Alabama vs. Middle Tennessee Complete Game Preview
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — It’s the return of the McCarron family to Bryant-Denny Stadium, although this time they’ll be excused for wearing blue instead of crimson.
Corey McCarron, the former University of Alabama walk-on and younger brother of three-year starting quarterback AJ McCarron, is expected to be on the visiting sideline with Middle Tennessee against the No. 2 Crimson Tide.
McCarron, who transferred after graduating in the spring, is a fullback for the Blue Raiders, and did play in last week’s season opener against Jackson State, a 70-14.victory.
Middle Tennessee will also bring 16 returning offensive and defensive starters.
Alabama is 2-0 in the series, having last won 26-7 in 2005. The last time the Blue Raiders faced a Nick Saban-coached team was when he was at LSU in 2001. The final score was 30-14.
Here’s everything you need to know for Alabama’s home opener:
Date: Saturday, September 12
Time: 3:00 p.m. CT
Place: Bryant-Denny Stadium, Tuscaloosa
TV: SEC Network
Spread: Alabama 34½, according to OddsShark.com.
Alabama Keys to Victory
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The defense needs to get off the field
One of the few areas of disappointment for the defense last week was that that Wisconsin was 4 of 7 in third-down conversions in the first half. Alabama did better in the second half, when it played with more of an attitude. The defense needs to match that intensity, have third-down success and keep the Blue Raiders from piecing together long drives.
Dominate the line of scrimmage
Alabama did so on both sides against Wisconsin, setting a tone for the season. If it can continue to do so, it’s going to win a lot of games. Offensively, Alabama’s line had some miscues and holding calls, but the play that got everyone’s attention was when left tackle Cam Robinson was 20 yards downfield and still making hits. "No disrespect to them and what they were doing, they have a lot of great players but a lot of the pressure they got from us going back and watching film was a lot of stuff that we did, a lot of assignments we didn't block correctly or block the right way or a lot of things that we had a little bit of confusion on,” Robinson said. “A lot of it was due to our behalf."
Get special teams going
Kicker Adam Griffith missed from 46 and 39 yards last week, the longest kick return was just 16 yards, and even the punt game was subpar as JK Scott averaged 36.8 yards on four attempts. “I think that there’s been a little inconsistency sometime in his drop, which was the problem with the poor kick on Saturday in that he dropped the ball on the outside,” Saban said. “So when he drops it correctly and hits it with a nice, smooth pace he’s pretty consistent and kicks it really, really well. We have a lot of confidence in him. He just has to get confidence back in his drop and he’ll be fine.”
Middle Tennessee Keys to Victory
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Attack, attack, attack
The Blue Raiders will want to put Alabama’s secondary to the test and go after cornerback Marlon Humphrey and nickel defensive back (called star in Alabama’s scheme) Minkah Fitzpatrick, who both made their Crimson Tide debuts last week. Granted, Wisconsin didn’t have much luck against Alabama’s first-team defense, which gave up just one touchdown and one field goal, but this is the kind of game everything in the playbook is an option.
Control the clock
With two converted cornerbacks at safety Alabama has better range in the secondary, so short, crisp passes will be a big part of the game plan. So will screens and misdirection plays. The Blue Raiders do have some size on the offensive line, including 322-pound right tackle Maurquice Shakir, but will try and spread the Crimson Tide defense out and even play some dime coverage.
Turnovers
The Blue Raiders lost an interception and had two fumbles, one lost, and still managed to beat Jackson State 70-14. It’ll have to win the turnover battle to have any shot of winning, although the Crimson Tide didn’t have a turnover against Wisconsin.
Alabama Players to Watch
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Wide receiver ArDarius Stewart
Alabama knows it can probably run against Middle Tennessee, but it’ll probably come out throwing against a defense that returned seven starters. While the overall philosophy is the more players involved in the offense the tougher it’ll be to defend, it wants to establish Stewart as the primary receiving threat. The Crimson Tide kept looking to Stewart deep against Wisconsin, but was never able to hit a home run ball and he finished with four catches for 44 yards.
Running back Kenyan Drake
In his first game since last year’s leg fracture against Ole Miss, Drake had 79 rushing yards on 10 carries, including the jaw-dropping 43-yard touchdown run after spinning away from defenders. Alabama didn’t do much with him in the passing game, and might be saving that until next week’s game against the Rebels, but both he and Derrick Henry have already shown they can turn a small hole into a big play.
Defensive lineman A’Shawn Robinson
Wisconsin’s offensive players said the Alabama lineman they paid the most attention to was Robinson, who only had one tackle and one quarterback hurry while his teammates posted better numbers. The result was 40 rushing yards allowed, three sacks and four passes knocked down. Look for Middle Tennessee to focus on him as well, and for Robinson to get some more hits.
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Middle Tennessee Players to Watch
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Strong safety Kevin Byard
Byard has 15 career interceptions, which leads all NCAA active players, with 327 return yards. The career record is 501 by Florida State’s Terrell Buckley. Jackson State went away from him last week as he safety finished with just two tackles, but Alabama won’t avoid him. “We think he's a really good player,” Nick Saban said.
Quarterbacks Brent Stockstill and Austin Grammar
Stockstill, who is the head coaches’ son, will start but both quarterbacks will play. The Blue Raiders put up 700 yards on Jackson State last week as Stockstill completed 26 of 31 passes for 364 yards and four touchdowns. Dual-threat Grammar passed for 2,557 yards last season, but went 2-for-3 for 15 yards with 14 rushing yards last week.
Wide receiver Ed Batties
Batties led Middle Tennessee with 45 receptions for 474 yards last year, but the senior opened the season with eight catches for 123 yards and two touchdowns. He’s 6’0”, while 5’9” Richie James had seven catches for 94 yards. After the way Wisconsin frequently threw to the running backs last week look for Shane Tucker to catch some passes out of the backfield.
What They’re Saying
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Alabama coach Nick Saban:
One surefire way to get Saban fired up during a press conference is to either disrespect or look past an opponent. A reporter did that Monday when asking if he could use being a huge favorite against Middle Tennessee to create more competition between the quarterbacks:
"No. You know, I don't look at it like that at all. We're going to do what's best for our team getting ready for our game. I don't think the fact that … here's the one thing that everybody's got to keep in mind. Everybody's got good football players and everybody's got to respect the opponent. I don't care if we're favored in a game or not favored in a game, the most important thing for our players is to focus on what they need to do to play their best. We took one step up on the climb and we need to improve significantly. Alright? So we're not approaching this game like ... it's the most important game in the season for us because it's the next game and it's the next opportunity for us to get better. So we're not trying to create anything based on who we're playing. Because we respect who we're playing and I suggest everybody else does too. They just put 700 yards on a team so we respect that and we respect what they do. We respect their players and we respect their coaches, they go fast, it's probably going to be a hot day, so we've got lots of issues and lots of problems to deal with just in creating the type of performance that we want to create without creating something else."
Saban continued after receiving the next question about quarterback Jake Coker.
"I'm sorry you'll need to ask me that again. I'm still on the last question because being able to concentrate on the right thing on the right time is critical to being successful. Alright, so what's the right thing at the right time now? Improving our team. I'm sorry it's not your fault."
Middle Tennessee coach Rick Stockstill on his team being billed as a huge underdog:
“Ignore the noise. No offense, but we don't listen to the media. Why go down there and play if you have no chance? I don't listen to all that stuff and our players don't list to that stuff. We know what type of team we are. We know what kind of players we have. It's not about Alabama. It's about us. We have to get better. There is enough we did in the Jackson State game that we have to get corrected. We will continue to build on the good things. We are going to bust our tail this week and get ready mentally and physically to go play a very good Alabama team.”
On facing Alabama: "It is a great challenge for us, a great opportunity to play against one of the storied programs in the history of college football. Everybody knows their past history and everything they have done. What I have found pretty incredible is the past seven years they have been ranked number one in the country at one point in the season or another. That just shows you the consistency and dominance they have had over the last decade. They are a very well coached team. Coach Saban does an outstanding job. Their assistant coaches do a phenomenal job as well. They have great players. It's a great opportunity and a great challenge for us. It is one we are looking forward to."
Prediction
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Middle Tennessee is a veteran team, better than most people think and could contend for the Conference USA title. It’s been bowl eligible in five of the last six seasons and has a lot of confidence after scoring 70 points last week.
Nevertheless, this game is still a mismatch. Ideally, Alabama would like to take control on the first half and then insert the reserves. Even if everything goes the Crimson Tide’s way Nick Saban usually doesn’t run the score up against opponent like this so don’t expect a an eye-popping result.
Alabama 35, Middle Tennessee 13
Quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.
Christopher Walsh is a lead SEC college football writer. Follow Christopher on Twitter @WritingWalsh.
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