Tire Store Report -- Tennessee

Like a rented mule, like a 4-year-old in a Wal-Mart, like lumpy cake batter, like Bill Monroe on his mandolin, like a fourth place Derby horse, like Buddy Rich on the pots and pans, like a half-dozen eggs in a Huddle House….  Feel free to submit your own.  However you prefer to think of it, the talented men’s varsity football team from the University of Alabama put a beating/whipping/thumping on the Lowdown Dirty Snitches in Knoxville on Saturday afternoon.

As you so correctly point out, Commissioner, it was the worst defeat for either team in well over 100 years.  And the interesting thing is the game wasn’t really as close as the final scoreboard indicated.  But for (another) missed field goal, a turnover in the red zone, deciding to only run the ball for its last couple of drives, and liberally substituting on both sides of the ball for the majority of the 4^th quarter, Alabama could have made the margin even larger (though the beating in 1906 was probably worse, given that touchdowns only counted for five points until a rule change in 1912 -- so tip of the cap to the 1906 team).  That’s not the way we do things here and yes, I’m directing a disparaging look at Michigan.

Tennessee pulled out the stops this year.  They were the heart-break kids.  Second half miracle workers.  No deficit was too large to be overcome.  Just keep it close till the half.  Peyton was there.  Fat Phil was in the house.  They had a tribute to Pat Summit.  They “whhoooed” their way through Rocky Top like they didn’t know even Felice and Boudleaux hated it.  They bought foul signs to tow behind airplanes about Lane Kiffin.  Heck, they probably got Smokey a flea dip for the occasion.  Didn’t seem to matter.

For the first time in forty-eleven forevers the Volunteers did not have the week off before Alabama.  Some people will tell you the impact of an off week is overstated.  I doubt anyone in the Tennessee locker room would have agreed with that idea on Saturday evening.  Tennessee was unquestionably dealing with key injuries in nearly every unit on the field -- a circumstance that did not get better over the course of the game.  An extra week between Texas A&M and Alabama couldn’t have hurt.  Would it have made 40 points’ worth of difference?  We’ll say probably not.

This was a just plain dominating performance.  Our Commissioner has already recounted a lot of the numbers that demonstrate that.  The one that stood out to me was that Tennessee simply couldn’t run the football.   Josh Dobbs, who gave Alabama fits last year, was sacked three times, hurried a bunch more, threw for just 92 yards, was pick-sixed, and rushed for -31 yards.  Last week on the road in College Station, Tennessee’s offense rolled up 684 yards.  I’ve said it before, this defense is just nasty.

Thing is, the offense is getting nasty, too.  Coming into the season everyone was going on about Alabama’s wide receiving corps and tight ends.  Rightly so.  And Saturday they contributed mightily to the victory, mostly by blocking downfield on running plays.  That sort of selflessness from talents like Stewart, Ridley and Howard can make Alabama an awful lot to handle. Did you see Deiter and Hurts blocking downfield on the reverse?  CBS’s typically bad angles and hour-and-a-half interview with Peyton make it easy to lose track of something -- namely just how fast Jalen Hurts is.  He ran off and left even Tennessee’s defensive backs.  As his passing confidence and accuracy develops he’s going to move to nightmare status for opposing defenses.  He may already be there.

We are not just sure what the Tennessee game plan was.  If it was to eliminate the passing game and make Hurts beat them running, well, mission accomplished, I guess.  It looked like Tennessee was determined to establish an inside running game, with Jalen Hurd coming back from an injury.  Not sure I would’ve done it that way.

A number of times during the game the crowd booed loudly over calls and non-calls on the field.  There was plenty of conversation from the orange-clad about how the officials were “cheating” for Alabama.   Once again, the facts don’t support the proposition.  Alabama was penalized 5 times for 38 yards.  Tennessee was penalized once, for 10 yards.  The streak of teams playing amazingly clean football against Alabama, despite their prior performances, continues.  For example, against Texas A&M the Volunteers were penalized 12 times for 84 yards.  My, what a lot of improvement in just a week.  Sgt. Carter and Company definitely deserve credit for straightening up that part of the Tennessee program.   Combining that with whining about Alabama getting all the breaks is wearing a little thin with us.  Somebody is getting the shaft from the zebras, but it isn’t Alabama’s opponents.

The thing is, Tennessee probably has the easiest route to the SEC Championship from here (South Carolina, Kentucky, Missouri and Vanderbilt) -- easier than Alabama, for certain.   At 3-1 in the conference, Florida controls its own destiny, but with remaining games at LSU and Arkansas, as well as the Cocktail Party and with Tennessee holding the tiebreaker by virtue of its victory over the Gators, Tennessee would have to be the favorite to represent the East in Atlanta.  You have to be thinking they’ll be pulling for Texas A&M and LSU over the next few weeks.  They probably would have anyway.

As sweet as the victory was and as good as it feels to dominate a long-time rival in historic fashion, there is no rest for the near-consensus #1 team in the country.  The Aggies of Texas A&M are coming to town, fresh from a weekend off to rest and recover from their overtime defeat of Tennessee.  Stop me if you have heard that one before.  They also score over 40 points a game and have a Top 10 rushing attack.  We hope to see you on the Quad on Saturday.

Roll Tide, everyone.

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