Alabama and Clemson set to face off in National Championship

“This felt good”, Alabama junior defensive end Jonathan Allen told reporters. Two plays later, Heisman victor Derrick Henry punched it in for the Alabama touchdown.

“The Crimson Tide (13-1) kept the pressure on Cook by limiting the Spartans to 29 yards rushing on 26 attempts, which included 29 yards lost in sacks of Cook”. He ran it back 21. Cook is a first-round NFL Draft talent at quarterback, and he still deserves to be in the conversation as the first quarterback taken. Running back Wayne Gallman ran for 150 yards and two scores. After the extra point, Alabama led 17-0 with 10:36 remaining in the third.

The fourth sack of Cook was a 10-yarder on an intentional grounding penalty when he tried to chuck the ball as he was driven into the turf by Tim Williams. That forced 4th down and a punt by MSU. That’s when he threw a red-zone interception to Cyrus Jones. Alabama had 47 total yards as Coker went 6/8 for 38 yards.

Coker completed 25 of 30 passes for 286 yards and two touchdowns against Michigan State. Watson carried the running load in the early going finishing with 145 yards on 24 carries and scoring the Tigers’ first touchdown on a 5-yard run.

There was a point in Alabama’s dismembering of Michigan State on Thursday night when Spartans quarterback Connor Cook – reduced to a dinged, dazed and daffy mess by the Crimson Tide’s defense – looked up after another incomplete pass and mouthed the words, “They’re (expletive) everywhere”.

“Our inability to run consistently obviously hurt us”, Dantonio said. On the other side, this would be Clemson’s first championship in 34 years. You can’t not get behind a player like that. “So bad things start to happen when those things – when things tilt that way”. He led the team to the first championship win in school history after the 1982 Orange Bowl against Nebraska, and said he thinks the Tigers can take home the title again this year.

Alabama’s defense isn’t just great, it’s almost impenetrable. I thought Jake did a great job. “Some of those plays, if the box was right, Derrick Henry would have got the ball”.

Defense.Georgia fans would love it if Kirby Smart could bring some of these players with him to Athens. “This guy is special in every regard”. Here is a look at the opening odds for this game.

Saban said, “I’m really, really proud of our team”. Clemson, coached by former Tide player and assistant coach Dabo Swinney, is the nation’s top-ranked team and only undefeated team at 14-0.

Michigan State embraced its role as the underdog and came in expecting to slug it out with the Tide. For the sake of conversation, they played the position of fullbacks. “We’ve just got a lot of athletes on the outside”. “And he did a fantastic job of making some big plays”. Kiffin noticed this tactic early and throughout the first quarter, he had Coker and receivers like Ridley, Richard Mullaney and ArDarius Stewart work the perimeter of the secondary. Clemson is putting up 38.5 points and 510.6 yards per game on offense, while the defense is allowing just 20.2 points and 295.7 yards per contest. The #1-ranked Clemson Tigers and the #2-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide dominated in their respective semifinal games to advance to the CFP Championship Game in Glendale, Arizona, on Monday, January 11. There will be plenty of key questions to answer, none more pressing than who steps in as the starting quarterback.