Nick Saban warns of dangerous Tennessee offense, highlights greatest challenge

Nick Saban knows that Alabama’s defense is in for a challenge against the high powered and explosive Tennessee offense. Saban specifically noted Tennessee’s offensive style that spreads out defenses to open up the middle of the field. This can make it challenging to defend the run.

“They are, I don’t want to say typical, but I call it the Baylor offensive style,” Saban said of Tennessee’s offense. “Huge splits with the receivers to really spread the defense out. They’ve been very effective running the ball. They have a really good running back. And when you’re spread out like that, it make sit more difficult to stop the run. When you get spread out like that it becomes more difficult to play split safeties and have the safeties be able to support the run like you want because these guys are so far away from where they’re running the ball because their splits are so big.

“This is something that more and more people are doing. We’ve had to change our style a little bit against that. Ole Miss does a lot of the same thing. They can run the ball effectively and they make a lot of explosive plays down the field because they force people to stop the run with six guys in a box. So, now you’re playing single high coverage and they run vertical routes. If you can’t cover them or guys can’t play the ball in the deep part of the field, you end up giving up plays. And that’s how they make a lot of explosive plays. It’s challenging, you got to try to disguise what you do. But when you’re spread out so much it becomes very difficult to do that.”

Tennessee running back Tiyon Evans has benefitted from the offensive scheme. Evans has 486 rushing yards with six touchdowns. Jabari Small also has 324 yards and three touchdowns. Len’Neth Whitehead adn marcus Pierce also have 112+ rushing yards with a touchdown apiece, and Jaylen Wright also has 96 yards and two touchdowns. Stopping Tennessee’s deep crop of running backs will be important for Alabama on Saturday.

Saban: Alabama has seen similar offenses to Tennessee’s

Tennessee quarterback Hendon Hooker was questionable during the week for the Alabama game due to an injury suffered last week. It does appear as if Hooker will be able to play. Hooker has thrown for 1,296 yards, 14 touchdowns, and one interception. He is also Tennessee’s second leading rusher with 390 yards and four touchdowns.

“They’ve got a really good offensive system and scheme,” Saban said. “They do a lot of quarterback runs. It doesn’t matter which one of these quarterbacks play. They’re very similar in style and they’re both big guys that have really strong arms. And they’re both good runners. And when I say good runners, they’re hard to tackle because they’re big and they’re physical and they can make you miss a little bit. They utilize that. That’s been something that’s beneficial to them. But if I had to say this offense is like somebody, there’s similarities to Southern Miss and Ole Miss.

“They’re going to go fast, they’re the fastest team in the country. They are, I mean we look at the shot clock when they snap the ball. I mean sometimes it’s on 32. It started on 40. If you get the play signal then get lined up in a formation and run the ball in eight seconds and the defense has to get lined up too, it’s challenging. It’s challenging to get that kind of look in practice. The scout team has to look at a card before they know a play to run. Well they sure can’t look at a card in eight seconds and be ready to run a play. So, it’s difficult and of course statistically they’ve already scored more points this year through seven games than they did all of last year.”

Tennessee and Alabama will kick off at 7 p.m. ET on Saturday in Tuscaloosa.