Alabama’s Derrick Henry is a nightmare. Can Michigan State respond with its own bruising back?

In the Cotton Bowl College Football Playoff semifinal between Alabama and Michigan State, Crimson Tide running back Derrick Henry has rightfully seized much of the pregame spotlight. He’s a Heisman winner, after all, and the kind of singular talent that will force the Spartans to game-plan almost completely around him. He’s a bruising force of nature who ran for almost 2,000 yards and 23 touchdowns this season.

Henry’s numbers this season are outrageous, especially given that he plays so many of his games against the SEC’s elite run defenses. He hit up Ole Miss for 127 yards, Georgia for 148, Texas A&M for 236, Tennessee for 143, Mississippi State for 204, Auburn for 271 and Florida for 189.

Against Wisconsin – one of just two Big Ten defenses to allow fewer rushing yards per game than Michigan State – Henry ran wild for 147 yards and three touchdowns on just 13 carries, for a season-best average of 11.3 yards per carry. He’s unstoppable, no matter how many other players opposing defenses have managed to stop before or after facing him.

Henry’s primary appeal is his ability to destroy the people who try to stand between him and the end zone. He’s an obvious choice for anybody’s “least fun football players to tackle” power rankings, combining a 6’3, 242-pound frame with terrific speed and vision. He’s a terror for every defensive coordinator he’s ever faced.

He’s not just a bruiser, though. He’s also fast and shifty, and can run away from people as well as over them.

That’s from two years ago, when Henry was a freshman. He’s even better now.

Henry’s only one half of a pretty intriguing running backs matchup at the Cotton Bowl, however.

If you’re looking for a current college running back who might someday be like Henry is now, you don’t have to look any farther than the other sideline in this game. Scott, the Michigan State true freshman and a four-star recruit last year, certainly isn’t as good as Henry right now, but he runs effectively and with a similar style. He’s thick, listed at 6’0 and 233 pounds, and he’s not a fun time to try to bring down, either.

Scott is a downhill runner more than someone who will scorch you in the open field, and to some extent, that probably plays into Alabama’s strengths. The Tide have the stoutest defensive front in the land, and coordinator Kirby Smart probably doesn’t mind Scott trying to bowl through it.

Scott probably won’t produce an Ezekiel Elliott redux and go for 230 yards against this defense. But if this turns out to be a close game, as recent MSU history suggests it might, there are worse players to have on your side than Scott.

Michigan State had the eighth-best power-running success rate in the country this season, converting on 78 percent of its short-yardage conversion tries. Alabama’s defense was 10th-best at stopping those, only giving them up a little more than 50 percent of the time. At some point, Scott will need to do what he did to Iowa against Alabama.

The Spartans don’t need Scott to be Henry. They’ve got two other running backs (Madre London and Gerald Holmes) who could help carry the load if Scott struggles. But if Henry does the same number on Michigan State he’s done on everybody else, there’s a good chance nothing else the Spartans do will matter much.