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Paul Finebaum calls out Tennessee's pass defense, goes on to make bold claim regarding Alabama's CFP chances

Wade-Peeryby:Wade Peery•11/20/22

On Sunday’s podcast, ESPN’s Paul Finebaum called out the Volunteers’ atrocious pass defense and then went on to make a bold claim regarding the Alabama Crimson Tide possibly sneaking back into the College Football Playoff picture.

The final few weeks of the 2022 college football regular season are winding down and that means teams are jockeying for position in the College Football Playoff Rankings. The Tennessee Volunteers secondary had a blowtorch taken to it by South Carolina quarterback Spencer Rattler on Saturday night. He torched the Vols to the tune of 438 passing yards and six touchdowns in Williams-Brice Stadium, further exposing a glaring weakness that Tennessee has dealt with for the past two years. South Carolina throttled fifth-ranked Tennessee 63-38, in one of the biggest wins of the Shane Beamer era in Columbia.

And all that could be to Alabama’s benefit according to the ESPN analyst.

Paul Finebaum calls out the Tennessee pass defense

Finebaum said people kind of forgot about how bad the Tennessee pass defense was all season long. It was a glaring weakness last season, too. But many people overlooked that in the hopes of building them up as one of the nation’s top teams.

“And the one thing that we didn’t really talk enough about. Tennessee’s defense, especially the pass defense was suspect all year long,” Finebaum said on the podcast with Matt Barrie “We tried to build them up. ‘Hey, they’ve gotten better.’ But Alabama and Bryce Young had a field day against them. It was just a couple of stupid decisions late in the game by offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien and then, conversely, by the defensive side of the ball that cost Alabama that game. And I’m sure Alabama fans today are going like, ‘How did we get here? We should still be in the playoffs.’ I’m sure they’re saying. By the way, they’re not gonna be far from it.”

As of Sunday night (November 20th), the Crimson Tide currently sit at No. 8 in the latest version of the College Football Playoff Rankings. With the Tennessee Volunteers being upset on Saturday night, that should mean that Alabama would slide up a spot in the rankings.

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We’ll have to see what the committee decides to do on Tuesday evening. And college football is a crazy, crazy, sport. Anything can happen in a given week. Alabama would certainly need plenty of help this weekend by the teams in front of them in the rankings. We’ll just have to wait and see what unfolds during rivalry week.