DEFENSE
Alabama will see somewhat of an oddity when Southern Miss lines up, a base 3-3-5 where one of the linebackers flexes as a defensive lineman. It’s not all that far removed from one of Alabama’s sub packages. What it has been, unfortunately for USM, is not particularly effective. Southern Miss ranks 73rd in total defense. Rush defense has been good at 37th, but pass defense – 109th for efficiency defense and 106th for yardage – is horrendous, as is the ranking of 91st in scoring defense and the 108th in turnover margin ranking.
Alabama’s 3-4 over/under scheme will likely be in a dime look for most of the day, and South Carolina helped affect the Tide’s pass defense ratings, which are 50th for yardage and 18th in efficiency, still not bad all things considered. A ranking of 45th in rushing defense is much further down the list than Tide coaches would like.
DEFENSIVE LINE
The most tackles for a defensive lineman for USM is Jacques Turner with 9, with 2 of them have come behind the line of scrimmage for a modest loss of 3 yards. He’ll start at the DT/E combo position for Southern Miss, with Delmond Landry at tackle and Demarrio Smith at nose. Production numbers for Landry and Smith are also mediocre, and here’s where size very much becomes an issue. Turner clocks in at 6’1”, 247, about 40 pounds lighter than a DT/E combo player needs. Smith is playing nose at 264. Landry is the sole starter with top-level size (308 pounds), but he is tall and plays tall, and frequently gets out-leveraged. Von’Darius Freeman and Nick Dawson are the primary backups, but again, Dawson was moved down from linebacker. The third reserve lineman, Eriq Kitchen, has no stats on the year and is another lightweight (250 pounds).
Alabama has its own issues this week, thanks to LaBryan Ray being out, possibly for an extended period, and one of the top backups, Christian Barmore, suspended for the first half due to a ridiculously mis-called targeting penalty at the end of the South Carolina game. D.J. Dale will start at the nose, with Raekwon Davis at end and either Phidarian Mathis or true freshman Byron Young starting on the other side.
With the losses of Ray and Barmore, as well as the possible departure of true freshman Antonio Alfano, suddenly a position of great depth for Alabama looks much thinner. Barmore will back up Mathis starting with the third quarter, while Stephon Wynn Jr., Justin Eboige and Tevita Musika are the others with a shot at playing time. This is still a position of strength for Alabama, while Southern Miss has production issues. Advantage: Alabama
LINEBACKERS
Alabama’s linebacker group had a rough outing against South Carolina, not tackling well, especially up the middle. It was enough to get true freshman WLB Christian Harris benched halfway through the game, with Brandon Ale Kaho taking over. It will be interesting to watch that position going forward, but Harris is expected to start again this week. Shane Lee continues to play well – or well enough, at least – in the middle of the defense. Markail Benton seems to have settled in as his backup, with Jaylen Moody also available for depth. Terrell Lewis and Anfernee Jennings have been solid at outside linebacker, but they were asked to play down against running plays against USC and didn’t come up with the results needed, in large part due to bad run fits from the inside backers.
For Southern Miss, the Golden Eagles were hoping Penn State transfer Torrence Brown could live up to expectations as their “Wolf” linebacker – the designated pass-rusher/havoc-causer – but old injuries seem to be derailing that plan. Brown started against Alcorn State but hasn’t returned, leaving that duty to redshirt freshman Hayes Maples, with Terry Whittington as his backup. The Golden Eagles rank 14th in sacks largely as a result of those two players, who have been disruptive. Racheem Boothe and Santrell Latham start at the inside positions. Again, the Golden Eagle starters are on the smaller side.
This is a actually a very close call, closest on the board by far, because it’s one area USM has shown consistency across all stations. But Alabama’s overall talent level, and size, is too much to ignore. Advantage: Alabama
DEFENSIVE BACKS
The Golden Eagles will start Rachaun Mitchell and Ty Williams at the corners, with Shannon Showers, Ky’el Hemby and D.Q. Thomas at the safety positions. Thomas has been the disruptor, leading the team in tackles with 24 and tied with two other players for the lead in sacks. He’s also picked off a pass. Hemby is right on his heels, and is the one defensive back in the group with SEC size. The rest, again, are either height-disadvantaged, size-limited or both, and the cornerbacks have had issues dealing with better receivers – which they’re about to see more of than they ever dreamed.
Alabama will start Trevon Diggs and Patrick Surtain II at the corners, with Xavier McKinney, Jared Mayden and Shyheim Carter at the safeties. Josh Jobe and Daniel Wright are also in the mix. McKinney has been busy putting his name atop a bunch of draft boards so far this year, and despite some softness in the secondary against South Carolina last week, McKinney turned in yet another top-notch performance. Southern Miss gets a lot of mileage out of its group, especially on blitzes, but when it comes to following and affecting receivers, there’s little comparison here. Advantage: Alabama
SPECIAL TEAMS
Golden Eagle PK Andrew Stein has hit 5 of 6 kicks, but has a miss from midrange. Alabama’s Will Reichard is 4-of-7, but has two long misses whereas Stein hasn’t attempted anything over 39 yards. Shockingly, the Golden Eagles are worse than Alabama in the net punting category (113th vs. 102nd). Worse yet for USM, the Golden Eagles are terrible on coverage units, while despite Alabama’s struggles kicking the ball, the coverage units have shone. Good news, to be sure, because Southern Miss leads the nation in punt returns and is 10th in kickoff returns, with Jaylond Adams doing the majority of the damage for both units.
We’ll see where this goes once the game kicks off, but USM’s prowess returning kicks has to be acknowledged. Alabama’s punting job has to be considered wide-open right now, and Bama could do worse than to turn back to Mike Bernier, who didn’t dominate the position by any means last year but did stabilize it. Advantage: Southern Miss
OVERALL
Alabama leads in seven categories, USM in one, and the Golden Eagles nearly took the linebacker group comparison as well. But when it comes down to trench matchups, this is a blowout: Alabama strongly controls both OL-DL crossover matchups and that as much as anything is going to short-circuit any talk of an upset.
It won’t be much of a surprise to see Southern Miss put up points, even more than it put up against Mississippi State. The South Carolina game took something out of Alabama, especially on defense, and the home conference opener is a week away. Still, Alabama should be able to pull away with this one and stay out in front throughout, simply due to the fact that the Golden Eagles have no answer for Alabama’s wide receivers.
If you’re looking for something to occupy your attention, focus on how Alabama’s offensive line does against a smaller defensive line that will have to stunt, twist, slant and dump its entire bag of tricks out to get any penetration at all. If Alabama can handle it from Southern Miss, it bodes well for future dates with teams like Ole Miss and Tennessee – along with whatever Big 12 or Big Ten school the Tide might draw in a playoff.
Alabama 48
Southern Miss 21
Follow Jess Nicholas on Twitter at @TideFansJessN