Southern Miss and Alabama to Kickoff at 11:00 A.M., Saban Complains
By: Tony Thomas
September 10, 2019
It has been determined by the T.V. networks that the Southern Miss-Alabama game in Tuscaloosa in 2 weeks will kick off at 11:00 am.
This time slot drew complaints from Alabama coach Nick Saban, who hoped that the school would schedule “these games” at better times in the future. Saban also chastised the Alabama student body for leaving the game early on Saturday as the Tide was destroying New Mexico State 62-7 at the start of the 4th quarter. He later softened his stance and thanked the students for their support.
Southern Miss stands to earn in the area of $1.5 million for playing this game in Tuscaloosa. But its much more than that. This is an opportunity for the Golden Eagles to grow as a team and to get better! It’s an opportunity for the Southern Miss fan base to attend a great football game and cheer on the Golden Eagles. I wish I could attend this game.
This is Alabama we’re talking about, I get it. The #2 team in the country. 5 National Titles in 10 years. But you still have to take the field and play the game. Who knows what will happen. Their depth chart has taken a significant hit on both sides of the ball because of injuries to key players, most notably LB Dylan Moses. This has resulted in backups and true freshmen having to be pressed into duty as starters for the first time. The Tide has rolled over their competition in the first 2 games of the season by an average score of 52-6. But Southern Miss has always played Bama tough, regardless of the talent levels in a given year, and has left Tuscaloosa with some hard-fought victories over the years.
Southern Miss currently has a Top 30 ranked defense in sacks and pass defense. Ty Williams and Terry Whittington have combined for half of those sacks. Jack Abraham is a capable quarterback and has shown he can move the offense down the field. Kevin Perkins showed a bruising running style against Mississippi State, averaging 10 yards per carry. And the Golden Eagles have a pretty good group of wide receivers of their own in Tim Jones, Jordan Mitchell, and Jalyond Adams, who has a receiving touchdown, a punt return for a touchdown, and a kickoff return for a touchdown. Plus they will have Quez Watkins back after serving a 2 game suspension.
The way you beat Alabama is to show them something that they haven’t seen all season and aren’t prepared for. Offensive Coordinator Buster Faulkner needs to turn to a couple of different pages in the Golden Eagle playbook, pages that are little less worn and little less dog-eared.
Lineup and run 4 wide receivers the entire game. Run no-huddle. It’s obvious that the Golden Eagles are undersized defensively against Alabama’s offensive line, who by the way have given up only 1 sack so far this season. The Golden Eagles have recorded 8 sacks this season, averaging 4 per game. Take your best 3 or 4 pass rushers and put them on the field at the same time. They may be undersized, but they will be faster and maybe can get to QB Tua Tagovailoa enough times to get a sack, a tackle for loss, force a turnover, or disrupt their passing game enough to affect the game in a positive way for the Golden Eagles.
Upsets happen every week in college football.
Southern Miss has nothing to lose, and everything to gain by going out and balling with the #2 team in the country in two weeks in Tuscaloosa.
But first, they have to get past Troy.
Thanks for reading.
Material for this article sourced from http://cfbstats.com
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