Defensive stats for Alabama Football and the Tennessee Vols are misleading

For the last almost 11 quarters of Alabama Football, the Crimson Tide defense has not measured up to expectations. Given that similar performances also occurred in the last few seasons of the Nick Saban era, perhaps the expectations for the 2024 defense were too high. Then again in the context of every season expectations for the Alabama Crimson Tide, no standard is too high.

The Alabama Football defense must improve on missed assignments and missed tackles. The Alabama defensive staff agrees. The Tennessee game would be a great time to show improvement.

The Tennessee Vols' defense has been regularly praised this season. Diving into team stats shows results by Tennessee have been better than Alabama in three key defensive stats.

Alabama Football and Tennessee Team Defense Stats

• Scoring Defense - Tennessee is No. 4 in the FBS, with opponents scoring an average of 10.7 points per game. Alabama is No. 41 by allowing an average of 20.8 points.

• Total Defense - Tennessee is No. 2 nationally, based on opponent average yards per play (4.04 yards). The Crimson Tide is a respectable No. 16, allowing 4.64 yards per play.

• Rushing Defense - The Vols are also No. 2 in the FBS in this key stat, with opponents averaging only 2.24 yards per carry. Alabama is No. 30, allowing an average of 3.33 yards.

• Passing Defense - There are multiple ways to measure effectiveness against the pass. A solid one is the opponent's pass completion percentage. Alabama has been leaky at times against the pass and the result is being No. 47 in the FBS, allowing 58.6% completions. Tennessee is worse; No. 68, allowing 60.8% completions.

Measuring the numbers, the Vols have the better defense. That is not the correct conclusion. Projecting whether Tennessee or Alabama is better on defense requires consideration of Strength of Schedule (SOS).

Alabama Football and Tennessee Strength of Schedule

Using ESPN's analytics, the Crimson Tide's SOS through six games is No. 24 among all FBS teams. The SOS for Tennessee is No. 59. Using ESPN's current FPI rankings, the average ranking for the six teams Alabama has played is No. 47. Measuring the average for Tennessee requires some speculation because the Vols opened with FCS, Chattanooga. The Mocs are a good FCS team, though not one of the best. The Vols beat them 66-3. To calculate an average for this post, I gave Chattanooga a No. 135, FPI ranking. Using that number the average of Tennessee's opponents is No. 71.

Given the large difference in SOS, I believe Tennessee is, at most, slightly better at run defense than Alabama. With Tennessee losing its leading tackler for the season, the Crimson Tide defense is as good or better. The same logic can be applied to Total Defense stats, meaning Alabama and Tennessee are about equal.

A similar exercise could be done with offensive stats. Looking at just one; Total Offense, yards-per-play, Alabama at 7.37 yards in No. 8 and Tennessee at 6.55 yards (against weaker teams) is No. 32.

Playing in Knoxville is not easy, but the Alabama Crimson Tide will have key advantages on offense and defense.

Note: Team stats provided by cfbstats.com