KNOXVILLE - In summing up the top-ranked, undefeated, largely untested Alabama football team his Volunteers will face Saturday inside the Crimson Tide's Bryant-Denny Stadium, Tennessee coach Butch Jones said of the nation's unanimous No. 1: "Probably the most complete football team I've seen in several years."
That seems fair and honest enough, even devoid of much hype, despite its high praise. After all, the Tide lead the Southeastern Conference in both scoring offense (42.7 ppg) and scoring defense (10.1 papg), as well as leading the nation in rushing defense.
And those numbers have been achieved against a schedule that ESPN.com tabbed the second toughest in the nation through its Preseason College Football Power Index.
Nearly as impressive when considering the man who coaches the Tide is the fact that with September's victory over then No. 3 Florida State, Nick Saban has 19 career wins over Associated Press top-five teams, which not only are the most in college football history but give him the best winning percentage in such matchups (.613).
Given that Saban also enters Saturday with a 10-0 record against the Vols since coming to the Capstone prior to the start of the 2007 season, that 34-point spread favoring Bama seems about right.
Tennessee football coach Butch Jones, right of official, is 33-24 with the Vols midway through his fifth season in Knoxville. He has led the program to three straight bowl wins but no SEC East championships.Yet if the Vols are quaking in their Nikes over facing such a formidable foe on the road, they didn't show it during Monday's weekly media day.
"Alabama's a great team, and there's obviously a rivalry there," said wideout Brandon Johnson, who came within a fingertip or two of a game-winning touchdown catch on the final play against South Carolina - barely failing to corral Jarrett Guarantano's well-thrown pass.
"But this is nothing different (than any other week). The expectation (to win) doesn't change, no matter who we play."
Junior defensive tackle Kahlil McKenzie - whose father Reggie and uncle Raleigh pretty much had their way with Bama on the Third Saturday in October in the early 1980s, topping the Tide in '82, '83 and '84 - sounded a similar business-as-usual mantra.
"It's a storied rivalry," he said. "I've heard my father and uncle talk about it. But we're just going to go down there to try and get a win in their house."
Bama's history against unranked opponents suggests that goal is next to impossible. Take away Saban's first season and he's won 72 straight games against unranked opponents. Though the Vols certainly threw a scare into the Tide's eventual 2015 national champs, losing 19-14, the average score of Saban's 10 wins at Alabama over UT is 35-12.
Throw in the orange elephant in the room that is Jones' tenuous (at best) job future and that 34-point spread seems almost quaint.
But the Tide do still have to roll on the field. No computer power index is going to determine this final score. Beyond that, this is Bama's eighth straight weekend to take the field. Its off week comes next week, and football fatigue has been mentioned as reasons for Saban's two close shaves against the Vols - the 12-10 nailbiter in 2009 that wasn't secured until Terrence "Mount" Cody blocked a last-minute UT field goal - and the 2015 win.
So there's the tiniest sliver of hope, of at least making it a much better game, if not an out and out victory, than a 34-point spread would suggest.
There's also the very recent history of last weekend - Syracuse over Clemson, California over Washington State, Arizona State over Washington - to give Volniacs at least a thin reason to believe in football miracles.
What doesn't seem likely to happen this week is Jones losing his job. There were rumors throughout last week that if he lost to South Carolina he might be fired on either Sunday or Monday, much as former coaches Johnny Majors and Phillip Fulmer had been axed following losses to the Gamecocks.
But as of 9:04 Monday night, Jones was still the coach and his comments from Monday afternoon sounded as if he wasn't obsessing over the possibility he might not be the coach in the near future.
"I don't worry about any of that," he said. "All my focus is on our players, our football program and getting them ready for the Alabama game. That's all I focus on."
As has been the case since Saban took over 11 years ago, preparing for Bama is more than enough for any opposing coach to focus on. But that's especially true when it's this year's Vols against this year's Crimson Tide.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.