Undefeated and top-ranked Alabama football heads to Knoxville to renew their Third Saturday in October rivalry with the Tennessee Volunteers.
Alabama football remains undefeated and untested, now sitting at 7-0 after their latest dismantling of an SEC foe. The Crimson Tide are beating teams by an average margin of 40 points-per-game, and have looked completely unstoppable through the season’s first seven weeks.
Alabama shored up a potential weakness (by Alabama’s standards) defensively with a dominant performance against a potent Missouri offense last week. The Crimson Tide held the Tigers to just 212 yards of offense and 10 points (0 after the first quarter). They shut down the Missouri running game and consistently harassed Drew Lock to coast to a 39-10 victory.
Alabama got quite the scare, however, in the third quarter of that game when quarterback Tua Tagovailoa appeared to reinjure his sprained knee while sliding after a nine-yard pickup – the play looked rather innocuous as Tua didn’t take a hit, but the awkwardness of the slide caused some discomfort that sent Tua to the medical tent for an extended period of time. Tua has been a full participant in practice so far this week, so it appears as if he will play this weekend.
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The Third Saturday in October used to be one of the biggest rivalries in college football – the annual meeting between the Tide and Vols typically signaled which of them was a serious threat for the conference title. Before Nick Saban arrived in Tuscaloosa, Alabama’s all-time series lead was just 44-38-7 with Tennessee having taken 10 of the previous 12 meetings in the series.
Saban has turned this once glorious rivalry into an afterthought, dominating the series like no other coach. Saban has led Alabama to an 11-0 mark against Tennessee with the average score being 36-11.
The one-sided series is something that new Tennessee head coach Jeremy Pruitt is looking to change as he gets his first taste of this rivalry from the other side. Pruitt is a Rainsville, Alabama native and a graduate of the University of Alabama. Pruitt has spent nine seasons as an Alabama assistant coach, including two as Nick Saban’s defensive coordinator in 2016 and 2017 before leaving to become the Vols head coach.
Tennessee is already beginning to bear the fruits of Pruitt’s labor, showing marked improvement week-to-week, culminating in last week’s upset of Auburn in Jordan-Hare Stadium. Tennessee fans will never be satisfied with a 3-3 record, but the signs of improvement from week one until now are obvious, and Tennessee is now a projected bowl team as a result, which seemed far-fetched just two weeks ago.
Alabama is the heavy favorite, and it would take a monumental upset for the Crimson Tide to not win their 12th straight game in the series, which would be the longest such streak in the history of the rivalry.
Here are three bold predictions for the Third Saturday in October: