What a game!!!
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And it really means nothing if UGA can’t finish them off in Atlanta. LSU and Auburn aren’t good enough this year to play with them. That leave Kiffin who I never trust. Yeah, it’ll take Georgia to do it I’m afraid.
What an amazing job Heupel has done at Tennessee, turning the program completely around in two years time. Wish Mario could do the same in two years.
This game was the first one where I thought Saban was outcoached. Alabama was plainly ill-prepared for Heupel’s up-tempo offense. The first quarter was a Saban disaster as the Alabama linemen seemed more worried about getting set for the play than playing the down. Saban tried player substitution but the Tennessee play was too rapid, and he was hit for too many men on the field penalties… Tennessee won the game by getting a huge jump on the Tide during the first quarter.
Alabama’s defense this season has been a huge disappointment. Tennessee was able to make Heisman candidate Will Anderson, Jr. a non factor. Tennessee QB Hooker got rid of the ball so fast that it was difficult to exert pressure on him. The Alabama secondary certainly didn’t look like the splendid defensive backfields coached by Jeremy Pruitt when he was defensive coordinator for the Tide. Pruitt who preceded Heupel as Tennessee head coach deserves some credit for Heupel’s success by leaving Heupel with some excellent recruits. However, Heupel found the missing piece to the puzzle by recruiting Hendon Hooker from Virginia Tech. Hooker has been a natural in the run and gun uptempo offense, and Hooker looked like a Heisman candidate during this game.
Hooker embarrassed the Tide late in the game completing two long TD passes. He had the tide secondary looking like the Miami Hurricanes looked in their disgraceful performance against Middle Tennessee State.
While Alabama’s defense stunk up Neyland Stadium, the offense woke up late in the first quarter and Bryce Young displayed the talent that earned him a Heisman last year. Young moved like a cat in the backfield dodging the on charging defensive lineman and threaded the needle time after time passing down field. Without Bryce Young, Alabama is really a quite ordinary team as evidenced last week against Texas A&M when Bryce was sidelined by a shoulder injury. Jaylen Milrose is no Bryce Young, so Alabama’s entire future season depends on the condition of the diminutive Bryce Young’s shoulder.
Penalties played a role in Alabama’s loss. Many of them were caused by delay of game calls as Young changed plays at the last second after surveying the defense. One play that stood out in my mind was the UT late hit on QB Young. I thought the defender should have been assessed a personal foul call inasmuch as he leveled Young with his shoulder and pushed him hard to the turf well after Young released the pass. It was very obvious the defender intended to inflict some pain on the Alabama QB.
To be sure, it was a marvelous spectator game featuring two great offenses without much defense. The ending couldn’t have been scripted better by Hollywood.
What you talking bout? Thought it takes minimum 4?
Isn’t that what we’ve heard the last 20 years?
The was the fugliest winning FG I’ve ever seen. A wounded duck that looked like one of us kicked it.
Bama has a good team but they are not the dominant team of the recent past.
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Let’s be clear. The right coach can turn around a program after following a really good recruiter. And it was clear UT has been buying recruits for several years now.
It’s a real shame the Meltdown Thread is no longer in existence… I would have loved to see the Bama-Tennessee edition.
When it comes to college football, I love me some schadenfreude. 
It would have been epic!
Why is the meltdown thread no longer being done? 
The best part of college football for me is seeing people act like we do every year by the time we’ve hit October 1st.
Apparently they were pressured into stopping.
Everyone was a vol fan Saturday
Saban’s offensive coordinator has to shoulder some blame for the two play calls preceding the missed field goal. Had he called two rushing plays, the field goal might have been five yards shorter, the clock run down several more seconds, and the ball positioned better for the kick. This of course is hindsight.