Tua: ‘I’m fine’ as No. 1 Tide heads to Tennessee
No. 1 Alabama, unchallenged this season, only has one more test before things maybe, possibly could get interesting in November.
Nick Saban’s team — which has a 375-106 scoring edge this season and has won every game by at least 22 points — still has business in October with a Saturday game at Tennessee.
There are two main storylines.
The big one: Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa’s knee. He sprained the knee at Arkansas on Oct. 6 and aggravated the injury Saturday in the game against Missouri, spending time in the medical tent on the sideline. When his parents left the stands to go to the sideline, Alabama fans feared the worst.
“I’m fine,” Tagovailoa said in a Monday night on ESPN.
“I got to go out to practice today. I’m a lot better, actually, than I was last week after the Arkansas game. I mean, it looked bad on the field. I just re-tweaked it, kind of. But we got some treatment after the game, following this morning leading up to practice today, so we’re a lot better. We’re much better.”
That tracks with what Saban said, as he told reporters that Tagovailoa could have gone back in the game if necessary. It wasn’t. The Tide (7-0, 4-0 SEC) won 39-10.
With Alabama having its bye following the game against Tennessee (3-3, 1-2 SEC), might it make sense to rest Tagovailoa in advance of the Nov. 3 game at LSU, which now looms as the key battle in the SEC West? We’ll see.
The second storyline: Saban is going up against yet another of his former assistants, this time first-year Vols head coach Jeremy Pruitt, who previously had been Alabama’s defensive coordinator.
Tennessee is coming off a 30-24 upset victory over Auburn on Saturday.
“I think he is doing an outstanding job,” Saban said of Pruitt.
“You just look at the team from the beginning to now, it is really pretty phenomenal. The team plays with great discipline, lots of toughness, great effort … all the intangibles that you have a chance to affect as a coach.”
