ATLANTA–On a night where Alabama couldn’t get much going offensively, the Crimson Tide, led by junior Christion Jones, was able to find the end zone in a variety of other ways, and Alabama defeated Virginia Tech Saturday in the Georgia Dome, 35-10.
Jones returned four punts and two kickoffs for 209 yards and led the Crimson Tide receivers with 47 receiving yards. He also accounted for 18 of Alabama’s 35 points.
“It’s every kid’s dream to come in and have a game like that,” Jones said. “But I’ve got 24 hours to celebrate. Then we’ll start preparing for week two.”
Jones returned the Hokies’ first punt – following a three-and-out – 72 yards before Alabama’s offense could even take the field. It was the first punt return for a touchdown of Jones’ career.
Jones did it again just before halftime. After appearing to be down, he emerged from a pile and scampered toward the end zone for a 94-yard kickoff return, the second longest in Chick-fil-A Bowl history.
“I think it’s just me hitting the holes,” Christion Jones said. “The blocking scheme’s there, so I just like to hit the holes and get down field. I don’t really try to do too much shiftiness because you lose some yards, and you’ve got guys coming at you, so I just hit the hole and get what I can get.”
Sophomore safety Landon Collins was involved on almost every special teams play. He racked up five tackles, which was the fourth highest total for the Crimson Tide.
But he was just happy to not be chasing his teammate, Jones, like the Hokie defenders.
“He’s one of the most athletics players on our team, and he showed that out on the field today,” Collins said. “You just really have to breakdown and have him go sideways, sideline-to-sideline. If you do that you possibly get a chance to take him down.”
Jones is the first player in Alabama history to score more than one non-offensive touchdowns in one game, according to the Alabama record books, which date back to 1944.
But he wasn’t the only Crimson Tide player to post a career first.
Senior safety Vinnie Sunseri intercepted a Logan Thomas pass and returned it 38 yards for a score at the start of the second quarter. It was Sunseri’s first career touchdown at Alabama, but he didn’t take credit for the feat.
“I have to give it to the coaches for studying film,” Sunseri said. “We watched the play they ran a few times. I saw it and read it, and had a chance and jumped in.”
Despite Trey Edmunds’ 77-yard rushing touchdown in the first quarter, the Crimson Tide defense held the Hokie offense in check. Virginia Tech ran 59 plays for 212 yards and only converted three of its 17 third down attempts.
Ed Stinson led Alabama with eight tackles, while Mosley accumulated seven of his own.
Coach Nick Saban said the defense adjusted well to the new looks the Hokie offense ran that they weren’t expecting to see.
“I thought we did a really good job defensively,” Saban said. “They didn’t do anything on offense that we practiced against. We didn’t know how they would use personnel. They ran a lot of option plays, a lot of two-back option plays. We played against it before. Our players on defense did a fantastic job of adjusting in the game.”
