Dallas Turner: Alabama's rivalry with Tennessee is 'very deep'

In 2022, Alabama and Tennessee played one of the best games of the season, with the Volunteers winning in the closing moments. Fans poured onto the field while Tennessee celebrated its first win in the series since 2006. Meanwhile, Crimson Tide players like Dallas Turner had to make their way off the field through the celebration.

That loss has clearly stuck with Turner and he explained that the rivalry with Tennessee runs very deep while speaking at SEC media days.

“The game, it came out how it was,” Dallas Turner said. “Tennessee had a very good team last year, you know, the rivalry is very deep between Alabama and Tennessee now.”

This season, Alabama will look to start a new streak of wins against Tennessee. That game will be played in October in Tuscaloosa.

“It’s gonna be a good one,” Turner said.

Dallas Turner came to Alabama in the Class of 2021. According to the On3 Industry Rankings, he was a five-star recruit. He made an immediate impact during the 2021 season with 8.5 sacks and 10 tackles for loss as a freshman. He took a slight statistical step back in 2022 but still made a massive impact on the Crimson Tide defense.

One of the best defensive players in the SEC, Dallas Turner is going to be motivated for this game. He expects to enter it with an excellent defense around him, ready to play ‘murderball.’ That’s not just against the Volunteers but it’s their preseason expectation for the defense all season long.

“The expectations, Joyless Murderball, pre-season, of course. There’s a lot of guys on the defense that can run around, fly around, make good plays,” Turner said.

Dallas Turner on getting in trouble with Nick Saban

Even a dominant player like Dallas Turner can get into trouble with legendary head coach Nick Saban. As he explained, Saban can be incredibly intimidating the odd time that he does make a mistake, ripping into Turner as harshly as anyone.

“I mean I was never really a trouble guy, I never really got in trouble off the field and on the field. But I would probably say my freshman year I got a flag one time for a face mask or something like that, and a coach has never chewed me out the way he chewed me out before,” Turner said.

“I’ve been playing football since I was five years old, I’ve never been chewed out like that before.”