Checking the temperature in Tuscaloosa as the Crimson Tide head into SEC play.

HOT

All of the running backs. T.J. Yeldon hasn’t been as much of a workhorse as he has in the past over the last two games, but he hasn’t had to. Derrick Henry, Kenyan Drake and Tyren Jones, along with Yeldon, have all been borderline unstoppable lately. All four are averaging better than 5 yards per carry on the season, and they combined for 245 yards against Southern Mississippi. When Yeldon is your fourth-leading rusher in a game (he still leads for the season), you know you’re in a pretty good spot.

WARM

Trey DePriest. The senior linebacker returned from suspension against Florida Atlantic, and he made an impact against Southern Miss, earning recognition from Nick Saban as one of the players of the game. He recorded 6 tackles, was involved for a tackle-for-loss and had a quarterback hurry. DePriest got beat on a couple of routes over the middle, so there’s still some work to be done, but the Crimson Tide’s best linebacker is just getting warmed up.

COLD

Receivers not named Amari Cooper. Even though he failed to record double-digit catches for the fifth straight game, Cooper put up yet another 100-plus yard stat line against Southern Miss. The Tide are doing the smart thing and getting him the ball as much as possible, but it’s coming at the expense of the other pass catchers on the team. Cooper has eight more catches than the rest of the team’s wideouts combined. Soon enough — possibly this weekend against Florida — Alabama is going to run into a team that can somewhat limit Cooper, and guys like DeAndrew White and Christion Jones will have to stop it up.

FROZEN

O.J. Howard. I don’t think we can write this enough. The freakishly good tight end still has no catches through three weeks, and has been seen popping up on milk cartons around T-Town. There hasn’t been a good explanation for Howard’s disappearance yet, and hopefully the Tide find a way to use him soon.