(Above: Coach Saban’s Wednesday press conference)
The last time Tennessee finished a season with a winning record, Alabama offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin was the head coach.
This is not a new revelation or some astounding discovery, but the Vols haven’t been very good in a while. But Alabama head coach Nick Saban doesn’t treat anyone lightly, especially a historical rival.
“When you play in these types of games, it’s more about the rivalry than it is the current record,” Saban said Wednesday. “I think the game means a lot to a lot of people, and one of the things you’re probably going to get asked one day down the road is, ‘What was your record when you played against Tennessee?’”
This question will be an easy one for Saban to answer in the future with a pristine 7-0 record against the Volunteers while being the head coach at Alabama.
His record is spotless, and Saban would like to keep it that way, saying on offense it all starts with quarterback Blake Sims.
“When you play quarterback, I think everybody has an expectation that you’re going to execute and do the things that will distribute the ball correctly whether it’s on a running play or a passing play, relative to what defense they’re playing,” Saban said. “When we don’t communicate well and we don’t execute and everybody’s not on the same page, it affects the other guys. That’s the most important thing that we expect from Blake because when he does that, we really play well and we play with a lot of confidence.”
In a raucous Neyland Stadium, the importance of communication will be at an all-time high. Tennessee’s chancellor Jimmy Cheek reprimanded the school’s student section after “unacceptable chants” that were said this past weekend against Florida. With Kiffin’s return to Knoxville, Cheek will most likely have to send a few more letters after the chants they have for Alabama’s new coordinator.
Alabama safety Landon Collins said in a hostile environment like Neyland, he has heard plenty of funny jeers and chants — nothing he could share publicly, of course — but once the game starts, he just has to focus on his game and silence the outside distractions.
“The atmosphere when we play them is always a grueling fight with them. We always get their best game,” Collins said. “It fires me up, definitely, to hear the boos, but on the field we don’t hear it. Going through the tunnels you definitely hear it. It gets louder and louder as you walk out, and it just pumps you up because you know their fan base and their team is just like, ‘Y’all don’t have nothing on us.’ We’re just ready to show them what we have.”
Another way to stay competitive against Tennessee is the constant influx of new talent at Alabama. With a new recruiting class comes players who want to play immediately, and Saban got a little philosophical Wednesday, talking about his players keeping themselves motivated.
“One of the things I’ve mentioned to a couple of the younger players, who we have really been trying to work in to give us some additional depth and create roles for, is sometimes they get frustrated with the fact that maybe the reputation and the expectation is not necessarily what’s happening for them,” Saban said. “That creates a little bit of frustration, but I think the thing you want guys to do is focus on the things that they control. If what you have is different from what you want, change what you do. Change how you do it, that’s what you control. That gives you the best chance to get better. It gives you the best chance to improve. It gives you the best chance to help the team and it most certainly gives you the best chance to be the best player you can be, which is our goal for every player that we have.”
Alabama will need to be sharper on the road than it was against Ole Miss and Arkansas, but against a 3-4 Tennessee team with blowout losses against Oklahoma and Ole Miss and narrow losses against Florida and Georgia, that shouldn’t be an issue. As long as Alabama controls what it can, the result should be lopsided.
But it’s still the SEC, it’s still a rivalry and is still taken very seriously by Alabama, regardless of it’s a down year for Tennessee or not.
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