COLLEGE FOOTBALL IS BACK BABY.
Week zero action kicked off in Ireland with Notre Dame and Navy, but just one hour later, CFB was back on American soil with Mercer taking on South Alabama. I, of course, was locked in.
Offense
Mercer likes to run the ball, a lot. Mercer registered 17 pass attempts in a game against Alabama. most of which were less than five yards downfield. They almost exclusively attacked the A and B gaps and averaged a meager 3.7 YPC on the game.
Their rushing attack does not worry me. Their lead back is Micah Bell, who doesn’t “wow” me in any area of the game. He has solid vision but lacks explosiveness, power or any other trait that should concern the Rebels.
The Bears’ receiving core is a little more dynamic. The Bears have two receivers who they play consistently: Ty James and Devron Harper. James is a traditional “X” receiver, while Harper is more explosive and athletic. Harper gets a lot of his touches on bubble screens, but Mercer’s perimeter blocking is average at best.
Mercer really only has two wrinkles to throw at Ole Miss. The first is their pre-snap shifts. Mercer runs a lot of 12 personnel and almost always has a guy moving across the formation. Mundane shifts like that should be no problem, but Mercer will also move their offensive line around pre-snap.
Against North Alabama, they motioned tackles and did entire OL shifts, minus the center. This could give the Rebels a little confusion when plugging gaps, but once again, I doubt it will be anything worrying.
The other weapon Mercer has is Parker Wroble. Wroble is a WR/RB hybrid who is lightning quick. Unlike Bell, he has the ability to accelerate well and break off big runs. Taking good pursuit angles on him will be crucial.
So how can Ole Miss stop Mercer?
Really, all it takes is merely showing up. Mercer showed a very basic game plan last week and lacks any elite playmakers to change the tide of the game. On the ground, the Bears keep it between the tackles; through the air, they attack the flats with rollouts, flood concepts and screens.
Their OL shifts may draw some penalties, but other than that, the Rebels should smother their offense while having the ability to run any defense Pete Golding desires.
Defense
The Bears run a 4-2-5 defense with a few three-man front variations. They run a lot of cloud coverage and press their cornerbacks on the boundary. Their zone scheme allows them to blitz LBs from similar alignments, making OL communication important.
To beat cloud coverage, the best routes to run are go-routes that attack the soft spot between the safeties’ deep zone and the corners’ shallow zone.
Once again, the talent gap between these teams is large enough that any route should work, but those are the typical cloud beaters. Whatever QB Ole Miss throws out there will need to do a good job keeping his WRs out of large collisions.
The only Mercer player who really stood out to me was cornerback Cam Simms. He is very aggressive as an outside press corner and showed impressive athletic ability on a few plays. I am not sure how he will hold up against the Rebel receiving core, but I would keep him in the back of your mind.
Mercer also seriously struggled to tackle against North Alabama. There were a number of very embarrassing attempts that resulted in extra yardage for ball carriers. I don’t expect Judkins to play much, but he could have a record-breaking performance if he and the staff see fit.
Three Keys to Victory:
- Inside defensive linemen must not let guards climb to the second level
- Attack the boundary through the air on offense
- Do not miss tackles on ST or defense
