Tennessee football: Vols facing fifth straight Nick Saban defense at South Carolina

Tennessee football’s Saturday visit to South Carolina will be the Volunteers’ fifth straight game against a defense molded in Nick Saban’s image.

It’s hard enough when you’re trying to build a program from scratch. But in the case of the 2018 Tennessee football team, the Vols have to do that while navigating through a schedule loaded with Nick Saban defenses.

Yes, that’s the impact Saban has. For the fifth straight game Saturday against the South Carolina Gamecocks, UT will be facing a team whose defensive coordinator or head coach is a Saban protege or Saban himself. And this is one who also owns the Vols.

Will Muschamp is 6-0 against Tennessee football with two of those wins at South Carolina and the other four with the Florida Gators. He worked for Saban from 2001 to 2005 with the LSU Tigers and Miami Dolphins, including serving as LSU defensive coordinator from 2002 to 2004.

But last Saturday, Tennessee had to face the Alabama Crimson Tide and Saban himself. Two games ago, in their memorable win at the Auburn Tigers, the Vols faced defensive coordinator Kevin Steele, who was Saban’s defensive coordinator in 2007 and also worked for him as an assistant in 2008, 2013 and 2014.

Before the bye, Tennessee football faced Kirby Smart and the Georgia Bulldogs, one of Saban’s most direct clones. Smart was the defensive coordinator for every national title Saban won at Alabama until last season.

Shockingly, though, it didn’t begin with Smart. The week before that, the Vols committed six turnovers and gave up a safety to a Florida Gators team led by Todd Grantham. From 1996 to 1998, Grantham was the defensive line coach under Saban for the Michigan State Spartans, and he was also assistant head coach in 1998.

So Saturday will make for five straight games against a coach whose philosophy was molded by Saban or is Saban himself. And the results show. Tennessee is having trouble running the ball, Jarrett Guarantano has had to take hit after hit, and the physical play has forced lots of mistakes.

As always, though, there’s a silver lining. And this one’s obvious. Jeremy Pruitt is a Saban protege. Yes, as you can see, Saban’s fingerprints are all over the SEC and specifically the SEC East. Tennessee, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina are building defenses in Saban’s image.

Not only is Pruitt a Saban protege, but he also has experience working with three of the guys he has faced, serving under Steele, Smart and obviously Saban. He also replaced Grantham as Georgia’s defensive coordinator in 2014.

That means this weekend, when his team heads to Columbia to face South Carolina, he’ll have his first game since the Florida game against a coach he isn’t familiar with and his first game since before SEC play started against a coach with whom he has no connection outside of Saban. Does that make things more difficult? Maybe, but it also makes things more difficult on Muschamp.

What’s clear, though, is another brutal match-up is on the horizon that will require players to get physical and take hits. The demands will remain, and Tennessee football can’t relax just yet. Heck, they still have to face Mark Stoops, whom Pruitt replaced with the Florida State Seminoles in 2013, and Derek Mason down the stretch. So defense is clearly the name of the Vols’ opponents. At least this year they seem more prepared for it.