2nd ranked Alabama travels north to Knoxville, TN this Saturday night to renew one of the best rivalries in college football...The Third Saturday in October. This year's Volunteers have been a big disappointment thus far and enter the game 3-4 overall and 1-3 in the SEC. Ranked in the top 25 in the preseason, many thought the Vols could challenge Florida and Georgia for the SEC title, but that has not come close to happening. Alabama might be visiting at a bad time however as last week as the Big Orange did play their best game of the year crushing visiting Mississippi State 34-3.
On offense Tennessee is led by new starting QB sophomore Nick Stephens. Stephens has taken over for often criticized Jonathan Crompton and played fairly well in his few starts. Stephens is completing 49.3 % of this attempts for 542 yards with 3 touchdowns and no interceptions. That is the biggest differe
nce thus far between Stephens and Crompton, Stephens does not turn it over and put the Vols in awful situations. In multiple games this year (Florida & Auburn) Tennessee had costly fumbles or interceptions around their goal line that led to easy points for the other team. In the Auburn game in particular a botched hand-off attempt in their own end zone resulted in an Auburn touchdown, Tennessee lost that game 14-12.The best play maker on offense for Tennessee is WR and sometimes QB Gerald Jones. Jones lines up at QB in Tennessee's "G-Gun" formation which is the Vols version of the "Wild Rebel" that we saw last week against Ole Miss. As seen last week Nick Saban has figured this thing out so I doubt Tennessee attempts its much on Saturday night. The Vols might not have the option as Jones left last Saturday's game in the 1st half with a high ankle sprain and did not return. Arguably the Vols best O-Lineman Anthony Parker also left the game with a high ankle sprain. Fulmer said both were questionable this week against the Tide (it would be nice if they missed a week).
On defense, Coach Fulmer's bunch has more success and a decent season so far. The D is led by one of the best safeties in America in former 5 star recruit and sophomore Eric Berry. Berry currently leads the SEC with 5
interceptions and has the ability to score any time he touches the ball. Tennessee enters the game 5th in the SEC in total defense right behind Alabama and give up an average of 16.0 points per game.While this sounds really strange to say, we faced more individual play makers last week against Ole Miss than we will in Knoxville this weekend. I would take Jevan Sneed, Enrique Davis, Dexter McCluster and Greg Hardy at each of their positions over what Tennessee currently has. That said, Fulmer is usually at his best when his team is backed into a corner and a win over # 2 Alabama knocking them out of the national title game picture and ending their perfect season would make the Vols. That said, I think we are just better than Tennessee and seem to bring a different intensity and focus to road games. For whatever reason we have played much better on the road (Clemson, Arkansas, and Georgia) than we have in Bryant-Denny this season.
I see Tennessee playing hard and making it a good game for a while but Alabama has to many play makers for Tennessee to win this game. On a side note, Alabama leads the all time series with a record of 45-38-7.
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