This Saturday the No. 2 ranked Alabama Crimson Tide will face the Tennessee Volunteers at home in a SEC matchup that is billed as a one-sided affair.
Alabama has a record of 7-0 overall and 4-0 inside its conference after its dominating 52-7 win against Ole Miss last Saturday. The Volunteers, meanwhile, have a middling record of 3-3 overall and 0-3 within the SEC after a 38-7 blowout loss at home against LSU. The Crimson Tide have dominated this series so far with a 4-0 win record against the Volunteers with a 41-10 victory at Tennessee last year.
Oddsmakers currently have Alabama favored by 28.5 points against Tennessee, according to the Week 8 college football spreads.
Alabama Crimson Tide
After being down 7-0 from a five-play, 72-yard drive to start the game against Ole Miss, Alabama absolutely dominated Ole Miss from then on. Alabama would limit Ole Miss to just 69 yards of total offense the rest of the game.
Alabama played an almost perfect game, dominating Ole Miss with an exceptional defensive and offensive game. The Crimson Tide punted just once the entire game, while tacking on seven touchdowns and 615 yards of total offense.
Junior running back Trent Richardson needed just 18 carries to rush for 183 yards and four touchdowns. Jalton Fowler followed it up with 125 yards with two touchdowns on only nine attempts. Alabama finished the game with a whopping 389 yards on the ground, and are averaging 241.6 ypg on the ground for the year.
A.J. McCarron, the sophomore quarterback, went for 19-of-24 for 224 yards and a touchdown. Through the last four games, McCarron has thrown for at least 200 yards and has completed at least 75 percent of his attempts. Since giving the ball away twice in the game against Kent State, McCarron hasn’t thrown a single interception since.
Although Tennessee is stronger defensively against Ole Miss, Alabama won’t have much trouble moving the ball and scoring against this team.
Tennessee Volunteers
With the way the two teams are playing, there is no chance of Tennessee beating Alabama this Saturday. Their immediate future doesn’t seem so bright because the Volunteers host South Carolina and travel to Arkansas after this weekend's battle against Alabama.
The Volunteers lost their starting quarterback Tyler Bray with a thumb injury in their loss against Georgia, and the offense struggled as a result against LSU. Senior quarterback Matt Simms completed just 6-of-20 for 128 yards and two interceptions. They will face an Alabama team that is fifth in the country in total defense allowing just 146 passing yards a game.
Running back Tauren Poole provided much of the offense against LSU, rushing for 70 yards and a touchdown on 19 attempts. The offense will look to go to Poole more with the absence of Bray, but he may just have a hard time trying to face an Alabama defense that is limiting opponents to just 38.1 yards per game on the ground.
Betting Trends
Tennessee is just 2-8-1 against the spread (ATS) in their last 11 games as an underdog.
Alabama is 7-1 ATS in their last 8 games as a favorite of 10.5 or greater.
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