STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Jake Coker kept approaching the line seeing the same thing. The defense crowded the box, so Alabama’s senior quarterback was forced to pick pass from the run-pass option he was given. And when he did hand Derrick Henry the ball, there was no running lanes for the Heisman Trophy front runner. On four of his first six carries, he was hit at or behind the line of scrimmage, dropped before he could get that massive, 6-foot-3, 242-pound frame going.
Mississippi State defensive coordinator Manny Diaz had figured out what so many others couldn’t.