BAMA-MISS ST: Bulldogs face Bama with plenty of questions raised
Najee Harris leads the SEC in rushing and will face the top-rated defense in the conference on Saturday in Mississippi State. (Unv. Alabama Media Relations)
By TIM GAYLE
For the second time in as many weeks, Alabama will head into Saturday’s game wondering who the opposing quarterback will be.
Mississippi State, who took a week off after three consecutive losses, will return to the field against the Crimson Tide on Saturday and first-year coach Mike Leach said graduate transfer KJ Costello and freshman Will Rogers are “neck and neck” as they battle for the starting job in Saturday’s game.
“We’ll continue to split the reps this week for the first couple of practices,” Leach said on Monday. “Both guys have performed well in practice. I don’t really like splitting reps with quarterbacks, I like to settle on one, but we’ve been awfully up and down so we need to figure out who gives us the best spark. It’s definitely competitive at the position this week.”
The Bulldogs’ struggles have made Alabama a 31-point favorite heading into Saturday’s game, which will be televised by ESPN at 6 p.m. For the second time in three weeks, the matchup will put the Southeastern Conference’s top offense (Alabama) against the league’s top defense (Mississippi State). That matchup didn’t help Georgia much in its loss to Alabama two weeks ago, but the Bulldogs aren’t your typical defense, either.
“They’ve really played well this year,” Saban said. “They’re one of the top defensive teams in the league -- very physical, got a little different kind of scheme, so this is really going to be kind of a little bit different kind of preparation for us on both sides of the ball relative to what we normally see.”
Alabama, meanwhile, will have to get some pressure on the Mississippi State quarterback to keep the Bulldogs’ “Air Raid” offense from moving up and down the field. Alabama has looked better on defense in each of the last two weeks, but Georgia and Tennessee were a little more conventional in their offensive philosophies.
“I don’t think we’ve had really good pass rush, but I also think that when people seven-man protect, which is what they did a lot in the last game, you’re not going to get a lot of pass rush with four guys rushing,” Saban said. “I definitely think this is an area that we need to improve and certainly an area that we’re going to work hard on because it’s going to be important in this game.”
Typically, a Leach-coached quarterback is one of the top performers in college football, so it’s certainly unusual to see the veteran coach on the other side of the field facing a prolific passer like Alabama’s Mac Jones, who ranks second nationally in yards per completion (16.57), third in passing yards per game (381) and pass efficiency (212.80) and fourth in pass yards (1,905) and completion percentage (78.8).
“Everything I’ve seen on the tape impresses me,” Leach said. “You just have to play real sound. You’ve got to worry about yourself, play sound and have all the gaps and spaces filled.”
Jones lost his leading receiver, Jaylen Waddle, with a season-ending injury, but still has DeVonta Smith and John Metchie, along with Waddle’s replacement, Slade Bolton.
“A lot of guys like Slade become very effective slot players because they’re quick out of a break, they’ve got good initial quickness, really good hands, very smart and heady in terms of their instincts and their ability to make quick decisions,” Saban said. “Slade’s got some maturity and has some experience and really stepped up well for us in the game” against Tennessee on Saturday.
Leach said Bulldog tailback Kylin Hill was “still unavailable” on Monday, although it wasn’t clear if that was any indication of Hill’s availability on Saturday. The senior was suspended for the Texas A&M game after his behavior a week earlier against Kentucky and that suspension continued into the open date.
Despite the point spread installed by oddsmakers, Saban continues to be concerned with the explosive nature of the Bulldog offense.
“It’s really, really a good system in terms of how they spread you on the field, the pattern concepts that they use, and I think that they do a really good job of coaching the quarterback when it’s man-to-man and when it’s zone and how to take advantage of that,” Saban said. “You’ve got to tackle well in space when you (play a zone), you’ve got to break on the ball and you’ve got to force them to sort of take some of the shorter throws and not make explosive plays on you.”
Leach said his offense was “still a work in progress” after starting the season with an eye-opening win over LSU, then falling off in losses to Arkansas, Kentucky and Texas A&M.
“We’re explosive but inconsistent,” he said. “Great teams are always consistent. We’ve got to be that.”
The second-ranked Crimson Tide, Leach noted, is one of the best teams he’s ever coached against.
“These guys are big, they’re fast,” he said. “The thing is, most of their players, we’re already familiar with in the recruiting process. I mean, they’re the guys that hovered around the top of the list.”