Alabama and Tennessee arrived at road stadiums on Oct. 5 undefeated and ranked in the top five.
Tennessee had dominated all four of its opponents. Alabama was a week removed from beating Georgia.
By night’s end, 22-point favorite Alabama had lost to Vanderbilt for the first time since 1984. Tennessee coughed up a 14-3 second-half lead and lost as a 14-point favorite at Arkansas.
A week later, Alabama nearly lost at home to South Carolina. Tennessee trailed 10-0 late in the third quarter at home to rival Florida before rallying to take the lead and win in overtime.
Now, the Vols host the Tide to resume the Third Saturday in October rivalry, setting up a week of angst for both fan bases, considering the teams’ recent play. Saturday’s winner will be well-positioned to make the College Football Playoff; the loser will be left with a narrow path.
So what’s going on? And what will happen Saturday in Knoxville? The Athletic spoke with seven coaches on staffs who have coached against Tennessee or Alabama this season to get their takes. They were granted anonymity in exchange for their candor.
“Staffs would psych themselves out if they were going to coach against Nick Saban. That’s not as extreme there now,” said one coach of the new Alabama staff under Kalen DeBoer.
Tennessee’s swings have come with five-star recruit Nico Iamaleava at quarterback and an experienced line fronting the best defense Josh Heupel has had in four seasons with the Vols.
Said one coach: “Josh feels comfortable with the defense now, more than he used to. He’s trying not to put (Nico) in a position where he screws it up.”
Tennessee is always just ‘1 play away’
Each coach described Tennessee as talented.
“It’s money well spent. They got good players. They changed that team, he’s changed it since he’s been there, and this is probably his best team,” said one coach of Heupel.
That coach said when he first turned on the tape to study Tennessee, he was struck by how much better the Vols were on both lines of scrimmage.
Through four games, the Vols ascended from No. 15 to No. 4, highlighted by a lopsided win over then-ranked NC State and a 10-point road win over a then-top 15 Oklahoma team that wasn’t as close as the final score indicated. It made an impression.
“They’re probably one of the best football teams I’ve seen in the last 10 years, honestly,” one coach said. “This is a team that can win the national championship. They have enough pieces. I was surprised they lost to Arkansas, but it’s hard to go undefeated. It might be the best thing that ever happened to them.”
Tennessee’s high-powered running game that led the nation before its trip to Oklahoma, though, has fallen off a cliff against better competition.
In its first three games against Chattanooga, NC State and Kent State, it averaged just under 7 yards per carry on 145 carries. Since then: 3.6 yards a carry.
The Vols like to mash the gas pedal after moving the chains or a long completion, which can pose pre-snap problems for defenses that aren’t used to getting a call and getting in position as quickly as Tennessee likes to play.
“They’ve gotta be able to line up and run the football when they have to run the football, and not have it be after a big play and somebody’s not lined up,” one coach said.
The Vols offense is built around the running game, but two coaches said some defenses are baiting Tennessee into running the ball by showing light boxes before the snap and sneaking defenders into the box after the snap by bringing rushers off the edge or crashing safeties and nickelbacks down in run support.
“That’s how you can slow them down. They want to run. It looks like you can run into it, but then defenses get out of it. They’re probably going to see that a lot more,” one coach said. “They’re looking and taking time counting the box more than they normally do.”
The Vols offense operates with frequent run-pass options that go where the numbers are: If there are fewer defenders in the box, the Vols want to run. If teams stack the box, Tennessee will throw to the edge or downfield. And the offense wants to get into hyper-speed when it can to keep defenses playing base coverages and failing to get in position pre-snap. One coach said his staff clocked a scoring drive earlier this season when Tennessee began every play with 25 seconds or more left on the play clock.
The No. 1 way to slow down Tennessee, one coach said, is producing tackles for loss or incompletions on first down. If that happens, the Vols rarely lean into hyper-speed mode, and it allows defenses to catch their breath and employ more complex schemes instead of rushing in a call for a base defense.
Both Oklahoma and Arkansas confounded the Vols with 3-3 fronts that left the offensive line and running back Dylan Sampson struggling to find space to operate.
Tennessee and coach Josh Heupel like to crank up the offense and depend on the run. (Angelina Alcantar / News Sentinel / USA Today via Imagn Images)
“If you slow them down and take away the deep shot, then you’ve got a chance. You want to get them into 12 personnel with two tight ends as much as possible,” said one coach. “If you can shift guys pre-snap, it slows them down and makes them think. If they’re going fast, they have the advantage. They don’t care what kind of front you’re in. They’re gonna go super fast, and it takes the defense out of what they can do. You try to get lined up as fast as possible but you’re probably going to set a guy free in the secondary. If you slow it down, now you can shift in and out of fronts. You can blitz and do different things to help you.”
Not every team has the personnel to do that, but Alabama will. How the Crimson Tide attack the Vols remains to be seen. But three coaches agreed on the recipe: Do whatever it takes to keep the Vols’ talented receivers from getting over the top of a defense.
“They’re always one play away from just jumping on you,” said one coach.
Sampson, in his first year as the offense’s lead back, left multiple coaches raving.
“People think the line is great, but he creates explosive plays by breaking tackles,” one coach said.
As for Iamaleava, his youth has been something coaches pounced on.
“The more he has to make decisions post-snap, the better. That’s the key. And then getting hits on him,” said one coach. “But their whole game is the run game. If that’s going, the offense is going. If you neutralize the run game and make the quarterback have to make decisions, you’ve got a good start.”
Iamaleava hasn’t thrown for 200 yards in a conference game this season and has just one touchdown and one interception in his first three SEC matchups.
Per TruMedia, 15.4 percent of his passes this season have been off target (77th nationally). Tennessee quarterback Joe Milton was 37th nationally last season with 12.7 percent of his passes going off-target.
In three conference games, Tennessee has just four passes longer than 30 yards.
“He never puts the ball in danger,” a coach said. “That’s really uncommon for a young quarterback . …He was going to put the ball where it needed to go, and if it was double-covered or a tight window, he wasn’t going to force it.”
Another coach said the young QB might be risk-averse to a fault, especially considering how much Tennessee’s offense improves with the threat of home run balls. Iamaleava’s hesitancy — and, thus far in his career, inaccuracy — also doesn’t allow his big, talented group of receivers opportunities to make plays on balls downfield.
On defense, linebacker Keenan Pili is out for the season after tearing his ACL in last week’s win over Florida. One coach forecasted that to be a major issue for communication because he was so integral in getting set pre-snap.
James Pearce Jr. projects at No. 5 according to The Athletic’s NFL Draft expert Dane Brugler, and some coaches were impressed. Others? One coach said he was Tennessee’s third-best defensive lineman, behind tackles Omari Thomas and Bryson Eason.
Said another coach: “We hunted him in protection. He’s good in the pass game but not as good in the run game. If you’re trying to find a weakness in the run game, you need to run at him and make him the point of contact.”
Tennessee ranks second nationally in yards per carry allowed but outside the top 30 in opposing passer rating and yards per attempt.
Has the playing field been leveled?
Is the Crimson Tide mystique gone? Or is this a program in transition from one kind of dominance to another?
The loss to Vanderbilt was the program’s worst since Saban famously lost to Louisiana-Monroe in his first season, but one coach said he had already spotted vulnerabilities.
“We never felt like they were going to roll us off the ball up front. In the heydays of the mid-2010s and churning out Heisman winners, you felt like they were loaded everywhere. They had three backs who were going to play in the NFL. They were loaded at wideout. Everything Ryan Williams is special, but other than that, I don’t know if any of (the receivers) are great. The tight ends are whatever. The O-line, they don’t have two first-round picks at tackle. I know they have good players, but the playing field has been leveled a little bit.”
Another coach agreed: “The offensive line is not as menacing as they’ve been in the past. They have good players, but they’ve moved their lineup around, and it just didn’t seem like an Alabama offensive line we’re used to in the last couple decades under Saban.”
One coach, though, pointed to guard Tyler Booker and tackle Kadyn Proctor as two offensive linemen who stood out.
Of Proctor, he said: “He’s legit. He’s a mammoth of a human being. When he gets his paws on you, good luck.” And he called Booker the “ringleader” of the unit.
When it came to quarterback Jalen Milroe — and his development under DeBoer — coaches raved. One coach called him the “hardest player to tackle in the country.”
“He’s an NFL edge prospect playing quarterback,” one coach said. “He gets to top gear faster than any human being we’ve watched playing quarterback this year.”
“They’ve got his eyes in the right place, and he’s finding guys at the right time when they’re supposed to be open, and it’s an added dimension of something he’s lacked in the past,” one coach said.
Another coach said Milroe in 2024 compared with his first two seasons at Alabama was a drastically different player.
“The strides he’s made, he was good throwing the deep ball last year. Everything intermediate was terrible. He’s been able to connect on that stuff this year,” he said.
And coaches said Ryan Williams gives Alabama and Milroe a big-time downfield threat the Tide have lacked the past two seasons since Jameson Williams left the program, with one assistant calling him a “generational talent” that’s as good as advertised.
“Absolute stud. What we’re seeing now is pretty unbelievable,” one coach said. “He reminds me of Larry Fitzgerald, he’s made such an impact so early that we haven’t seen that early at a place like that. He’s incredible.”
Ryan Williams has wowed as a freshman. (Jeffrey Vest / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Game planning for Alabama means focusing on those two players, a coach said.
“That’s just what it is. In the past, they had the O-line and the backs, and they could run it. Now, it’s really just those two,” he said. “The backs (Jam Miller and Justice Haynes) are good. They’ve showed a little bit of explosion, but there’s no mistaking them with the guys they’ve had.”
Defensively, coaches are closely watching how new coordinator Kane Wommack, formerly of South Alabama, uses a stacked roster left behind by Saban.
“They’re trying to give the illusion of complexity while also being very simple. They’re trying to make it seem like they won’t be the place where they are. He had a package at South Alabama where he’d show one high, and post-snap, he’d run a guy to a two-safety look, which makes it really hard on your quarterback,” one coach said. “He wants it to look complex on film but make it simple for the kids. … It’s Kane’s defense, but there’s a little bit of Saban influence probably based on what guys know.”
Alabama’s roster as a whole is still impressive. It ranks No. 1 in 247Sports Team Talent Composite. But coaches pointed to a lack of high-end talent that’s been common for the Tide during their historic run under Saban. Star defensive back Caleb Downs left for Ohio State after last season, and the Tide had four defensive players drafted in the first 60 picks last year and a top-three pick in Will Anderson suiting up for them in 2022. This year, Brugler’s Big Board of the top 50 NFL prospects features no Alabama players on offense or defense.
Coaches were impressed with Wommack but wondered if Tennessee’s “if this, then that” offense would cause trouble for his scheme, as Vanderbilt’s did.
“Kane is really smart, and they try to be at the right call at the right time every single play. I think that can be good and bad. If you get the best call you can have, if you have it right, you can stone them. But if it’s late and/or wrong, it’s probably going to be a bad deal,” one coach said.
“But in Saban’s defense, they prepared them so well for every single thing or probability of what they can get on the field, they had tools to help them decipher plays regardless of what call they were in.”
Defensive back Malachi Moore, defensive lineman LT Overton, defensive end Deontae Lawson and safety Keon Sabb stood out among Bama defenders.
“Moore is such a problem,” one coach said.“He can play nickel or spin back to safety and play receivers one-on-one in the slot and at corner. It allows Kane to be multiple in personnel.”
One coach predicted a shootout Saturday. Two felt confident Alabama would win. Two noted Tennessee’s home field. But in general, coaches were uncertain about the matchup, in part because Alabama and Tennessee have both looked so dominant — and so flawed.
“Bama will have a good chance because of the quarterback. They’re a good SEC team. I didn’t feel like it was the best Bama team I’ve seen in the last few years,” a coach who faced Alabama said. “How it shakes out I don’t know. I was shocked they did what they did to Georgia, honestly. Both teams have a loss they probably shouldn’t.”
— The Athletic’s Sam Khan Jr. contributed reporting.
(Top photo of Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe: Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images; Photo of Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava: Brandon Sumrall / Getty Images)
