GAME SNAPSHOT
KICKOFF: Saturday, 3:30 p.m. ET
SITE: Neyland Stadium, Knoxville, Tenn.
TV: CBS
SERIES: Alabama leads 54-38-7. Alabama won the last meeting 45-7 in 2017.
RANKINGS: Alabama No. 1
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Crimson Tide
–QB Tua Tagovailoa has a national-best passing efficiency rating of 248.1, which essentially has held steady in SEC games. In four conference games, he has completed 55 of 80 passes (68.8 percent) for 1,177 yards and 13 touchdowns (that’s an efficiency rating of 245.96). Tagovailoa, despite not appearing in the fourth quarter this season, is the Heisman front-runner. He has directed 52 drives, with 34 resulting in touchdowns and five culminating in field goals.
–WR Jerry Jeudy has 25 receptions for 705 yards and nine touchdowns, leading the nation with an average of 27.12 yards per catch. He was one of five Alabama players named to the AP’s midseason All-American team, the others being Tagovailoa, LT Jonah Williams, C Ross Pierschbacher and S Deionte Thompson.
–LB Mack Wilson had his best game of the season against Missouri, with 11 tackles, including 1.5 for loss and his first career sack. The inside linebacker had put pressure on himself to do more after making just 21 tackles through the first six games. “I had to step up and study more film,” he said. “I was here extra every night. I’d go to tutoring and come back and get extra work that helped us tremendously. I was able to make the calls and checks, I knew what plays were coming.”
Volunteers
–QB Jarrett Guarantano earned SEC Offensive Player of the Week honors after a career effort in Tennessee’s upset win over Auburn. The sophomore set personal bests for yards (328) as well as completions (21) and attempts (32). It was the first 300-yard effort for the New Jersey native in 19 career appearances. Guarantano’s previous best was 242 yards versus Kentucky last season. He had not thrown for more than 172 yards in a game this year. For the season, Guarantano now has 1,129 yards and six touchdowns.
–RB Ty Chandler hauled in his second long touchdown pass in as many games en route to 112 total yards (62 receiving) versus Auburn. The sophomore’s 50 yards on the ground give him 297 on the season and vault him over Tim Jordan (284 yards, two touchdowns) for the team lead.
–DE Kyle Phillips posted a career-best nine tackles in a clutch defensive performance against Auburn. The senior’s strip-sack fumble was scooped up by teammate Alontae Taylor, who took it for an 8-yard defensive touchdown to put Tennessee up 27-17. For his effort, the SEC named Phillips as its Defensive Lineman of the Week.
KEYS
TO THE GAME
It’s a tradition for the winner of the annual Alabama-Tennessee clash on the third Saturday in October to break out victory cigars.
Former coach Butch Jones never got that opportunity in five opportunities with his Volunteers. But now that he is on the other side of this rivalry as an Alabama analyst, running back Josh Jacobs would like to see that streak end for Jones.
“We kind of joke with him about the situation,” Jacobs said. “He’s, you know, never smoked the cigar before. We’re trying to make that a goal of his.”
The No. 1 Crimson Tide (7-0, 4-0 Southeastern Conference) will be going for a 12th consecutive victory over the Vols (3-3, 1-2 SEC) when the two teams meet Saturday. Kickoff at Knoxville’s Neyland Stadium is 3:30 p.m. ET on CBS.
Tennessee’s last win in the rivalry was a 13-6 decision back in 2006. Since then, the Tide has won by an average score of 36-11 with only two of the wins by less than a touchdown — the famed “Rocky Block” 12-10 win in 2009 in a game secured by Terrence Cody’s block of a Vols field goal attempt as time expired and 19-14 in 2015.
In the two meeting since then, the Tide has outscored the Vols 94-14.
This season the Tide has demolished its first seven opponents an average score of 53.6-15.1.
Tennessee coach Jeremy Pruitt knows what to expect. He served as Bama coach Nick Saban’s director of player development from 2007-09), defensive backs coach from 2010-12),and defensive coordinator for 2016-17) and recruited a lot of the current players.
“After watching a couple games, I was afraid to look at the defense,” Pruitt said. “They’ve got dominant players at all three levels, got playmakers that create turnovers. I’m sure there’s probably a little bit of differences, but it’ll be an attacking style defense that tries to put pressure on the quarterback.”
This will be the 15th time Saban is facing one of his former assistant coaches and third time this season. He’s a perfect 14-0, including the overtime win against Kirby Smart and Georgia in the 2018 national championship game.
Also on the Volunteers sideline are numerous other former Alabama staffers including co-defensive coordinators Kevin Sherrer and Chris Rumph.
Sherrer was the Crimson Tide’s director of player development (2010-12) and Rumph was the defensive line coach (2011-13). Former Alabama analyst Chris Weinke is the running backs coach. Offensive line coach Will Friend was once a Crimson Tide guard.
Saban said Tennessee is “special game to a lot of folks in Alabama as well as his coaches and players.
“Jeremy has done a really good job with their team,” he said. “They’re playing with a lot of discipline. They’ve got lot of toughness. They’ve made a tremendous amount of improvement and I think played an outstanding game last week.”
The Vols ended an 11-game losing streak in SEC play with their 30-24 victory at Auburn.
Sophomore quarterback Jarrett Guarantano had a career game, going 21-of-32 passing for 328 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions to be named the SEC Offensive Player of the Week.
For the season, he is 166-for-264 (63 percent) for 1,129 yards, six touchdowns and two interceptions.
“As I mentioned, Tennessee is playing really, really well and has made a lot of improvement,” Saban said.”I think the quarterback has been a big part of that. He played really, really well last week.”
But the Volunteers are still statistically at or near the bottom of the league in all major offensive categories, and only slightly better defensively. Tennessee is 10th in rushing and total defense, 11th in scoring defense and ninth against the pass.
Those are not what you would call favorable numbers going up against a quarterback like Bama’s Tua Tagovailoa, who has completed 71.5 percent of his passes for over 251 yards a game in playing about three quarters of the time.
