After hanging on to beat South Carolina at home, Alabama’s defense will have an SEC road test against Tennessee’s offense run by head coach Josh Heupel.
In their first four games of the season, these two units played efficient football, propelling their respective teams into the AP top 5 in the Week 6 rankings. Two weeks later, Alabama’s defense is having a difficult time getting off the field on third and fourth down, and Tennessee’s offense has struggled to put up points against SEC opponents.
With the “Third Saturday in October” around the corner, each of these squads hopes to clean up the mistakes and get back on track. For the Vols, it starts with dialing in quarterback Nico Iamaleava.
“For Nico, being calm, poised, being in a great platform to be able to deliver the football on time is important,” Heupel said. “But a part of his game and part of what we need is when it’s not right down the football field to be able to scramble and make plays.”
Throughout his head coaching tenure at Tennessee, Heupel has helped the Volunteer offense become an admirable threat. This season, however, Heupel has faced a challenge, as he is coaching a true freshman in Iamaleava.
Against Florida, Iamaleava finished the game with a 17.5 QBR and threw an interception. However, he still found a way to lead the Volunteers to a victory over the Gators in overtime. Despite the recent struggles, Heupel said Iamaleava is resilient and will return to playing confidently.
Although Tennessee has some issues in the passing game, there is a different area in which Heupel’s offense has been excelling: running the football.
The Volunteers have hitched their wagon behind running back Dylan Sampson. So far this season, Heupel has given Sampson 118 carries, the most out of every running back in the SEC by a wide margin.
Sampson leads the SEC in total rushing yards, rush yards per game and rushing touchdowns, while being responsible for Tennessee’s last six touchdowns, dating back to the first half of the Oklahoma game.
Based on those statistics, the Vols’ rushing attack will be the best the Alabama defense will face this season.
“I think [Tennessee’s] running back is elite,” Alabama defensive coordinator Kane Wommack said. “He’s got really good patience in their run schemes. He will make guys miss at the point of contact.”
Against Vanderbilt, the Crimson Tide gave up 166 rushing yards and lost the time of possession battle by a significant margin. The following week, Alabama’s run defense showed signs of improvement but still allowed South Carolina to rush for 132 yards.
One trend from the Alabama-South Carolina game was the Gamecocks converting on third and fourth down multiple times. The Crimson Tide defense has struggled to get off the field on these downs, leading to drives of 10 plays or more that exhaust the Alabama pass rush.
Wommack believes that his defensive front is moving in the right direction.
“I do think we took some steps in the right direction from a pass rush standpoint. … But we’re still not optimizing our ability to rush as a unit,” Wommack said.
So far, Wommack has stuck to his 4-2-5 defense and does not appear to be making any major changes.
The Alabama-Tennessee rivalry will be renewed inside Neyland Stadium on Saturday. The game will air on ABC at 2:30 p.m.
