Alabama Defense To Play Like 'There's No Tomorrow' Against Michigan Run Game

Alabama defenders made their mentality clear during their media availability ahead of the Rose Bowl.

LOS ANGELES — The Alabama defense has been one of the best units in college football this season, much to the joy of Crimson Tide fans who have yearned for an elite defense over the past few seasons.

But now, this stout unit faces one of its biggest challenges: the run game of the Michigan Wolverines. 

Michigan boasts two dynamic running backs in Blake Corum and Donovan Edwards, with Corum amassing over 1,000 yards this season. The Wolverine run game showed up big in their two biggest wins of the season, totaling 227 yards on the ground against Penn State and 156 against Ohio State. 

While the Michigan defense has been unquestionably great this season, the Alabama defense doesn't see much of anything they haven't already seen this season playing in the SEC, a league known for its physicality. 

“I think most teams run the same stuff, but how good are you at it? They’re elite at what they do, and it’s going to take a big week of us preparing the right way so we can execute on the game," Alabama linebacker Deontae Lawson said. "In the SEC, its back to back weeks having to play different SEC opponents. They’re elite, and they like to run the ball as well, this is just something that we’ve always practiced so it’s nothing new to us, we’ve just got to keep preparing the right way.”

Preparation is the name of the game for the Crimson Tide defense, whose goal is to take away the run game of Michigan and keep them from being able to dictate their pace and offensive strategy. 

“For us, we’re prepping for the o-line. Whether they run counter, or split zone, whatever," Alabama defensive lineman Justin Eboigbe said. "Understanding how we’re supposed to pick it up, understanding how we’re supposed to be successful against it, and that starts with us, that starts with the d-line, the outside linebackers, the front seven to stop the run and make them one-dimensional.”

While the goal for the Alabama defense is clear, Eboigbe, one of the eldest players on the team and leaders of the defensive unit, stressed the unit's mentality on gameday being of the utmost importance. 

Just under a month ago, Alabama shut down a Georgia run game that had been incredibly successful all season, limiting them to just 2.5 yards per carry. They key to replicating that? Eboigbe pointed to the mentality the team plays with. 

“We had the same mentality of there’s no tomorrow," Eboigbe said. "I told guys that whole week, you’ve got to give it all you got. Everything we want is right here in front of us, so give it all you got, I’m going to give it all I got. Full week of preparation, I’m not going to take no reps off because at the end of the day there’s no tomorrow. If we don’t do what we want to do on Monday, the season’s over with.”

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