Mississippi State head coach Zach Arnett knows his defense. He and his Bulldogs will face off against Alabama football Saturday in Starkville, where he’ll come face to face with a Crimson Tide defense that has been stout over the past two weeks.

Arnett, who was MSU’s defensive coordinator before the death of head coach Mike Leach, was asked on Wednesday’s SEC coaches teleconference about the challenges of facing the Crimson Tide’s unit.

“Tremendous players,” Arnett said “They don’t have a weakness. They have a big, strong, physical defensive line who they can eat and swallow up blocks if they want to play that style. They can penetrate and get in the backfield if they want to play more of an attacking style.”

Last week, Alabama held Lane Kiffin’s Ole Miss offense to just 10 points in a win at Bryant-Denny Stadium. Before that, the Crimson Tide went to Tampa, where it kept South Florida to just three.

Arnett went on to praise more of UA’s position groups.

“They got linebackers who can read and react phenomenal, can cover routes” Arnett said. “Edge rushers who are second to none in the country. The secondary’s extremely talented. They tackle well, they get downhill and support the run very well. And then they play all their pattern-match coverages and man coverages really good, so when you combine all those things together, you have a really good defense executing any scheme.”

The MSU coach noted Alabama’s players made up the foundation of why the defense has been so solid. He then called Nick Saban “maybe the greatest defensive mind in the history of college football.”

Alabama’s one down defensive game this season came in its Week 2 loss to Texas. The Crimson Tide didn’t sack UT quarterback Quinn Ewers and the Longhorns put up 34 points to win in Tuscaloosa.

Arnett was asked how he saw from the Longhorns that made them able to have that performance against the Tide.

“Texas has some good players too,” Arnett said. “Some guys made some plays and then they got some advantageous field positions after some turnovers.”

Alabama and Mississippi State are set to kick off at 8 p.m. Saturday in Starkville. The game will be aired on ESPN.

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