Alabama’s defending Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Bryce Young is still a questionmark for Satuiday’s big SEC showdown at Tennessee.
Young is still recovering from an arm injujry suffered two games ago.
If Young can’t go, his backup James Milroe is scheduled to start for Nick Saban’s unbeaten, third ranked Tide.
But conroversy has been brewing all week about whether he is better than Ty Simpson.
This may well be Alabama’s biggest game of the regular season. And it may be the Vols’ biggest game since 1998, the last time UT won a national title. The Vols have been through four different coaches from 2009 to 2020, looking for a savior who can take them out of the SEC
abyss. the sixth ranked Vols has finally re-emerged as a national player this fall with a 5-0 record an innovative offensive coaching mind in Josh Heupel and a Heisman Trophy candidate in Hendon Hooker who has passed for 1432 yards, rushed for another 231 and has the third best total quarterback rankng in the country (90.4).
They may be a touchdown underdog, but things are so much better than when the Vols had eight losing seasons, dating back to 2008 and dropped an average of five SEC games a year. Neyland Stadium has undergone a face lift, season tickets with seatl icensing are are back to 59,000 and fundraising set records with 80.7 million NIL money is competitive with other top tier SEC programs.
The results on the field merit approval. The Vols are averaging 547 yards. they have scored on 62 percent of their offensive drives, best in the FBS. Hooker, a transfer from Virginia Tech, is completing 70 percent of his passes and is averaging a stunning 0 yards per completion, enough to at least throw a scare into Nick Saban, whose record against the Vols is 16-1.
“They’re probably one of the most explosive offenses, if not the most explosive offense in the country,” Saban said.
Of course, the Vols will have to deal with the Tide’s great defense which ranks in the top 10 in opposing score ratee, yards for game and points for game. But Bama has had difficulty dealing with teams that play up tempo and UT plays at the fifth quicknest tempo in the country in terms of possession and the Vols’ offensive line has done a good job protecting Hooker. .
