KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Alabama Coach Nick Saban expects the Crimson Tide to do more than just win. Lately, they’ve been letting him down.
“Somewhere along the line this year we sort of lost our edge,” Saban said. “I’m talking about the intangibles of playing with toughness and giving effort. We got too satisfied with winning and not playing to a standard. I think that’s affected our entire team.”
Dissatisfied with a loss to South Carolina and a lack of domination in a victory over Mississippi, Saban is looking for a sharper performance by Alabama (6-1, 3-1 SEC) against a faltering Tennessee team on Saturday.
Not so fast, say the Volunteers (2-4, 0-3), who have been watching as other underdogs have played well against the Crimson Tide. They’re confident in the way they’ve prepared for the Tide after a blowout loss to Georgia and a bye weekend.
“Every day in the SEC you have to come ready to play, and if you come to play, obviously, upsets can happen,” Tennessee defensive end Chris Walker said.
That was almost the case a year ago for Tennessee, a 161/2-point underdog, just as it is this season. The Vols had a chance to win on a 44-yard field goal by Daniel Lincoln, but the low kick hit Terrence Cody in the armpit, and Alabama got the 12-10 victory to remain undefeated en route to the national championship. It was the Tide’s narrowest margin of victory allseason.
The Tide have won the past three meetings with the Vols, but haven’t taken four in a row since winning seven in a row in 1986-1992. The Volsfollowed up with a winning streak in 1995-2001.
A victory over their longest-running rival wouldn’t just be a confidence boost for the Vols during a frustrating rebuilding effort. It would also mean Coach Derek Dooley’s first SEC victory and a victory over his former boss.
Dooley isn’t focused on any of those things. He’d like to just see a little improvement from two weeks ago when the Vols couldn’t seem to do anything right against Georgia.
“All I care about is competing, and that’s all I tell them,” Dooley said. “I just want to see us go compete like you’re in the back yard. When you’re inthe back yard, you don’t back down, and you don’t get your head down when your buddy completes a pass on you or when the next-door neighbor beats you on a double-move post. Competing means not getting affected and playing aggressive. We’re not there yet.”
It’s not just the odds that are stacked against Tennessee. Alabama excels in nearly every statistical category and the matchups on the field seem to favor the Crimson Tide.
That could be good news for Alabama tailbacks Mark Ingram and Trent Richardson, who haven’t had much success lately. Opponents have stacked the line of scrimmage,daring the Tide to beat them with the passing game.
Quarterback Greg McElroy has been effective enough the past two weeks, completing two-thirds of his passes for 534 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions even as top receiver Julio Jones has played with a broken hand. But McElroy has also been sacked 11 times in two games.
The Vols are giving up a league-high 381 yards and have a league-low seven sacks so far.
On the other side of the ball, Dooley plans to try out backup quarterback Tyler Bray early against Alabama in hopes of finding a spark for an offense that’s averaging 321.8 yards and 23.3 points - worse than all other SEC teams except Vanderbilt.Matt Simms is still the starter, but Bray has practiced well enough to earn some meaningful snaps.
He’ll do so against a stingy Alabama defense that’s allowing only 288 yards and 12.9 points.
There are some little things the Crimson Tide defensive players aren’t satisfied with, like the fact they’ve only gotten eight sacks this season.
If they manage to correct those, perhaps they’ll be living up to Saban’s expectations.
“Coach Saban and the other coaches have been preaching about doing the little things, whether it is lining up a yard or two yards outside of the seam, or not getting your head across thetackle or anything like that,” Alabama linebacker Dont’a Hightower said.
“I feel like the last week that’s what we’ve been doing and seen the results,” he added, “so that’s the approach we’re taking this week, try and do the little things right.”
Sports, Pages 19 on 10/23/2010