Alabama and Michigan gear up to settle Rose Bowl in the trenches

Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe celebrates with offensive lineman JC Latham after scoring a 48-yard touchdown

By Andrés Soto

Dec. 31, 2023 2:46 PM PT

Alabama right tackle JC Latham is starving for a national championship.

He gets up at 6 a.m. every day to go through his stretches before he lifts weights with his teammates at 6:30. He has spent months following the same routine while hearing all the criticism of his team.

“We lost Will [Anderson Jr.], we lost Bryce [Young], we lost Jahmyr [Gibbs]. Everybody doubted us,” he said. “And that just kind of irritated me.”

Left guard Tyler Booker said Alabama expects to be the standard of college football and that standard is the reason he signed with the school.

“To hear somebody challenge that on national TV,” Booker said, “You’re going to take that personally as a competitor.”

Alabama offensive lineman Tyler Booker and his teammates lean forward at the line of scrimmage

And now, entering the Rose Bowl on Monday to play Michigan for a spot in the College Football Playoff national championship, Alabama has a real chance at again reaffirming that standard. The offensive line has been a big reason why.

The line features two 360-pounders in Latham and freshman Kadyn Proctor. Left guard Tyler Booker weighs in at 352 pounds, while right guard Jaeden Roberts and center Seth McLaughlin come in at 316 and 305 pounds, respectively. They’ve gone through growing pains as a younger group — the only upperclassmen are Latham and McLaughlin — but they’ve steadily improved week by week to help Alabama put up the No. 16 scoring offense in the country.

“We’ve grown to really protect Jalen [Milroe]. We know what he can do,” Roberts said. “It’s all a big puzzle. Everybody contributes, everybody’s grown in their own specific way. This has been a really big journey for us.”

The Crimson Tide line’s growth has helped Milroe’s development, and offensive coordinator Tommy Rees said the inverse is also true: The more Milroe has improved, the more the offensive line has improved, which has led to a collective improvement in the entire offense.

“We talk about offensive football, it really takes all 11 doing their job to have success,” Rees said. “If a left tackle gets beat and gives up a sack, but a corner gets beat and is giving up a touchdown, the sack takes place first, so the bust never happens.”

Michigan’s defense has heard the buzz about Alabama’s offensive line size, but Wolverines defensive lineman Mason Graham says he feels prepared.

“I just feel like we’ve played somewhere big — big offensive linemen in the Big Ten,” he said. “So just keep playing our style of ball. We have a good D-line, so I think it’ll be a good matchup for us.”

Graham referenced the defense’s “four pillars” philosophy, installed by defensive coordinator Kevin Minter during the offseason: block destruction, obnoxious communication, ball disruption and shocking effort. He acknowledged that the biggest challenge ahead of them will be keeping up a relentless pass rush later in the game as defense tries to contain Milroe.

Minter, however, said he found it difficult to prepare for Alabama’s O-line. Even after playing Penn State and Ohio State, Michigan hasn’t faced a line as big as the Crimson Tide’s yet. The best comparison he can make to it is actually Michigan’s own offense.

“A physical, downhill running game, offensive line that has the ability to move people, various, various schemes in the run game,” Minter said. “You hope all those spring practices, all those training camp practices, all the times we do good-on-good, you do it for these moments right here when you’re playing against an elite team like Alabama.”

Wolverines defensive end Jaylen Harrell also looks at it as a good-on-good matchup, as the two teams’ strengths lie in the trenches.

“We’ve just got to play our technique, play long, and stuff like that,” Harrell said. “They’re great in run blocking, great in pass protection, so you know it’s going to be a great challenge.”

It’s a test Michigan linebacker Michael Barrett says he feels confident his team can pass.

“I feel like this defense is built for a team like this,” Barrett said. “For sure.”