Jumbo Package: Alabama football at Tennessee previews and predictions

Happy Friday, everyone. Alabama basketball dominated the glass last night to edge Ole Miss in the second exhibition of the basketball season. They were sorely missing a point guard though, as the Rebels rode a whopping 12 steals to score 23 points off of turnovers. The first couple of games might be hairy with Aden Holloway out, especially if Anderson Diaz isn’t quite healed to start the season.

But, you’re primarily here for previews of the Third Saturday in October. Here you go:

“I just don’t know how I can get Tennessee to 20 points in this game without a defensive score, without a special teams score or something along those lines,” he said. “I don’t see it. I don’t see them lighting up the scoreboard. They didn’t against Texas, and they had those things and didn’t get to 20.”

For those reasons, Klatt has Alabama snapping a two-game losing streak in Knoxville and winning for the 18th time in the last 20 meetings against Tennessee in the Third Saturday in October rivalry.

His final score prediction:

“I’ve got Bama, 31-17, covering the 8.5. I’m going to go with Bama. They might have a letdown. I’m hoping they don’t. I want them to be that consistent, urgency effort team that we’ve known and come to love.”

Freshman Faizon Brandon proved unready and far too sack prone, and George MacIntyre threw two picks in a closer-than-expected win over Arkansas last week.

The Vols’ defense could make life difficult for Alabama quarterback Keelon Russell, who took four sacks against Georgia last week. Russell is a big-play hunter, to his credit and detriment, and those tendencies have paired well with an efficient but not particularly explosive run game. The Crimson Tide still nearly beat Georgia despite Russell’s mistakes, but he’ll probably be without his most explosive target, the injured Ryan Coleman-Williams. Tennessee could suck Bama into a bit of a defense-and-field-position game, but at some point the Vols’ quarterback will need to make a big throw. We don’t really have evidence that that will happen.

Current line: Bama -7.5 | SP+ projection: Bama by 3.8 | FPI projection: Bama by 7.7

Tennessee won’t be able to keep the Alabama offense down for a full four quarters. It’ll win its share of battles, but like the Texas loss, all it will take is one or two deep shots to open this up.

The Vols will get the ground game going enough to help out MacIntyre, but once this turns into a bit of a track meet – and it only might be for a few drives – Alabama will take over.

Alabama 34, Tennessee 24

Tennessee’s defense and run game have carried it to a 5-1 start. Replicating that formula against Alabama won’t be possible unless the Crimson Tide shoot themselves in the foot with turnovers and special team miscues. Because the Crimson Tide won’t respect the Volunteers’ passing game, they’ll be able to load the box and frustrate Tennessee’s ground game, much like Texas did in Week 4. Offensively, Alabama has too much firepower to be fully restrained for four quarters. Look for Bama to pull away in the fourth quarter. Pick: Alabama -8.5

One week after facing the No. 1 scoring defense in the SEC, Alabama now gets to face No. 2. Jim Knowles’ Tennessee defense allows 15.5 points per game, 4.7 yards per play and an SEC-low nine touchdowns. Opposing quarterbacks have struggled against the Volunteers’ defensive backfield, paired with a pass rush that has the most sacks in the country. This is where the problem lies for Alabama. RB DeSean Bishop brings flash, but Tennessee’s offense is one-dimensional. And in its only ranked game of the season, a 20-17 loss to then-No. 1 Texas, the Volunteers offense was stifled. Alabama is the best team Tennessee has seen since Texas. And while Russell struggled at times against Georgia, there were times he looked as explosive of a quarterback as college football has to offer. Look for Alabama to get its revenge on the road against Tennessee.

Prediction: No. 7 Alabama 24, No. 14 Tennessee 17

Alabama 24, Tennessee 20: UT’s defense seems capable of keeping the Vols in the game against just about anybody. But it’s hard to imagine Tennessee mounting enough offense to upset the Tide.

The Vols are averaging only 21.7 points in their three SEC games. While they have run the ball effectively, they rank 110^th nationally in passing yards per game.

Throwing into Alabama’s experienced secondary will be a challenge. But Mississippi State’s Kamario Taylor passed for 259 yards and three touchdowns against the Tide, and Georgia’s Gunner Stockton completed 18 of 22 passes 249 yards.

Alabama is giving up only 99.8 yards rushing per game. However, Georgia rushed for 206 yards even though its top two running backs were out with injuries.

Alabama 27, Tennessee 20: Tennessee needs to prove it can move the ball through the air, and if it can’t it’ll be tough to keep up against the Tide. There were flashes against Arkansas, but that came against arguably the worst team in the SEC. Alabama is a different challenge altogether.

The Vols’ defense should be able to keep this one close. Whether they can find enough offense is a different question.

Those last two are from the Tennessee beat. I looked far and wide to find anyone who was picking Tennessee to win outright, and came up empty. If anything should be terrifying for you, that is it.

A key reason that nobody believes that Tennessee will score many points is because they’re rolling with sophomore backup QB George McIntyre in the game. Granted, Faizon Brandon hasn’t looked great in his own right, but McIntyre made some critical mistakes last week against a poor Arkansas defense.

Tennessee’s hopes are pinned on a ferocious front led by nose tackle Xavier Gilliam, who is rocketing up draft boards. Alabama center Racin Delgatty has been downgraded to doubtful for the game, so Mal Waldrep will be making his first start at the position. If Alabama is unable to keep Gilliam out of the backfield, it could be a rough day for the offense.

But, teams have found some success running on this defense. In the past two games, Auburn and Arkansas have combined for 319 yards on the ground against this group, each managing one rushing score.

General consensus is that Tennessee’s defense will be able to turn this one into something of a slog, but will eventually succumb as the offense fails to move the football. Keelon Russell vs McIntyre is a mismatch, and the scoreboard should reflect that. Let’s call it Alabama 34-17.

Of course, that is merely my opinion. Share yours in the comments.

Matt Stahl wants to see who steps up outside in the absence of Ryan Coleman-Williams.

“We’ve got a group of really competitive players,” Noah’s really progressing. We think he’s really pretty close to 100% now. And Derek Meadows is showing up, he made a nice play at the end of the game there, obviously.

“So we’re lucky to have that many guys. Cederian does a great job backing up the Lottie, and has shown up in a couple different scenarios. So we got guys that are fighting for reps and ready to go. You look at a guy like Rico and where he was at last year at this time, and how he’s starting to step up into his role.”

Alabama needs to get wideout production from somewhere. Can someone prove themself against Tennessee?

The 24-team playoff train seems to be full steam ahead at this point. Bruce Feldman is already talking about the unintended consequences.

“I used to never miss a college basketball game,” he continued. “I only watch the (NCAA) Tournament now. I pray that doesn’t happen to our game.”

Memphis’ Charles Huff, another head coach in the American, said any time “we can create more opportunities for schools and players, it’s good,” before adding, “obviously there will be some unintended consequences.”

Huff said he wasn’t sure what exactly those consequences will be, but raised the idea that smaller bowl games “will be unimportant, which means smaller schools will get cut out,” and that “There will also likely be more Power 4 coaching firings faster, if you can’t make (the 24-team field) and you’re pouring money into a program and a roster that you wouldn’t have time to build but people will still want immediate results.”

One Group of 6 head coach joked Thursday, “I have not had time to process it yet, but it sounds like I need to go back to (being a position coach) in the SEC!”

Those unintended consequences and how you look at them depend on which conference you’re in — or which side of the FBS food chain you live on.

College football games in September will soon have the same feeling as NFL games in September. You never want to drop one, but if you do? No big deal, and that sucks.

Last, Alabama has identified and dealt with the fan who decided to hit a Georgia player after the game last week.

“Alabama has identified and taken appropriate action against the individual involved in videos circulating on social media following Saturday night’s football game,” statement released to the Tuscaloosa News from Alabama reads. “We take matters of this nature seriously and will not tolerate this behavior.”

The individual involved, as Alabama descirbes him, walked down rows of seats to get to the final row before the field. At that time, Wilson approached the fan with the assumption he was a Georgia fan celebrating the win. Several UGA fans gathered near the Dawgs’ entrance to their locker room to celebrate the 20-17 win.

Hopefully a lifetime ban is part of that equation.

That’s about it for today. Have a great weekend.

Roll Tide.