Southern Miss (2-1) at No. 2 Alabama (3-0)
Saturday, noon ET, Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa Southern Miss will find a check for $1.85 million for showing up in Tuscaloosa. In reality, just two schools nationwide will create more of a single matchup this season: Tulane and Kent State if they each visit Alabama's arch-rival Auburn. It's the 44th all time meeting between both universities. They last played Sept. 13, 2014, and Bama had been No. 1 in the country and rolled to a 52-12 house victory. The Tide direct the series 36-5-2 and so are 21-1-1 at home. They've taken the past six Southern Miss overall. The Golden Eagles' last victory against Alabama came on Sept. 16, 2000, when Southern Miss closed out the Tide 21-0 in Birmingham. It is USM's second match of the year against an SEC staff because it seen Mississippi State in Week 2 and lost 38-15. The Eagles seen Auburn annually when the Tigers were ranked 10th and USM played quite closely in losing only 24-13. Highest-Ranked USM Foe In 22 Decades Southern Miss (Brett Favre's alma mater) is trained by Jay Hopson and plays at Conference USA. The Golden Eagles were year with one game. They didn't play in a bowl. USM is currently 2-1 after Saturday's shootout 47-42 win in Troy, this calendar year. Receiver Jaylond Adams had quite the day, returning a kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown and catching 11 passes for 180 yards. He also finished the game with 322 all-purpose yards -- the second most ever in a game with a Golden Eagle in program history. Fellow WR Quez Watkins, that missed the first two games this season, caught seven passes for 209 yards and 2 scores. The yardage has been No. 1 by almost any FBS player in Week 3, the fifth-most in a game for a Golden Eagle and the sixth 200-plus getting yard outing in school history. In the end, quarterback Jack Abraham has been 28-for-36 for a career-high 463 yards and two touchdowns while running for a score. The yardage was second-best in history (current 49ers backup QB Nick Mullens threw for 591 at 2016) and he also set a USM mark by completing his first 17 passing attempts to begin the game. Defensively, the Eagles held Troy to 24 rushing yards to improve to 13-4 under Hopson when holding an opponent under 100 yards rushing. This is highest-ranked Associated Press opponent for Southern Miss since they played with No. 2 Florida on Aug. 30, 1997. Southern Miss lost that 21-6. Tide Do Not Reduce To Unranked Teams Alabama has played with fairly the weak schedule in beginning 3-0 and is now away from a 47-23 win at South Carolina in their first real road game of 2019. Tua Tagovailoa, who's currently the +400 Bovada co-favorite to win the Heisman Trophy with the guy he had been backup in Oklahoma's Jalen Hurts, flew to get a career-high 444 yards (No. 3 in school history) and tied a career-best using five touchdown passes. No Bama QB had thrown for 400 yards and five TDs in a game previously. It was Bama's 27th straight home win. Running Najee Harris captured two of these scores. DeVonta Smith and Henry Ruggs III tallied 136 along with 122 receiving yards, respectively. It was just the ninth time in school history that two Alabama recipients have gone over 100 yards in precisely exactly the exact identical match. Smith had two TD grabs and Ruggs a single. Alabama has gained an unbelievable 85 successive matches against unranked schools under head coach Nick Saban, the longest series in FBS history. Alabama's final loss to a team not ranked in the AP Top 25 has been a 17-10 defeat to Auburn on Nov. 24, 2007. The Tide have lost just one match to a team ranked outside the top 15 in the AP poll since the start of the 2008 The Tide did suffer another defensive accident with ending LaBryan Ray, a preseason All-SEC selection, damaging his foot. He's out indefinitely. Beginning linebackers Joshua McMillon and Butkus Award finalist Dylan Moses suffered season-ending accidents before the beginning of the season. I ran a few computer simulations with this and it ended with a mean score of 45-13. Finest NCAAF Select: USM +39.5 in Pinnacle