Last year, the Tennessee defense took a major nosedive throughout the season, ultimately giving up nearly 400 yards and 30 points per game across the season. Long time defensive coordinator Tim Banks, who'd been with the program since Josh Heupel took over, was fired, and the Vols then brought in veteran DC Jim Knowles. Knowles put together some outstanding defenses at Duke, Oklahoma State, and Ohio State over the last 15 years, though his one season at Penn State in 2025 saw him fired after one season. It worked out for the Vols though, as they also managed to nab a couple of excellent defensive players from the Nittany Lions in the transfer portal.
With the upgrades, the Vols are now sporting one of the better defenses in the league this season. They're only giving up 15.5 yards per game, and lead the entire nation with 25 sacks through only 6 games. The defensive front has been absolutely ferocious, with PSU transfer defensive tackle Xavier Gilliam leading the way with 5 sacks and 10 tackles for loss. Gilliam has arguably been the best defensive tackle in the country through this season. Edge rushers Tyree Weathersby and Mariyon Dye have both also notched 4 sacks apiece, making up a trio of terrifying pass-rushing effectiveness. Linebacker Arion Carter returns after multiple years as a starter, and the other PSU transfer, Amare Campbell, has been a revelation at the other linebacker spot.
For all of their pass-rushing and negative-play-generating capabilities, though, the Tennessee defensive front has had some issues giving up explosive rushing plays and really struggled there against Auburn.
The passing defense, though, has been excellent. The staggering sack numbers are the main story, but they're only allowing 160 yards per game and have only given up 3 touchdowns through the air.
In the secondary, Ty Redmond returns after a horrific freshman year and has become a much more stable player so far, and Kayin Lee has come over after a good year at Auburn. Safety TJ Metcalf has also been a good addition for them, as he's a guy with experience starting for both Arkansas and Michigan.
There's a lot of potential that this could go very bad for the Alabama offense. For all of the good things the Tide offense has done, they've struggled with taking sacks, though admittedly those have generally been more of the "unblocked blitzer" variety than offensive line losing blocks. However, the Tide is also going to be playing with Mal Waldrep instead of Racin Delgatty at center, and that's a whole lot of unknown lining up against the most disruptive defensive tackle in the league.
On the other hand, I think this could be a huge day for Alabama's rushing attack as their heavy counter blocking scheme and TE split blocking could serve to really punish the Vols' defensive front over-pursuing on going for tackles for loss.
Still, you have to think this is going to be a slog of a game overall for the Tide offense. It's hard to get their performance in giving up sacks last week out of your mind, and Tennessee's defensive front is even more disruptive than Georgia's, even if their secondary isn't at the level of the Bulldogs. So let's go with 21 points for the Tide.
