ARLINGTON, Texas -- Tim Williams had studied the tape.
Alabama’s outside linebacker/defensive end watched Michigan State’s offensive tackles closely during the nearly month-long lead-up to the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic, and what he saw made him shrug. They seemed to enjoy the “big guys that ran up the middle on them” in the Big Ten, he said. But on the other hand, “It didn’t look like they’d gone up against any speed, for real.”
And speed, more than anything else, is Williams’ game.
So the junior pass-rush specialist played into Sparty’s hands in Arlington, Texas, knowing that “they try to sit back and bait you to the edge.