The scariest aspect of Alabama’s 58-21 win at Tennessee last Saturday was that the Crimson Tide offense wasn’t operating at full strength.
Sophomore receiver DeVonta Smith, the hero of January’s overtime triumph against Georgia in the national championship game, sustained a hamstring injury in the Oct. 13 victory over Missouri and did not make the trip to Knoxville. The Tide still managed to flourish, with sophomore quarterback Tua Tagovailoa throwing for 306 yards and four touchdowns before coming out of a 51-14 game with 27 minutes of game clock remaining.
Tagovailoa had touchdown tosses of 11, 77, 9 and 41 yards.
“I guess we did all right,” said sophomore receiver Henry Ruggs, who played some at Smith’s spot. “It’s a product of what we do in practice, and we didn’t have the best week of practice because of all us moving around and things like that.”
With the top-ranked Tide off this week, Smith has the opportunity for his hamstring to further heal and get Alabama back to full strength aerially for next Saturday’s showdown at No. 4 LSU. This obviously is not Bear Bryant’s wishbone offense of the 1970s or even the power running game with play-action passes that Nick Saban has employed for most of his 12 seasons in Tuscaloosa.
What Alabama is doing is unprecedented in its storied history. The Tide lead the nation in total offense (564.3 yards per game), scoring offense (54.1 points a contest) and passing efficiency (226.3) this season, and that’s with Tagovailoa having yet to take a fourth-quarter snap.
“I think we’ve got the right kind of players,” Saban said after defeating Tennessee for a 12th consecutive season. “I said at the beginning that we would have a different kind of team this year. We’ve got four really, really good receivers. Those guys make tough catches. Those guys make contested catches. They make some great catches on long balls.
“The quarterback is a naturally instinctive guy who understands what he’s supposed to do, and I think we’ve got two really good offensive tackles (Jedrick Wills and Jonah Williams). We made a couple of plays in this game where we really had a lot of time.”
Saban briefly paused when thinking about the protection against the Volunteers before adding, “If we went 7-on-7 and with me being a defensive coach, if the quarterback took that much time, I would tell the offensive guys that they are cheating.”
Alabama’s four receivers that Saban referenced – Jerry Jeudy, Jaylen Waddle, Ruggs and Smith – each rank among the nation’s top 125 in receiving yards per game. Jeudy leads the way with 777 yards and 10 touchdowns on 31 catches, which translates to a staggering 25.1 yards per reception, while Waddle (21.8), Smith (19.5) and Ruggs (18.5) are also tremendous in that category.
Given that Tagovailoa, Jeudy, Smith and Ruggs are sophomores and Waddle is just a freshman, this weekly assault isn’t going away.
“Things are so much more fun when you don’t only have one person to go to,” Tagovailoa said. “When you have guys at running back who can make plays as well – this is just fun out here.”
Tagovailoa was hard-pressed after the Tennessee game to discuss how Alabama has improved from a month ago, simply because the Tide have been so dominant all along. The 6-foot-2, 218-pounder has completed 70.4 percent of his passes and has racked up 25 touchdowns without throwing an interception.
Saban, however, sees the improvement the Heisman Trophy favorite is making, especially from a leadership standpoint.
“Tua is a really positive guy, and he’s driven to be a really good player,” Saban said. “He tries to do all the things that he can to improve and get better. He doesn’t get satisfied very easy, and I think that’s the key to being able to overcome adversity when you have it.”
The Tide could meet their match in their next game, because LSU is coming off a 19-3 win over Mississippi State in which the Tigers intercepted Nick Fitzgerald four times. The Tigers lead the nation with 14 interceptions – sophomore safety Grant Delpit’s five leads the nation as well – and their plus-1.5 turnover ratio is tops in the Southeastern Conference.
“We want to continue to improve in the passing game,” Saban said. “With some of the challenges we have down the road against some of the defenses we will have to play against, we’re going to have to be really, really efficient in the passing game.”
Said LSU coach Ed Orgeron of stopping the undefeated Tide: “They’re playing at one of the highest levels I’ve ever seen in college football.”
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.