Nick Saban vs. Mark Dantonio is an elite coaching matchup with personal history

No. 2 Alabama and No. 3 Michigan State have met once before. The 2011 Capital One Bowl saw the Crimson Tide roll over the Spartans in a 49-7 beat down where three different NFL starting tailbacks - Mark Ingram, Trent Richardson and Eddie Lacy - all found the end zone. All of the players who took part in that game are now gone, but the two most important figures on either sideline will return for a Cotton Bowl clash. Now, head coaches Nick Saban and Mark Dantonio meet again - this time with a National Championship Game berth on the line.

Thursday’s matchup will pair two likely Hall of Fame signal callers in a high stakes scenario. While each man has brought his program to new levels of modern era success, they’ve taken drastically different paths to get there. Saban will rely on a roster that has brought more five-star recruits to campus in the last four years than any other program in the country. That includes 2015 Heisman winner and 2013’s second-ranked tailback prospect Derrick Henry. Dantonio will turn to a handful of three-star prospects he developed into NFL talent. His Spartans are led by quarterback Connor Cook; a player once regarded as the 30th-best player in the state of Ohio.

Nick Saban stepped into Tuscaloosa’s top position in 2007. By the time he finished his first full recruiting cycle he’d built a class Rivals.com ranked as the best in the country. One year later, he won the BCS Championship and became the first head coach to ever lead two different programs to national titles.

Staring across the field from him on Thursday will be Mark Dantonio, a man three coaches removed from Saban’s reign in East Lansing and Saban’s former defensive backs coach. Every 11-plus win season in Michigan State history has come under Dantonio’s watch. All five have come in the last six seasons. The Spartans haven’t had the luxury of consistent top-five recruiting classes in that span, however. Dantonio’s prospects have only cracked Rivals.com’s top 20 once in his eight full recruiting cycles.

Despite that disparity, Saban and Dantonio’s numbers are closer than you would think. In the past six seasons, Saban has rolled up 70 wins. Dantonio has 65. Both have three conference championships in that time. The only major difference is the biggest “scoreboard” bragging right of them all. Alabama has won three national championships under Nick Saban. The closest Michigan State has come under Dantonio was a Rose Bowl win and a No. 3 ranking in 2013.

It’s no mystery what Alabama wants to do on Thursday night. They’re going to give the ball to Heisman Trophy winner Derrick Henry and hope his bulldozing runs are enough to cover for the team’s quarterback play. Michigan State will counter with an aggressive downhill attack that emphasizes rushing defense and puts faith in its safeties to prevent big plays. It’s a strategy many teams have tried, but few have found success. Henry has gained 143 yards or more in each of his last six games against FBS opponents.

Michigan State will have to hope it can keep this game close. Dantonio has been on the right side of some of college football’s most memorable endings. That includes a fake field goal that gave him a win over Notre Dame in 2010 and the botched punt that set Twitter on fire and pushed his team past Michigan in the Big House this fall. The latter was one of seven close games the Spartans played in this season. Their 6-1 record suggests they’re either lucky, or clutch.

Dantonio gets the chance to prove that skill, not luck, has been the key behind Michigan State’s rise back to national power. A win over Alabama could signal a changing of the guard at the top of the FBS mountain and cement Mark Dantonio’s status as one of college football’s elite coaches. Nick Saban won’t cede his ground without a struggle, and another banner year on the recruiting trail shows that the Tide’s foundation is as solid as ever. No matter who wins on Thursday, a probable Hall of Famer will be coaching in the 2016 National Championship Game.