Tennessee quarterback Joshua Dobbs (11) eludes Alabama's Jonathan Allen (93) as he heads downfield. There was no mystery about the outcome the first time Alabama's Nick Saban and Tennessee's Butch Jones had their teams meet midway through the 2013 football season in Bryant-Denny Stadium.
The well-stocked Crimson Tide took a 35-0 halftime lead and were up 42-3 through three quarters before coasting to a 45-10 win, which signified Alabama's largest margin of victory in the series in 50 years. Saban knows that world no longer exists as his top-ranked Tide (6-0, 3-0 Southeastern Conference) prepare to visit the No. 9 Volunteers (5-1, 2-1) on Saturday.
Alabama has the nation's longest winning streak at 18 games, while Tennessee had its 11-game winning streak snapped last weekend in a 45-38 double-overtime loss at Texas A&M.
"I think Butch Jones has done a fabulous job there," Saban said Wednesday night in a news conference after practice. "They had a really good team last year and finished the season strong, and the only loss they have is to a top-five or top-six team in the country, and they certainly weren't that way when he took the program over.
"He's doing a good job of developing players, and he's doing a good job of recruiting players."
Jonathan Allen was a freshman defensive end on Alabama's 2013 team that humbled the Volunteers. The Crimson Tide raced out to a 27-0 lead the next season in Knoxville, but Tennessee fought back to within 27-17 before losing 34-20.
In last year's meeting in Tuscaloosa, the Tide pulled out a 19-14 triumph on a 14-yard touchdown run by Derrick Henry with 2:24 remaining. Allen helped snuff out Tennessee's chances in the final two minutes with a 9-yard sack of Josh Dobbs.
"They know how to win football games, and that's probably the biggest challenge that we'll have to face," Allen said. "We're not going to be able to give them any breaks or give them any points. We're going to have to make them earn everything, and that's what we're trying to focus on."
Saban was asked Wednesday if he "took any satisfaction" in the way Jones has rebuilt Tennessee, given how Saban took over an Alabama program that had gone 6-7 in 2006 and won the national championship three years later. Saban has since led the Tide to three more national titles, giving the program four in a seven-year stretch.
"I don't take any satisfaction in anything that we've done here, because I'm just worried about winning this game," Saban said as he began to reference last week's 49-30 win at Arkansas. "It's a pretty slippery pole from the penthouse to the outhouse when you're in this business, so you don't take satisfaction. That's what causes lapses in games.
"You take satisfaction when the score is 42-17, and then you go out and get your (butt) kicked in the next series. You can't take satisfaction. You have to keep on grinding."
Senior inside linebacker Reuben Foster practiced Wednesday, Saban said, but senior right guard Alphonse Taylor did not. Both players sustained concussions in the victory over the Razorbacks. Should Taylor not be able to play Saturday, sophomore Lester Cotton would likely take his spot.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.