What Zach Arnett said about facing Jalen Milroe, Alabama defense
Mississippi State’s Zach Arnett was the 11th head coach to join the SEC football coaches weekly media teleconference on Wednesday. During his 10-minute window with reporters, Arnett was asked a number of questions about Alabama. Below is everything he said about the Crimson Tide ahead of the Week 5 SEC West matchup in Starkville, Miss.
“Excited for another opportunity to play a game this week. Obviously back at home after our first road trip of the season. We’ve got a late-night kick, I think it’s 8:10 p.m. kickoff time. It was a late kick last week, and so we’re kind of used to that routine now of having to get through the whole day. But with an 8:10 p.m. kick, it’s even later, and so it gives us a little more time to prepare. And we need our entire fanbase, it gives them plenty of time during the day to get in the game-day spirit. We need everyone out. We need Davis Wade rocking and we need a great environment because we’ve got a great opponent coming in here.
“Alabama’s obviously one of the premier programs in the country, have been. They’re a tremendous football team, very talented. They do everything well, and so we have a big challenge ahead of us and a top-notch opponent coming in here, so we need a top-notch environment in our game. That’s my request to our entire fanbase is to please show up and have the stadium rocking.”
Arnett on Alabama QB Jalen Milroe…
“He’s got an extremely strong arm, so he can launch it over your head in the secondary and at some point, far enough down the field, pretty much all coverage turns to man-to-man at that point. They have great speed. (Jermaine) Burton has tremendous speed, so he can take the top off of coverage. There’s quite a few other receivers who can, and Milroe can let it fly.”
Arnett on Alabama WR Jermaine Burton…
“I think when it comes to receivers, right, the biggest thing that defensive coaches and DBs fear is speed, right, because a guy who can run by, obviously, you’ve gotta preach all week, ‘Hey, stay on top. The ball can’t be thrown over your head.’ And obviously, when a guy can run at you fast, it forces you to play softer and stay on top, and that opens up all the other routes that are not verticals, right – curls, comebacks, digs, every other break – because you’re so threatened by the speed and having to stay on top of the route that now, it makes all the other shallower routes harder to defend. And so he has tremendous speed. They have a whole receiver room full of tremendous speed. That’s kind of the No. 1 skillset at wide receiver. When you can run really fast and then when you can change directions well, that’s a good foundation for a receiver.”
Arnett on what impresses him most about Alabama’s defense…
“First off, it starts with tremendous players, right. They don’t have a weakness. They’ve got a big, strong, physical defensive line who can eat and swallow up blocks if they wanna play that style. They can penetrate and get in the backfield if they wanna play more of an attacking style. They’ve got linebackers who read and react phenomenal, can cover routes. Edge rushers who are second to none in the country. And the secondary is extremely talented. They tackle well. They get downhill and support the run very well. And they play all their pattern-match coverages and man coverages really good. And so when you combine all those things together, you have a really good defense – executing any scheme.
“They can rush three and drop eight and they’re gonna do that about as good as any team in the country can do that, and they can rush four and play a pattern-match coverage as good as any team in the country. They can blitz, sending five or more, and play man coverage and do that as good as any team in the country. The foundation always starts with players, and then they have maybe the greatest defensive mind in the history of college football as the architect of their scheme. They’ve only grown on it in his time there. All of that is a good recipe for having a lights-out defense, which they certainly do have.”
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