Tennessee snapped its lengthy losing streak against Alabama last year with a well-defined formula: ride the potent arm of quarterback Hendon Hooker to an 18-point lead, weather a spirited Crimson Tide comeback, and boot a 40-yard field goal at the horn to achieve immortality.
What should the Volunteers’ plan Saturday look like as they look to make it two wins in a row against their hated rivals? According to legendary Tennessee quarterback Peyton Manning, the team should embrace an approach antithetical to the one used in 2022.
“I feel like the best chance for us to win is for it to be low scoring. I think that means possessing the ball,” Manning told former Alabama quarterback and ESPN analyst Greg McElroy on the latter’s Always College Football podcast. “It’s hard for us to control the clock with as fast as we run plays, right? If [coach] Josh [Heupel] isn’t getting 90 plays in a game, it’s a letdown.”
The Volunteers led the nation in scoring offense in ’22, averaging 46.1 points per game. That number is down to 33.5 in 2023, which, if ’22 is factored out, still constitutes Tennessee’s highest average since 2016.
However, that didn’t deter Manning from taking the Volunteers in a defensive-minded affair to polish off their first back-to-back wins over the Crimson Tide since 2003–04.
“Maybe keeping the ball and keeping their offense off the field a little bit, 20–17?” Manning ventured as a prediction.
