Bama's Lacy romps over Notre Dame defense

"He's incredible. He's an incredible player," center Barrett Jones said. "We're seeing what Eddie's capable of. He's been a little banged up at the beginning of the year but now he's fully healthy and he's an incredible player."

Lacy finished the year with 17 rushing touchdowns and 1,322 yards, while sharing headlines and carries with talented freshman T.J. Yeldon, who ran for 108 yards and a touchdown on the night also topped 1,000 yards for the season.

Lacy was at his best late in Alabama's title run.

He rushed for 131 yards against Auburn, 181 in the Southeastern Conference championship game versus Georgia and 99 yards against Western Kentucky before that streak. He scored 10 touchdowns during that four-game stretch.

Lacy mostly grinned and shrugged off questions about not being fully healthy or in game shape early in the season, but admitted a couple of weeks ago that "it can break you down as a competitor ... because you're thinking about what I used to be able to do."

Alabama had plenty of big offensive performances against the Fighting Irish, who had won five of the first six meetings.

AJ McCarron, last year's championship game MVP against LSU, completed 20 of 28 passes for 264 yards and four touchdowns. Yeldon gained 108 yards on 21 carries and fellow freshman Amari Cooper caught six passes for 105 yards to break Julio Jones' freshman receiving records.

Lacy set the tone, though.

He converted a fourth-and-1 play and, later, ran for 5 yards up the middle — gaining a couple extra yards after pushing 248-pound linebacker Danny Spond away with one hand in the second quarter.

"We were able to establish and maintain the run with our backs and line doing a great job and then AJ and our receivers converted third downs and maintained drives," Tide coach Nick Saban said. "We were able to possess the ball, and it limited their opportunities."