Tide rolls in to children’s hospital for a pre-Cotton Bowl visit

He will coach the Crimson Tide defense through the rest of the season, including Thursday’s Cotton Bowl playoff semifinal against Michigan State. With a huge win over a tough Crimson Tide defense, it could give his draft stock a slight boost.

The Michigan State Spartans enter the four-team football playoff as the agreed-upon longshot of the group.

In retrospect, the nutty week that straddled November and December of 1999 was even nuttier than memory tends to have it. On that Tuesday, Nov. 30, Saban bolted during a 9-2 fifth season at Michigan State that had pointed the green EKG upward and raised his 25-22-1 record in four seasons to 34-24-1 in five.

Offensively speaking, Michigan State certainly doesn’t get enough credit thanks to the attention the defense commands.

The Spartans rank ninth nationally in rushing defense, giving up just 3.55 yards per carry and 113 yards per game.

Shepard is Baker Mayfield’s favorite target in the Sooners’ high-powered offense, coming into the Orange Bowl with 79 receptions for 1,201 yards and 11 touchdowns.

Michigan State can’t rely on the Heisman curse for an assist.

However, he said the strained shoulder never entered his mind on that decisive play in Indianapolis. There’s only so much you can do each day. The probes had begun in 1994, before Saban took over, and the penalties may help explain why he didn’t have the type of success at Michigan State that Dantonio has had. The Tide execute one-on-one blocks as well as any team in the nation and that allows them to do a lot of chipping and climbing to the second level to create lanes for Henry and Alabama’s other backs down the field.

“We understand what we’re facing and that he’s a fall-forward back”, Barnett said.

“He’s definitely a stiff-arm runner”, Michigan State co-defensive coordinator Mike Tressel said. He’s not getting knocked back too many times.

“He’ll be better for the experience when he goes to his opportunity”, the Cowboys coach said. “Separating those two things has not been hard because you’ve got to be able to do that in your job”.

While Michigan State has pulled off some thrilling feats this year, a lack of a strong start like in past big games won’t fare well against Alabama.

The Spartans run defense was at its best in its biggest games, holding Iowa and Ohio State to a total of 138 yards on 53 carries. We had a lot of negative plays early in the season.

“I think it’s really just all a mindset”, he said. “But he’s spending the extra time working with us even while he’s recruiting for his new team”. Jarran Reed said it was the right thing to do because Smart “still has a job to do for us”.

Alabama offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin said he’s generally a proponent of backs carrying no more than 20 to 25 times because when they get exhausted, ball security is compromised. “Sometimes when you’re in the groove, and you’ve got to come out because it’s not your series, you feel like you want to keep going”.

That might be as good an explanation as any for why Scott has been the most common crunch-time option in the running game this season.

With almost a month since he last played, the Spartans figure Henry has had plenty of time to recharge.