Breaking down the offensive matchup between Alabama and Ole Miss

Alabama and Ole Miss will meet in a highly anticipated contest that will shape the course of the SEC West race early in the season, potentially providing a leader in the race.

The SEC StatCat, or On3 college football analyst Clark Brooks, has broken down the matchup. In particular, he broke down what the Ole Miss offense is doing so far this year and what that might mean against Alabama.

“So pace in space, that’s been the Lane Kiffin approach for many, many years,” Brooks said on the Andy Staples On3 show. “But they haven’t been themselves the best in the trenches. Quinshon Judkins, who was my running back two in the impact rankings ahead of the season, definitely not being that impactful the first three weeks of the season here. So if he cannot find some wins and again it’s Jaxson Dart having to be the primary driver of this offense, I don’t feel as good about Ole Miss despite their tendency to be explosive.”

While Alabama’s offense has been a mess, the defense has been mostly fine. Last week the unit was excellent in salvaging an otherwise completely forgettable performance, holding USF to just three points in a 17-3 win.

The Crimson Tide will almost certainly need more offense to beat the Rebels, but the Rebels will have to see if what they’ve done so far will hold up against a more quality opponent.

“They’ve been one of the most explosive offenses in the country to start the season,” Brooks said. “Jaxson Dart in terms of yards per attempt, he’s near 12 yards per his passing attempt. So yes, they are definitely moving the ball fairly effectively through the air.”

Alabama hasn’t been bad against the pass, ranking 38th nationally and giving up about 190 yards per game through the air.

The tricky part on Saturday for Alabama is Ole Miss doesn’t give you a ton of chances to disrupt the quarterback’s rhythm. That’s part of the offensive design.

“When we’re looking at the super spread scheme, no quarterback over the last three years has had a lower true dropback percentage — so that is excluding screens, RPOs, tap passes and true play-actions — than these super spread quarterbacks,” Brook said. “So that’s Hendon Hooker, Jaxson Dart, KJ Jefferson, those type of quarterbacks.”

What does that mean in terms of how Ole Miss wants to attack?

“That tells you how the scheme itself doesn’t want to put the quarterback behind the gun too often and wants to keep the target moving, keep going fast, provide a lot of different keys that might look like something else,” Brooks said, “Then counterpunch you when you’re not expecting it.”