Tennessee football’s match-up with Alabama Saturday is honestly the best time the Volunteers could face the Crimson Tide on the season.
If you’re going to beat the Alabama Crimson Tide, it’s going to take a heck of a lot of things going your way this year. After all, they may bet the best team of all time and could blow out everybody. But, although they could still blow out Tennessee football, nobody gets this team at a better time than the Vols.
We already talked about the advantages UT has facing the Tide, including the game being at home and Jeremy Pruitt being familiar with the team. However, the biggest reason the Vols are getting them at a great time is because they are just trying to get out of Knoxville as quickly as possible.
This started against the Missouri Tigers. Players kept going down due to injury, and it culminated with Tua Tagovailoa having to leave the game. He’s expected to go this Saturday, but it’s hard to know just how healthy he will be.
The Tide have tons of injuries in their back seven on defense, and some of their best players, like Mack Wilson, are playing injured. Meanwhile, Tennessee football has a ton of newfound momentum in its passing game after Jauan Jennings, Marquez Callaway and Josh Palmer all torched the Auburn Tigers’ secondary last week.
With so many players hurt, Alabama is going to go into this game hoping to just escape with a win. After all, they do have a bye week after this. And right after the bye is their toughest regular season game of the year at the LSU Tigers.
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So this is really their final roadblock before focusing on that major game. Just getting a win and then getting to the bye to get healthy will allow Nick Saban to do what he wants to do, which is to focus heavily on Ed Orgeron’s team while his guys recover.
As a result, Saban will do everything he can to shorten the game, run the clock, and take control early. The Tide are walking in on their guard with nothing to gain and everything to lose. They are just playing this game to avoid more injuries and hope they don’t slip up.
It’s the exact opposite for the Vols. They gained just enough momentum after a huge road win over the Auburn Tigers last week, and they are now excited to face Alabama on Saturday. While the Tide play banged up and try to escape, Tennessee football will play all in on that game and treat it like their Super Bowl.
This is the perfect scenario for Pruitt and the Vols. Again, they still may not be good enough to even make this a close game. But they could not ask for a better situation when facing this Crimson Tide team. So it’s up to the players to try to find some way to make the best of it. It’ll still be extremely difficult, but it could be exciting to watch.