Tennessee’s 40-13 rout of LSU last weekend in Baton Rouge can be explained in multiple ways.
Volunteers quarterback Hendon Hooker continued to look like Hendon Hooker, and the running game was stout throughout. Edge rusher Byron Young was menacing and finally collected the stats to prove it, while the Tigers fumbled away the opening kickoff and were disastrous on special teams all afternoon.
Yet how much of Tennessee’s overwhelming success inside a rapidly emptying Tiger Stadium was due to the open date the week before, and could there be a carryover effect as the No. 6 Vols prepare to host No. 3 Alabama?
“It’s hard to know for sure if anybody really has any evidence that open dates are helpful or not helpful in terms of the way you play,” Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban said this week. “I think if your team has good momentum and the right kind of chemistry and attitude, the rest does you well, and they’ll be able to pick up where they left off.
“Sometimes that works in your favor and sometimes it doesn’t.”
In Alabama’s 15-game series winning streak over the Vols, the only close calls were the Tide’s 12-10 escape in 2009 and their 19-14 triumph in 2015. In both instances, Tennessee was directly coming off an open date, while Alabama was playing its eighth game in eight weeks.
Obviously this week does not provide that identical situation, but the Vols are playing just their second game since the Sept. 24 win over Florida, while Alabama has its seventh contest in seven weeks.
“We try to manage our guys through the season where we don’t play too many games in a row without having a couple days off in there some place,” Saban said. “We usually play eight games before we have a bye week, so we have to give our guys a couple days off in the middle of that stretch so that we get a little rest and recovery time.
“I don’t think you can play that many games in a row without affecting how your team performs.”
Alabama has typically played until having October’s last Saturday off, which predates the Tide’s annual matchup with LSU.
Josh Heupel isn’t making too much of how the open date affected his team during last Saturday’s surprise drubbing. It was certainly the most thorough performance in all three phases, especially given the opponent and the setting, that the Vols have played since the Phillip Fulmer era.
“For us, a majority of that was the development of our young guys, getting back to a lot of fundamentals with our vets and turning our attention to LSU as we came off the bye weekend,” Heupel said. “We got a couple of good days of work on the grass, and we had some guys that needed to get healed up that were able to.
“Obviously our coaching staff spent a lot of time out on the road recruiting, too.”
Personnel updates
Thursday marked Heupel’s final news conference of the week, and his first question concerned the status of senior safety Jaylen McCollough following last Sunday’s arrest on a felony aggravated assault charge.
“Obviously with the situation there is a process that goes on, and we’re still going through that,” Heupel said. “We’ll see when we get to late tomorrow.”
Asked later if McCollough has been allowed to practice this week, Heupel said, “I’m not going to get into that.”
Heupel also had a “we’ll see where we are tomorrow” response to the status of fifth-year senior receiver Cedric Tillman, who missed the Florida and LSU games with a high-ankle sprain.
More than Anderson
Heupel was asked Thursday about trying to stop Alabama junior outside linebacker Will Anderson, the reigning Bronko Nagurski Trophy winner who led the nation with 33.5 tackles for loss last season and is tied for fourth this year with 10.
“If it was just one guy, it would be easier, but they’re good across the board,” Heupel said. “They have the ability to rush the passer, and they’re dynamic and destructive in the run game, too. We’ve got to have balance.
“You don’t want to be living in third-and-long against these guys.”
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.