National media picking Tennessee football over Alabama should terrify Vols

Regardless of all the hype surrounding this game, Tennessee football is still not as good as the Alabama Crimson Tide overall. Nick Saban has better players all over the field for the most part, which should surprise nobody given the level he’s recruited at in the past.

As a result, if the Vols are going to pull off the upset in this huge top 10 matchup Saturday, they need two things to happen. The first is elite coaching by Josh Heupel and winning all the schematic standoffs with Alex Golesh and Tim Banks against Bill O’Brien and Pete Golding respectively.

Although that’s likely to happen, the next part is for Alabama to lose focus and play sloppy, which they have done in the past. They won’t do that this game. Coming off a close one against the Texas A&M Aggies, playing on the road and Tennessee football being in the top 10 will refocus them.

Most importantly, though, they know to take this game seriously because of what the national media has been saying. Saban always talks about rat poison, the concept of analysts disrespecting his team’s opponents, infecting his players. Well, this time, it may be the reverse.

Let’s start with First Take. Paul Finebaum went on with Stephen A. Smith, and both agreed that Alabama had no chance if Bryce Young wasn’t going to be available. Mad Dog Chris Russo took it to another level, though, suggesting the Vols could be the best team even if Young does play.

Staying on ESPN, the Keyshawn, JWill and Max show had Harry Douglas on Thursday. Douglas and Keyshawn Johnson outright said they think Tennessee football will win regardless of whether or not Young plays.

Moving over to Fox Sports 1, Joel Klatt also has this game being immune to whether or not Young plays. He claimed that the Vols’ strongest areas are exactly where Alabama is weak, so he said on his show and Colin Cowherd’s show that UT wins.

Finally, let’s do a throwback here. Mark May and Lou Holtz, the former College Football Final analysts, were on together, and while May picked Alabama, the hall-of-fame head coach went out on a limb and picked the Vols too.

All of this eliminates one of the huge factors the Vols need to beat the team that’s ranked No. 3 in the Coaches Poll and No. 1 in the AP Poll. Alabama will have to make some key mistakes throughout the game, and the talk surrounding it seems like it will eliminate that.

Regardless of whether or not they have Young or Jalen Milroe, they have enough firepower to blow out the Vols, ranked No. 6 in the AP Poll and No. 8 in the Coaches Poll, even at Neyland Stadium. All of these predictions only further the likelihood that they will cruise to victory.

Now, maybe the reverse will happen, and Alabama will fold because of the pressure it’s feeling. That combined with Heupel dialing up some perfect plays could still deliver a win for Tennessee football. However, given Alabama’s talent, the opposite seems likely at this point, and with all this disrespect despite 15 wins over the Vols, they will want to deliver in a big way.