Nick Saban offers crazy Mississippi State stat, warning for Alabama, fans

Alabama head coach Nick Saban knows the challenge that awaits Alabama on Saturday against Mississippi State. The Crimson Tide lost last week to drop to 5-1 and are looking to get back on track with a victory on the road. Mississippi State is 3-2 on the year and defeated Texas A&M two weeks ago before last week’s bye.

With Alabama needing to get back in the win column, Saban talked about the challenges of facing an improving Mississippi State team. He said that this year’s team is much better than last year’s.

“They’re a good team. They are much better than they were a year ago,” Saban said of Mississippi State. “They play better on defense and the quarterback is a lot better. He played half the game against us last year but he was a freshman, and he’s been starting ever since. They’ve added a couple of skill guys, transfers that are much better receivers than what they had. Their offensive line is better. They’re a much better team than we faced a year ago. And the games they lost were very close. This will be a very challenging game.”

Saban: Alabama must prepare for the Mississippi State passing attack

Mississippi State quarterback Will Rogers has attempted 284 passes on the season, completing 75.7 percent of them with 1,862 yards, 14 touchdowns, and two interceptions. The Bulldogs have only attempted to run the ball 93 times through five games. Saban knows that Alabama is in line to face a heavy dosage of the pass against Mississippi State.

He also knows that having another year to learn the system has helped Mississippi State after last year made it tough for players to grow comfortable.

“They will throw the ball. They average 57 passes a game so far,” Saban said. “There’s not a situation in the game where it’s not 80 plus percent pass. First and ten, second and long, third and two, whatever. It’s all 80 plus. Ball on the one yard line, still 80 percent pass. That doesn’t mean they won’t run it 20 percent of the time, but that’s the way they play and they do it really well.

“And they have a good system and the players are much better at executing the system. If you remember last year, it’s a new coach and you have it. So, you don’t have your team for as much during spring practice, the summer so they were in a brand new system and didn’t have the proper time to develop in the system. Now they have and they do a very good job at executing it.”

Alabama and Mississippi State will kick off at 7 p.m. ET on Saturday.