Alabama Football vs. Ole Miss Postgame Notes
9/20/2015 12:00:00 AM | Football
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GAME CAPTAINS: Alabama's captains for Saturday's Southeastern Conference opener against Ole Miss were seniors Ryan Kelly and Reggie Ragland, and junior Derrick Henry. The Rebels won the toss and deferred to the second half, with the Crimson Tide receiving tonight's opening kickoff.
SERIES HISTORY: Alabama's lead in the series with Ole Miss falls to 47-11-2, including a 25-2 record when playing as the home team. Tonight's loss snaps Alabama's 12-game home win streak over Ole Miss.
SEPTEMBER STREAK ENDS: Alabama's 43-37 loss to Ole Miss was its first September loss since Sept. 20, 2007, snapping a 29-game winning streak in games played in the month of September. This is also Alabama's earliest loss to start a season since South Carolina on October 9, 2010.
FIRST TIME STARTING: Crimson Tide quarterback Cooper Bateman and tight end Hale Hentges both made their first career start in tonight's game.
SABAN VS. OLE MISS: Alabama head coach Nick Saban owns a 10-3 record (11-3 before a vacated win in 2007) in his career against Ole Miss. He is 6-2 at Alabama (7-2 before a vacated 2007 win) following last year's 23-17 loss in Oxford and Saturday's 43-37 defeat.
COACH SABAN IN SEC HOME OPENERS: The loss to Ole Miss is the first in a Southeastern Conference home opener for Nick Saban as a head coach. Saban is 12-1 all-time in SEC home openers spanning his time at Alabama and LSU. He is now 8-1 at Alabama and saw an 11-game winning streak in SEC home openers dating back to 2002 snapped with the loss to Ole Miss.
SABAN IN SEC OPENERS: Head coach Nick Saban is now 8-1 in SEC openers during his time at Alabama and is 10-4 for his career as a head coach in the Southeastern Conference.
ALABAMA'S TV?RECORD: Alabama has compiled a 227-131-4 (.633) all-time record in 362 televised games (not including pay-per-view, tape-delayed or closed circuit telecasts).
Defensive Notes
RAGLAND LEADING THE TIDE D: For the third consecutive game this season, Reggie Ragland led the Alabama defense, this time with nine tackles in tonight's game, which was also the seventh time in his career that he has led the Tide in stops. His other four games all came a season ago when the linebacker stepped up for the Crimson Tide and finished second on the team with 95 total tackles while accounting for 10.5 tackles for loss (-27 yards), 1.5 sacks (-12 yards), one interception, three pass breakups, three fumble recoveries, one forced fumble and a quarterback hurry. His 2014 season highlights included a 13-tackle performance, with four solos and one for loss, at LSU, and 10 stops against No. 1 Mississippi State.
Offensive Notes
RUSHING TO SUCCESS: Alabama is 71-4 since the start of the 2008 season when rushing for at least 140 yards. The only losses were at Auburn in 2013, Ole Miss and Ohio State in 2014 and the Rebels again in 2015.
MULLANEY NOTCHES FIRST CAREER TD: Alabama senior wideout Richard Mullaney's nine-yard dive into the end zone marked his first career touchdown reception with the Crimson Tide.
FIRST HALF POINTS: With Adam Griffith's 20-yard field goal in the first quarter, the Crimson Tide has scored in the first half of the last 106 games played, the longest streak in the nation. The last time UA failed to score in the first half was Sept. 29, 2007, when Alabama and Florida State headed into halftime in a scoreless tie. The Seminoles won that game 21-14. With the loss to Ole Miss, Alabama has a 90-16 record during the streak.
SCORING STREAK CONTINUES: With Adam Griffith's field goal in the first quarter from 20 yards out, Alabama has now scored in 186 consecutive games - the longest streak in program history.
TIDE BACKS MOVING UP IN THE RECORD BOOKS: Both Derrick Henry and Kenyan Drake moved up the career rushing list with their performances in the Ole Miss game. Henry, who led the Crimson Tide offense with 127 yards rushing, jumped to 22nd on the UA all-time list at 1,742 yards total for his career. With his 33 yards rushing, Drake rose to 41st on the UA all-time career rushing yards list with 1,237 across his four seasons in Crimson and White.
HENRY PASSES THE CENTURY MARK AGAIN: Derrick Henry's 127-yard performance against Ole Miss this evening pushed him past the century mark for the seventh time in his career. Most recently, he rushed for 147 yards and three touchdowns on 13 carries against Wisconsin to open the 2015 campaign. Henry had a 141-yard performance against Missouri in the SEC Championship last season. He also went for 111 on 20 carries with a score against Florida and 113 on 17 carries with a touchdown against West Virginia in 2014. As a freshman, Henry put together a Sugar Bowl game against Oklahoma that saw the first-year back go for 100 yards on eight attempts with a touchdown, while also collecting 111 yards on six carries with a score against Arkansas.
HENRY DOMINANT IN LAST FIVE GAMES: Junior tailback Derrick Henry has been impressive in his last five contests. Including tonight's game, he has amassed 606 yards on 87 carries for a 7.0 yards per carry average, while adding 10 rushing touchdowns in his last five outings. He has also collected 105 yards on four receptions.
Series Information
- This was the 63rd meeting all-time between Ole Miss and Alabama ... The Crimson Tide now hold a 47-11-2 series lead.
- Ole Miss has defeated Alabama in back-to-back years for the first time in history and won in Tuscaloosa for the first time since 1988.
Captains
General Notes
- Attendance at Bryant-Denny Stadium was a capacity crowd of 101,821.
- The Rebels now own an all-time record of 648-501-35 (.562 winning percentage) and a 27-15 record under Hugh Freeze (.643 winning percentage).
- Ole Miss now has an all-time record of 33-46-3 (.421 winning percentage) in SEC openers.
- Ole Miss starts the season 3-0 for the third straight year.
- The Rebels' 43 points were their most ever scored in a game in Tuscaloosa and tied for the second-most points against Alabama in the all-time series.
- This is the first time in school history Ole Miss has scored 43 or more points in three straight games.
- Ole Miss handed Alabama its first loss in Tuscaloosa since Texas A&M in 2012.
- The Rebels forced five Alabama turnovers (scoring 24 points off of them) and did not commit a single turnover in the game.
- Ole Miss improved to 64-147-2 all-time against ranked teams and 6-10 under Freeze ... The Rebels are now 4-8 against top-10 teams and 3-3 against top-five foes in the Freeze era ... This was the Rebels' second straight win over a top-five team (31-17 win over No. 4 Mississippi State last year).
- Ole Miss is now 21-4 under Freeze when it leads at halftime, including a 3-0 mark this year.
- Ole Miss won the toss and deferred to the second half ... The Rebels have won the toss in two of three games this year.
Offensive Notes
- Ole Miss was a perfect 4-for-4 in red zone tries (2 TD, 2 FG) and is a perfect 15-for-15 this season (12 TD, 3 FG).
- Junior QB Chad Kelly completed 18 of 33 passes for 341 yards, three TDs and no interceptions, while rushing eight times for 21 yards and another score ... He's now accounted for 12 total touchdowns this year (four per game).
- Sophomore RB Jordan Wilkins punched in a 1-yard touchdown in the second quarter for his second career TD (first of the season) ... He's the seventh different Rebel to rush for a touchdown this season.
- Junior WR Quincy Adeboyejo caught his fifth touchdown of the season with a crazy 66-yard reception on a desperation heave by Kelly that was tipped up.
- Senior WR Cody Core caught four passes for a career-high 123 yards, including a 73-yard TD in the fourth quarter that put the Rebels up by two scores ... It was Core's second career 100-yard receiving game.
- With five catches, Laquon Treadwell passed Rebel great Dexter McCluster and moved into 10th place in school history with 134 career receptions ... Treadwell also moved into a tie for ninth in school history with 11 career TD catches ... He finished the game with five catches for 80 yards and his first TD of the season.
Defensive Notes
- Ole Miss forced five Alabama turnovers and has forced 10 turnovers on the season ... The Rebels led the SEC and ranked eighth nationally with 32 turnovers last year.
- The Ole Miss defense held Alabama scoreless in the first quarter at Bryant-Denny Stadium for the first time since 2012.
- Senior FS Trae Elston had an interception for the third straight game, but it was the first time he didn't return it to the house this season.
- Senior LB C.J. Johnson picked off a pass for the second straight game and third time in his career.
- Junior CB Tony Bridges snagged his first interception as a Rebel late in the fourth quarter.
Special Teams Notes
- Sophomore K Gary Wunderlich made a career-high three field goals on three attempts, converting from 32, 34 and 45 yards.
- Sophomore DB A.J. Moore recovered an Alabama fumble (his first career recovery) on the opening kickoff that set up a Rebel field goal for the game's first score ... He then forced a fumble on a second-quarter Alabama kick return (recovered by Carlos Davis) that set up a Chad Kelly touchdown run.
