Alabama has had the No. 1 class in the country each of the last five seasons under Coach Nick Saban.
“I definitely think it takes a certain type of person”.
If we’ve learned anything about this team, it would be foolish to expect anything less. However, the Tide still threw more than they ran in easy wins over Middle Tennessee State and Louisiana Monroe. If a guy like Craig Evans can come in and be a disruptive force while giving McDowell and Joel Heath a rest, Michigan State might just have a chance to slow down the Heisman Trophy victor and take down the Tide. All-America DE A’Shawn Robinson might be the best of the bunch. Fans assign words like “clutch” to teams like Michigan State that win a few big games. Michigan State is 7-1 in its last eight games against teams ranked in the AP top 10, including 6-1 since 2013 and 3-0 this season….