TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — This year’s Alabama football team sure knows how to finish.
The sixth-ranked Crimson Tide have closed out all three of their Southeastern Conference games so far this season with big plays in crunch time. It’s the kind of repeated resolve that could bode well as Alabama (5-1, 3-0) hosts No. 11 Tennessee (5-1, 2-1) at Bryant-Denny Stadium on Saturday night.
“This is a tough team, and all we do is fight,” said Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson, a redshirt junior whose success as a first-year starter has been vital. “Three top-25 games, and they all come down to the wire. That’s hard to do. That’s what Alabama is. We’re going to keep swinging and make sure that we play together.”
The past three meetings in the rivalry known as the “Third Saturday in October” have been one-possession games in the fourth quarter. Alabama came up short in last year’s 24-17 loss in Knoxville, getting outscored 24-10 in the second half and mustering only 3 yards over its last four possessions.
The Tide believe this year will be different.