Nick Saban breaks down Tennessee's offensive scheme

One of the most highly anticipated rematches of the college football season kicks off this weekend, as Alabama and Tennessee will square off on Saturday in Bryant-Denny Stadium following their thriller in Knoxville a year ago.

Tennessee’s offense stole the show last season, as the nation’s top-scoring offense from last year was able to score 52 points in their upset win over the Crimson Tide. Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel‘s offensive scheme is a unique one that gave Alabama problems last season, and ahead of this year’s matchup, Alabama head coach Nick Saban broke down what makes the Vols so hard to stop.

“They certainly make you defend 53 yards wide of the field and there’s two challenges,” Saban said. “It effects run support in the box because the guys that are covering the receivers are so far away from the box.”

Tennessee’s offense is known for their wide splits, aligning their wide receivers far away from the formation in order to stretch out defenses horizontally. This has allowed the Volunteers to be extremely effective in the run game, as they’ve transformed from a team that led the SEC in passing last season to one that leads the conference in rushing so far this year averaging 231.3 yards on the ground per game.

“And also they run a lot of vertical routes from out there so the people that are covering them get pretty isolated because they’re far away from, whether it’s split safety or middle of the field safeties,” Saban explained. “So it is very challenging and the thing that I think is going to be really important is not to give up big, explosive plays, which was a real issue for us a year ago.”

Thankfully for Saban and the Crimson Tide, wide receiver Jalin Hyatt is no longer a member of Tennessee’s team, as he epitomized their explosive vertical passing game with 207 yards and five touchdowns last season versus Alabama.

But despite star players like Hyatt and Hendon Hooker not being a part of the Volunteers offense this season, Tennessee still presents an effective and balanced offensive attack that will definitely force the Crimson Tide defense to be on their a-game.

“They play with great tempo on offense which is challenging for the defense, but their ability to run the ball and create balance has been pretty phenomenal this year,” Saban said in his opening statement on Monday. “I mean they run it for like 230 [yards], pass it for 210 [yards] whatever, and that kind of balance is always something that is difficult.”

Alabama will definitely be looking to better defend the Volunteers in this year’s edition of the matchup, and will also be looking for a different result on the scoreboard, as they’ll square off with Tennessee with Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET in a game airing on CBS.