Mission for the Alabama defense – hold Texas Tech in check. No small task, considering that the Red Raiders scored nearer 100 points than none on five occasions during the 2005 season. Mission accomplished.

Tech worked all day for the ten points it was able to accumulate during the game, a field goal short of victory as the Tide notched another last-second 13-10 win on this sun-splashed Dallas day.

Leading the defensive effort was strongside linebacker DeMeco Ryans, the winner of the Felix McKnight Defensive Most Valuable Player trophy.

Ryans’ individual numbers are impressive – seven tackles (two for losses), 1.5 sacks for another 12 yards lost, and numerous hassles, hurries, and hustles to keep a scary Tech attack just a tick out of whack.

Tech came into the game scoring over 42 points per game, averaging 511 yards total offense. The Red Raiders’ 329 total offensive yards seem paltry in comparison, particularly when the scoring production of a trio of singles – touchdown, extra point, field goal – amounted to Tech’s total production for the day. If some scoreboards were tired after Tech, the Tide made the Cotton Bowl’s venerable system to a scoreBORED.

This defensive effort was necessary to assure that the Field Scovell Trophy, awarded to the winner, would require transport to Tuscaloosa.

Ryans has been doing it all year – and all career. No stranger to hardware himself, he has already scored an impressive list of accomplishments as a three-year letterman. Coming in, Ryans was the SEC Defensive Player of the Year, the Lott Trophy winner, a finalist for virtually every national defensive award, and player of the week a handful of times the past three years. Also an Academic All-America, three-time Academic All-SEC, and the AT&T Scholar Athlete recipient for the Crimson Tide, Ryans hits the books as hard as opposing ballcarriers.

This 6-3, 235-pound senior is a leader on a defensive unit with its own impressive accomplishments. Alabama came in leading the nation in scoring defense (10.7), ranked fourth in pass defense (154.8), and sixth in rush defense (93.5). Tech output this day is 32 points and one-third fewer yards than normal. It was topsy-turvy for Tech. Their leading rusher was quarterback Cody Hodges with 66 yards. Tech as an option team? NOT.

Speed is the name of Alabama’s game. The Tide had seen how other teams zoned the Red Raiders to little benefit. So the Tide stuck to its plan for the season – play man-to-man and rush the passer. Success came in different forms throughout the day.

“It was a combination of both. A little bit of pressure at times, and at other times when we didn’t have pressure we had guys covered. With the athletes we have, we can play in space maybe a little better than some other teams. We have guys with good speed, guys who know where their help is coming from, who play their technique and keep their discipline,” said Tide head coach Mike Shula.

Ryans and his defensive cohorts knew that to expect total domination of the high-powered Red Raiders was perhaps too much to ask. They would settle for keeping them off the scoreboard. “With that type of offense, you have to be prepared. You’re just not going to shut them down where they’re not going to catch a ball or get out on a scramble. We didn’t get down when they made a play on third down. We just continued to play, said the Bessermer, Alabama native.

So when the predictable happened – a Tech score to tie the game at 10 with less than four minutes to go, the defensive unit had confidence that the Tide offense would find a way. And by the slimmest of margins, Jamie Christensen’s 45-yard field goal crawled in between the uprights, the clock ran out, and Alabama had achieved its tenth win, a milestone Ryans sees as an important one.

“This was a must-win for us,” Ryans proclaimed, a function of a team that lost its final two games after winning the first nine. “To leave the field with the Cotton Bowl trophy, with our fans still in the stands cheering, giving them a victory, it couldn’t have been better.”

All this from a program just a couple of years ago in total disarray. Three head coaches in one year. Shula showed up after spring work, and couldn’t get started until the fall. Injuries to key personnel. Defection. Malaise. A collective Crimson groan.

But, on one front, Shula received good news upon his arrival from a member of his coach. “When I first came in, (defensive coordinator) Joe Kines told me that we have a guy here that, before he leaves, he’s going to be like Cornelius Bennett and Derek Thomas. I’ve watched him continue to grow and develop. He’s one of those guys you want representing the University, no matter what it is. Anything you can think of, you want DeMeco representing your University.”

Although he is on the road to bigger things like all-star games, NFL combines, pro days and the like, Ryans knows that those who return in August for the 2006 season can use this win. “It jump-starts the team for next year. They know how to win now.”

So Ryans will accept the McKnight Trophy as the game’s Most Valuable Defensive Player. He will display it proudly. But he is picking it up not only for himself, but for the entire Alabama defensive team. “It’s a credit to all the other guys out there. I’m just here receiving it for them.”