Bama routs Michigan St 38-0; heads to title game

And, boy, they both look impressive.

Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban reacts in the third quarter against the Michigan State Spartans in the 2015 CFP semifinal at the Cotton Bowl at AT&T Stadium.

The win sends the Tide to the College Football Playoff national xhampionship game where they will play top-seeded Clemson on January 11. Bama’s dominance on defense made it possible to rest Henry, so expect him to be ready for a heavy workload in the title game.

No one, even those in the national media who wrote dynasty and season obituaries after the loss to Ole Miss, is writing Alabama off after a 38-point shutout over a quality Big Ten champion.

Now, he’s going against the greatest coach of this generation.

“Having the national championship would be incredible”, Clemson offensive lineman Joe Gore said.

Now the trick is duplicating that mental preparedness for a national championship game against No. 1 Clemson. More important, the conference is 10-2 in its last 11 title games, including the 2012 game played by two SEC schools. He’s trying to lead Clemson to its first championship since 1981.

He was done for the day as if it was a September game against one of those nonconference cupcakes. “That’s been a weakness that I thought we overcame tonight”. “It was just a matter of when”. Jake Coker had to step up and make plays for Alabama to win and Coker did it consistently all night long.

“We have leaders on the team already, Demetrious Cox, Riley Bullough, Damon Knox is coming back, Jon Reschke, Montae Nicholson, and me”, Hicks said. “The first seven, five to seven minutes of the second half is where I wanted to see where we were”, Johnson said.

Clemson had a remarkable performance in a 37-17 win over Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl. They’re a good team, not taking anything away from them. They dominated on defense and their offense put on an absolute display. Watson, who was named the game’s offensive MVP, passed for one touchdown and ran for another. We knew we had to close it out, and when you’ve got Deshaun and Wayne back there running like they can, it makes our job easier.

Alabama finally broke through by going not to its Heisman victor but to its star freshman receiver.

Center Jay Guillermo said he could see a change in the Sooners’ body language after that third quarter drive. He was diagnosed with a sprained medial collateral ligament. Scoring grabs of 50 and 6 yards by Ridley were sandwiched around cornerback Cyrus Jones’ 57-yard, punt-return touchdown.

“There’s going to be a number of times where they throw the ball deep”, Tressel added.

Coker completed 25 of 30 passes for 286 yards and two touchdowns against Michigan State. Alabama was also superior on offense as Michigan State’s defensive backs couldn’t keep up with Calvin Ridley and ArDarius Stewart. The big tailback was just a role player against a Spartans defense stacked to stop the run.

Now, the Tide will try to prevent Clemson from becoming the first team in FBS history to finish 15-0.

Swinney doesn’t want them hiding from the opportunity. It is the Tigers’ worst record against any opponent they have played at least 10 times, according to ESPN Stats & Information.