Alabama Football vs. Southern Miss Postgame Notes
9/13/2014 12:00:00 AM | Football
General Notes
Game Captains
Alabama's captains for Saturday's game against Southern Miss were Nick Perry, Brian Vogler and T.J. Yeldon. The Golden Eagles won the coin toss and elected to receive the opening kickoff.
Series History
With a 52-12 win, Alabama leads the all-time series with Southern Miss 34-6-2.
Defensive Notes
Affecting the Quarterback
Alabama has seven sacks in the first three games (3 vs. West Virginia, 3 vs. against Florida Atlantic and 1 vs. Southern Miss), which are the most for an Alabama team in the first three games of the season since recording 10 sacks in the first three games of the 2009 undefeated national championship season (5 vs. Virginia Tech, 5 vs. Florida International and 0 vs. North Texas). It took the first five games for Alabama to record six sacks in 2013. Ryan Anderson and Xzavier Dickson lead the Tide with two sacks each through three games in 2014.
Hard to Find End Zone Against Alabama
Since the start of the 2009 season, no defense has allowed fewer touchdowns than the Crimson Tide. Over the last 70 games, the Alabama defense has surrendered 92 touchdowns - an average of only 1.3 per contest.
Holding Opponents Under 300
In head coach Nick Saban's 97-game tenure at Alabama, the Crimson Tide has limited opponents to under 300 yards of total offense 62 times, or 63.9 percent of the time. UA has held two of three opponents below 300 yards in 2014.
Rushing Defense
Alabama limited Southern Miss to 56 yards rushing in tonight's game, marking the third straight game the Crimson Tide defense has allowed 60 yards or less on the ground. In the season opener, West Virginia finished with 28 yards rushing, and Florida Atlantic followed that up with 57 yards.
Offensive Notes
Cooper Rewriting Record Book
Nearly every time junior Amari Cooper touched the ball in the first half he moved up in one of several categories in the Alabama career record book. On his first reception, a 17-yarder, he passed Ozzie Newsome (1974-77; 2,070 yards) for the No. 3 spot on the Crimson Tide's career receiving yards list. On his next catch, a 22-yard touchdown reception, Cooper tied DJ Hall (2004-07) for second in career touchdown receptions with 17. Cooper finished the game with 135 yards on eight receptions giving him 137 career receptions for 2,190 yards. His 137 career receptions place Cooper into the No. 4 position in the record book.
Cooper Ties Record with Fifth Straight 100-Yard Game
Junior Amari Cooper finished the game with 135 yards, tying him with DJ Hall (2006) for a record five straight 100-yard receiving games.
Drake Scores Career-Best Three Touchdowns
Junior running back Kenyan Drake scored a career-best three touchdowns in the win over Southern Miss. His previous best of two came twice, last against Arkansas on Oct. 19, 2013.
Rushing to Success
Alabama is 63-1 since the start of the 2008 season when rushing for at least 140 yards. The only loss was at Auburn in 2013 when the Tide went for 218 yards, but saw the Tigers gain 296 and score on the game's final play. In 75 total wins since the start of the 2008 season, Alabama has averaged 216.1 yards per game (16,204 yards). The Tide finished tonight's game with 333 yards rushing, which was the most since it ran for 352 against Arkansas on Oct. 19, 2013.
Balanced Attack
Alabama has fielded one of the most balanced offenses in the nation over the past five-plus years. Since the 2009 season, Alabama has passed for 16,024 while rushing for 14,846, a difference of only 1,178 yards (or 16.83 yards per game difference in 70 games). This season, the Crimson Tide has passed for 894 yards passing while rushing for 811, a difference of 83 yards.
Scoring Streak Continues
With junior Amari Cooper's 22-yard touchdown reception in the first quarter, Alabama has scored in 172 consecutive games - the longest streak in program history.
Southern Miss Notes
Southern Miss Captains
11 - Kalan Reed, 23 - Markese Triplett, 25 - Corey Acosta and 37 - Alan Howze.
Coin Flip
Southern Miss wins toss; elects to receive.
Team Notes
- Southern Miss played its first ranked team since playing at Nebraska on Sept. 7, 2013, the Huskers were ranked No. 22 by the Associated Press. Alabama is the first game since an AP Top 10 team since defeating No. 7 Houston 49-28 in the 2011 C-USA Championship game (12/3/11).
- The announced crowd of 101,821 is the fifth largest crowd ever to see the Golden Eagles play. It was also the fifth time Southern Miss has played in front of a crowd of 100,000 or more.
- The Golden Eagles have not turned the football over in the last 10 quarters. That is the longest streak since they have not had a giveaway since doing it in three-straight games from Oct. 2-16, 2010, coming against Marshall, East Carolina and Memphis.
Offense
- The Golden Eagles' 10-play drive to start the game tied for the longest drive of the season for the Golden Eagles in terms of plays. The drive was capped off by a 33-yard field goal by Corey Acosta.
- Sophomore QB Nick Mullens threw for a season-best 97 yards in the opening quarter this season.
- Mullens threw for over 200 yards for the eighth time in nine starts in his career, finishing with 207 yards on 19-of-35 passing.
- Freshman Tez Parks had the longest rush of his young career with a 24-yard carry in the third quarter.
- Marcus Triplett notched a season-best five catches for 46 yards.
Defense
- Junior Kalan Reed had his string of three-straight games with an interception snapped, but did collect a pair of pass break ups in the first half.
- The Golden Eagles registered their seventh takeaway of the season late in the opening half on a muffed punt that was recovered by senior Justin Penn - the first of career.
- Dasman McCullum notched his first sack of the season and fourth of his career with an 11-yard loss of Alabama QB Jake Coker in the fourth quarter.
- Junior linebacker Brian Anderson tied with a game-high nine tackles with Emmanuel Johnson, marking a season high for stops.
Special Teams
- Tyler Sarrazin collected a 51-yard punt in his first attempt of the day, giving him three punts of 50-yards or longer this season.
