Alabama Football: All the details to enjoy ‘Third Saturday in October’
By Ronald Evans
Whether the calendar says so or not, it is always the third Saturday in October whenever Alabama Football meets Tennessee in the regular season. This year the calendar agrees.
The Saturday afternoon encounter in Neyland Stadium is a big game. For some Tennessee fans, it may be the biggest game in their lifetime. There is little reason to believe the reality will fail to match the hype.
For those not in Knoxville, it is another week to watch on CBS. The broadcast team is Brad Nessler, Gary Danielson and Jenny Dell. CBS will stream the game on multiple platforms. It can also be seen on fuboTV.
Radio coverage will be provided by the Crimson Tide Sports Network (CTSN) with Chris Stewart, Barrett Jones and Roger Hoover. Along with the CTSN’s many radio stations, it can also be heard on Sirius/XM/SXM 111/191.
The 2:30 PM CST game is expected to kick off at 2:39 PM CST.
Going into the 105th game between the two programs, Alabama Football leads the series, 59-37-8, including a 27-20-1 record in Knoxville. Of course, those numbers are insignificant next to 15 wins in a row for the Alabama Crimson Tide.
The buzz is a huge amount of money is being wagered on the game, with most of it on the Vols. The point spread on Friday night, according to FanDuel was the Crimson Tide as an 8.5-point favorite. The over/under was 66.5 points and the Moneyline was Alabama -335 and Tennessee +265.
Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change
On Friday, we published some in-depth information from a Tennessee Vols expert who answered questions for us. A portion of his information was about injured Vols not expected to play. Since then, it has been rumored another Tennessee starter, cornerback Kamal Hadden will also miss the game.
As has been widely reported, Bryce Young is expected to play, though that will not be official until he throws in pre-game warm-ups.
The Knoxville weather at kickoff is expected to be Partly Cloudy and 76 degrees, with a wind ranging from six to 11 miles per hour.
Final Alabama Football Game Prediction
On Friday, I published Five Bold Predictions for the game. Not all of them, and maybe not any of them, will have to be accurate for the Crimson Tide to win. My prediction is 38-27 Crimson Tide, but I will not be shocked if the Tide’s winning margin is less than a touchdown.
Complete Alabama Crimson Tide Game Notes are available here.
Next. Finebaum and others may have done Nick Saban a favor. dark
I am adding no disclaimers for what will happen if Bryce is well below 100% or cannot play the full game. Except to say, Alabama is the better team and one player alone does not turn a win into a loss.