CFP Cotton Bowl: Alabama defense meets with the media

Compared to, say, Clemson, Alabama played a murderer’s row of a schedule beating Wisconsin, Georgia, Arkansas, Texas A&M, Tennessee, LSU, Mississippi State, Auburn and Florida, along with a Middle Tennessee team that went bowling. “Because if you want to play, let’s go”, Smart said.

To outsiders, Smart’s decision might be insane, but Alabama players expected him to stay because the job wasn’t finished yet. Just making it clear that there is an immediate need for high-level players at his new place of employment, as opposed to queuing up behind the other four-star and five-star talent in Tuscaloosa.

“I can’t imagine what his body must feel like after a game”, Crimson Tide receiver Richard Mullaney said. When he got cut by the Indianapolis Colts as an undrafted free agent in 1999, he didn’t expect to return home to Georgia and weigh opportunities in the business world, only to then stun his parents (and probably himself) by instead deciding to be a coach. But that’s what tailbacks want – you want to be fed the ball.

“When you get to visit with these children and their families, it does the body good to know that you’re going to help someone out, change sombody’s life just by being there”, said senior captain Reggie Ragland. Or Madre London, who might have been the choice on that final drive if head coach Mark Dantonio didn’t interject on the headset and call for Scott. And seems pretty sure that the Georgia roster needs an immediate upgrade.

College football had flexed its amorality yet again. And now the playoff stretches all the way to the second Monday in January. Sonny Smart didn’t necessarily oppose his son going into coaching but he thought he could do better with his degree.

This year’s Alabama team is unique.

It’s been done both ways.

Who: MSU freshman running back.

The Spartans success at the end of Sabans tenure — Dantonio said recently they were “poised to sort of take off” — was an indication of what the program was capable of under the right leadership. And Saban had a similar situation with offensive coordinator Jim McElwain just four years ago, when he stayed on through the BCS Championship Game before heading to Colorado State. “I’m recruiting for the University of Georgia”.

Coaching: Not in Smart’s plan. Now, he sits two victories away from capping off his career with a national title. That’s despite the fact that his dad, Wayne, is the all-time leading tackler at Alabama.

The Crimson Tide aren’t strangers to elite running attacks. Smart acknowledged that Pruitt is assisting Alabama in an unofficial capacity. Saban had previously worked as a defensive coordinator with the Cleveland Browns under Bill Belichick.

Smart said the conflicts are “not as much as you might think”. But to a man, the defensive players said there’s something special about this group.

Four or five is enough, when you’re dealing with the top of the recruiting food chain. It’s safe to assume all three will get at least a crack at trying to find a pass through the Crimson Tide’s mountain range of massive defensive linemen that set the pace for the nation’s top rushing defense when the teams meet on New Year’s Even in the College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic. If he’s lucky, he’ll get six hours a night.

“This guy’s got the arm strength, he’s accurate, he anticipates real well”, Smart said. I have a lot of respect for the job he’s done. Alabama has Avery Johnson, a first-year college coach and owner of the most annoying speaking voice this side of Gilbert Gottfried.

Smart said he reached out to first-year Atlanta Falcons coach Dan Quinn, who was defensive coordinator for the Seattle Seahawks through the Super Bowl last year, for guidance on how to split time between two important gigs. So I learned a tremendous amount of football in that time, ” Dantonio said.