Darron Cummings/Associated Press TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — If Alabama is looking for a blueprint on how to beat Ohio State in the first round of the College Football Playoff, it doesn’t have to look very far. It only has to travel about 80 miles west on Highway 82 to get to Starkville, Mississippi. Mississippi State head coach Dan Mullen spent four years as an offensive coordinator under Urban Meyer at Florida and four more years before that as his quarterbacks coach at Utah and Bowling Green. Jim Lytle/Associated Press The two have more or less kept their offenses the same and run variations of the same system at Mississippi State and Ohio State. Alabama handled a very good Bulldogs team—No. 1 at the time—when they came to Tuscaloosa in November, a team that looks a lot like Ohio State. The Crimson Tide can use a lot of the same techniques they employed in that game when they square off with the Buckeyes in the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1. “(Ohio State is) a great team,” Alabama safety Nick Perry said. “I see a lot of similarities between them and Mississippi State. They like to establish the run game and they have a lot of great receivers they like to get the ball out to in space and make big plays.” Alabama held Mississippi State below its season average in just about every statistical category on Nov. 15: Mississippi State vs…
Continue Reading: Alabama Football: Is Ohio State a Clone of Mississippi State?
