It’s that time of year, Tennessee vs. Alabama. That means it’s time for our annual tradition — six questions with Brent Taylor over at Roll Bama Roll. As always, thanks to him for helping out, and be on the lookout for my responses over on rollbamaroll.com.
1. A year one that fell apart, an ugly loss to Florida State in week one — yet Kalen DeBoer has seemingly steered this thing back onto the tracks. What’s the current temperature with him with the fanbase?
Well, you know us. Alabama fans have always
been a generally insatiable bunch, and the poor sap to follow up Nick Saban was always going to catch the brunt of it. I was probably higher on DeBoer than most because I have a lot of friends in Seattle, and I counted most of the issues in 2024 more on the extreme turnover, instilling a new culture, and a QB that wasn’t good fit for the offense.
Then week 1 happened. That was an abominable performance, and there’s just no way around that. I was just about ready to start wondering how far the program would have to sink before the Tide could swallow a buyout. But, for whatever it’s worth, DeBoer and crew have seemingly pushed themselves back into the mix of things by sheer willpower. Alabama’s not making huge explosive plays or winning with defensive or special teams luck plays. They’re just grinding out every game with a relentless offense, and have done it to three straight top 20 SEC opponents (and with Tennessee coming in this week, I’m getting really tired of talking about yet another top-5 offense in my opponent previews).
For now, the Alabama fans are getting back on board with things. As long as we don’t drop a game to another bad team this year, it’ll be fine. Even though back-to-back losses to Tennessee would be possibly the most gross thing ever, at least the Vols are a good squad (and it physically hurts me to type that). We can move past those. It’s the losses to bad teams that will have fanbase picking the pitchforks right back up after one week.
2. There was a large issue of inconsistency last year with Jalen Milroe. Now with Ty Simpson under center, this is looking a lot more like I thought it would with DeBoer. Just how different is the offense with Simpson running the show?
Simpson has been so much better than I expected. I was cautiously optimistic and was of the opinion he should have finished 2024 as the starter…. But to this point we had never really seen him. He was mostly fine in Alabama’s disaster loss to Florida State, though he did have some bad decisions, but after that, he’s been exceptional. The way Ty is throwing the mid-range passes is something you rarely see in college football – he just feels like he’s operating at a higher level of vision than everyone else and is driving the ball for 15-yard chunks time after time after time. Alabama is putting together staggeringly long drives, and they’re mostly doing it with an ineffective run game. It’s pretty much the opposite of the last couple of years with Jalen Milroe, where the Tide either scored in 4 plays, or went three-and-out.
3. Tennessee’s offense has been one of the best in the nation through the first half of the season. They do it both vertically and on the ground, very similar to the Hendon Hooker 2022 season. Who is going to matchup with this Tennessee wide receiver group? Can Alabama get home to Aguilar?
Alabama’s cornerback and safety group is one of the better groups on the team as far as pass coverage. Zabien Brown has turned almost everyone invisible at one corner spot, and Domani Jackson was a great cover guy last year, even if he’s had a bad couple of games and struggles in run defense. Jackson has been losing snaps to the 6’4″ freshman corner, DIjon Lee, who’s got all the talent in the world, just not the experience yet.
At safety, Bray Hubbard is an interception machine, and Keon Sabb is a veteran with range and ball skills. Tennessee’s receivers will get a couple ones over them, but the Alabama secondary can hang with any receiver group out there.
Now, that said, Alabama’s pass rush has struggled. Yhonzae Pierre and LT Overton both have pretty good pressure stats, but the team as a whole has really struggled to close with sacks. Seems like if the QB feels like taking off running, we just have no answers. So if they can’t get home, then even a good secondary can’t hold forever. And it’s a heavy zone defense, so lacking pass rush can give the QB all kinds of windows.
Alabama’s run defense as a whole has also been pretty bad. They’re boom or bust…. They’ll get a whole bunch of run stuffs for 1 yard, then blow a gap assignment or edge contain for 65 yards twice a game. Just kinda weird. It feels like flukes, but it keeps happening in every game.
4. On the other side of the ball, Tennessee has one of the worst defenses in the league. It’s night and day from last season for a few different reasons. Arkansas ran right through them last week, is Alabama equipped to do the same?
Most likely, yeah. Alabama can possess and move the ball like no other. They may not be explosive, but man, they can keep the ball moving. The two biggest issues are that 1) Jam Miller is probably out with a concussion, and the rest of Alabama’s running backs have been very ineffective and 2) Ty Simpson can, at times, start getting a little bit of hero-ball in him and will take a bad sack.
If Tennessee can force the Tide into those spots, then maybe. But if the Vols defense remains as bad as they’ve looked, Alabama will probably slice through them.
5. What couple of players have surprised you this season?
Defensive tackle London Simmons has been the biggest surprise. The true freshman wasn’t the most highly rated recruit, so him getting playing time in the season opener was a shock. He’s been a regular at nose tackle every game, and for my money, has been the most disruptive interior guy for Alabama this year.
On offense, Ty Simpson is the obvious pick. But everyone knows about QB, so my second pick is wide receiver Lotzier Brooks. The true freshman has been getting more and more playing time each week, and he’s made some incredibly difficult and clutch catches.
6. Game and score prediction
I think both teams score quite a bit. Both offenses have a fairly significant advantage over the defenses. Alabama plays a lot better at home than on the road, so they have that going for them. Playing four back-to-back top 20 teams in the country is both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, the Tide has a lot of experience in tough games at this point. On the other, they’re beat up, and it feels like you can’t keep winning on razor thin margins in a schedule like this.
My head tells me that Alabama should probably be about a touchdown favorite. 35-28 or so (again, high scoring efficiency for both squads, just a low amount of total possessions). My heart worries that rolling the dice of fate and coming up with a string of wins on close games runs out this week, and Alabama loses by a field goal.
But, because I can’t sit on the fence forever, I’m going to predict the unthinkable, and say Alabama loses 35-31
