The first scent of cigar smoke came wafting over the Bryant-Denny Stadium crowd at roughly the 10-minute mark in the fourth quarter. The game was far from being over at that stage, but some in the crowd were already making their point felt.
And smell’t.
For those of us who remember days when there were smoking lounges in hospitals and even high schools, the aftermath of Alabama’s 37-20 victory over Tennessee was a trip down memory lane, where a trip to a barber shop, bowling alley or even the corner drugstore left behind a burnt-tobacco fragrance for the remainder of the day. Eau de Marlboro, as it were.
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Still, in 2025 it only takes a few moments to whisk away the nostalgia and remember that tobacco smoke is a modern-day pariah on the level of a cottonmouth moccasin, and younger fans unfamiliar with the postgame tradition of this rivalry surely must have thought the Bryant-Denny crowd had lost its ever-loving mind. By the time the clock actually ticked to zero, the air hanging inside the stadium resembled the aftermath of a California forest fire.
And the Tennessee Volunteers, and their fans, could do nothing but breath it all in.
There have been so many big games in this series over the years. Rarely does this game mean nothing to at least one of the two teams. Almost never does it mean nothing to either. It comes right at the point in the schedule where the SEC is sorting itself out for a stretch run and championship teams are being identified. On top of that, this hasn’t exactly been a series dominated by close outcomes, at least not in recent years. Watching one team put a 17-point margin of victory up is a sort of normalcy here.
So this most recent installment in the series seems positively routine upon examination. It’s just the way it got there that proves to be fodder for analysis, to say nothing of watching endless highlight video loops and maybe putting up a new piece of artwork in the family’s entertainment room, depending on whether something like Zabien Brown’s pick-six of Joey Aguilar warrants photo-realistic treatment.
As Alabama was coming off its season-opening loss to Florida State, there was much discussion about “the gauntlet,” which more or less started with Wisconsin and ended here. Wisconsin has since proved to be a pretender, but wins over Georgia, Vanderbilt, Missouri and Tennessee in consecutive weeks is one of the great accomplishments in recent Crimson Tide history. Side note: Yes, Vanderbilt has attained gauntlet status; it’s a crazy season out there, folks.
Whatever Kalen DeBoer is doing at the moment, it’s working. DeBoer, in his halftime interview with Alabama Radio’s Cory Reamer, noted that this team seems to play better when its emotions actually run a bit hot. Playing on such an emotionally-charged beam can be tricky to navigate, but this staff is doing it. Compare how Alabama handled Vanderbilt with the way LSU failed to answer the challenge. Or how Alabama was able to close out Georgia, while Ole Miss and Tennessee could not.
If it’s all about the emotion, DeBoer is channeling his inner Celine Dion and imparting it to his team. If it’s more than that – not just the talent Alabama has at its disposal, but also the way it is being deployed and coached – then Alabama fans have to feel positively giddy about the future of the program. Alabama may be winning in a different way than Nick Saban’s teams did, but at some level, winning is winning.
Now comes part two of the aforementioned gauntlet. South Carolina has fallen on hard times of late, but Oklahoma, LSU and Auburn remain. Two of those teams will be ranked, perhaps highly, when Alabama faces them.
There won’t be any cigars to light if Alabama can find a way to finish up the year without another loss. But there may be something a little shinier, and not quite as fragrant: championship hardware. What was almost verboten to talk about two months ago is suddenly right back in Alabama’s grasp. The Crimson Tide just needs to keep the fire lit.
Here’s the Five-Point Breakdown for Alabama-Tennessee
1. Zabien Brown’s pick-six obviously has to be mentioned; it was a sledgehammer to Tennessee’s gut. There were other key moments in this game – stopping Tennessee after Ty Simpson’s fumble being chief among those – but Alabama went from being up 16-10 or 16-14 to instead leading at the half 23-7 because of that one play. Brown put forth the perfect balance of being assignment-sound on his receiver while keeping his eyes on the quarterback and anticipating the throw.
Tennessee, for whatever reason, decided that a big part of its offense needed to be routed through TE Miles Kitselman, who began his FBS career at Alabama. Kitselman transferred because he wasn’t breaking through the Alabama depth chart, and in his time in Tuscaloosa, had presented himself as a good blocker but an average receiver. Saturday, Kitselman had 3 catches for 18 yards and a 2-yard run for a first down on short yardage. He dropped a couple of other passes and was the target for Joey Aguilar’s pass that ultimately wound up in Brown’s hands instead.
While Kitselman’s story is truly unique among major college starters – he played one year of high school football, as a lineman, then ended up recruited only by Emporia State and chose to go the JUCO route instead – he probably isn’t dynamic enough against faster defenses to have deserved so many targets in this game. Brown’s interception – and subsequent return, in which he perfectly set up and then ran past RB Deshaun Bishop, who had a good angle to make a tackle – is going to be one of those moments that finds its way into Alabama-Tennessee highlight montages for decades. We try not to focus on single plays too often in our breakdown, but this one has to get its due.
2. Defensive effectiveness has to get its due at some point. A lot of Alabama fans are negative about certain members of the defensive staff and defensive coordinator Kane Wommack in particular, but when do results start to matter to such a discussion? Alabama’s performances against Georgia, Vanderbilt and Tennessee shut those three teams down in ways that no other team really has. Missouri probably also belongs in that discussion.
Alabama’s philosophy on defense is to take more chances in the hopes of making crucial stops and forcing turnovers. And that’s exactly what it has done. It’s time to have a discussion about what modern defense means in the modern college football game. There’s also an attaboy to be given to the entire Alabama offense for being efficient and consistent enough to be able to run clock and put together good drives, but the defense deserves its flowers, too. Tennessee came into the game averaging around 48 points per contest and scored 20. That by itself is a significant accomplishment on Alabama’s part.
Here’s what else Alabama did in this game: Four sacks, a pick-six, a forced safety, a stop on a drive that started at midfield due to Ty Simpson’s fumble, and two defensive stands in the red zone in the fourth quarter in which Tennessee came away with zero points either time. It might not look like the defensive you’re accustomed to, but saying it’s not an effective defense at this point is a statement with no facts to support it.
3. Yhonzae Pierre’s pressure caused disruption early. Others stepped up later. Pierre recorded three sacks and was the primary force in causing Joey Aguilar to be called for intentional grounding in the end zone, which resulted in an Alabama safety. It will be interesting to see how Alabama handles Qua Russaw’s eventual return at the Wolf position, because Pierre has proven far more able to get home coming off the edge. The two sacks Pierre recorded in the early first quarter probably did as much as anything in disrupting Tennessee’s offensive gameplan.
The Volunteers hadn’t faced a defense that could pressure Aguilar all season, and the success Alabama’s front had at folding up the pocket caused Tennessee to have to take extra measures to protect its quarterback, which compressed the offensive playbook. Other defensive shout-outs have to include ILB Nikhai Hill-Green, who recorded 6 tackles and hand a couple of key tackles for loss, and S Rydarrius Morgan, who replaced a struggling DaShawn Jones and more or less shut down Tennessee’s seam route throws in inside receivers. We wouldn’t be surprised to see Morgan elevated to a starting role soon.
4. Ryan Williams re-established himself in this game, much to Tennessee’s chagrin. It was an especially significant development given that Tennessee virtually shut down Isaiah Horton. Horton had a 2-yard catch for Alabama’s first touchdown, but did nothing after that. Williams was a problem for Tennessee’s defensive backs all night, especially when lined up in the slot. He needed to put together a good game catching the football and he certainly did that against Tennessee, getting 87 yards on 5 catches and not dropping a single pass. Each reception seemed to come at a crucial moment with more than one of those catches being the kind of catch only Williams can sometimes seem to make.
Alabama’s depth at receiver allows it to do a lot of creative things, but with Williams struggling with drops recently, it has given opponents the excuse to shade coverage over toward Horton, Lotzeir Brooks and Germie Bernard. Williams showed Tennessee the inherent risks of doing so. As for other offensive players who stood out, RB Daniel Hill finally began to look like the player a lot of observers thought was going to take snaps away from Jamarion Miller. Hill may wind up taking more away from Kevin Riley than from Miller, but we’re now very interested to see what Hill puts on tape next.
5. DB play – especially from the cornerbacks – was probably the biggest overall difference in this game. We’re talking about all three corners, Dijon Lee Jr., Domani Jackson and Zabien Brown. Tennessee’s outside receivers were frustrated all game. Chris Brazzell, who is a walking mismatch for most corners, finished with the emptiest 7 catches for 66 yards you’ll ever see. Braylon Staley put up 10 catches but only for 92 yards overall, 30 of those coming on one long catch. QB Joey Aguilar finished the night averaging just 6.1 yards per attempt (Ty Simpson averaged 8.7) and logged a QBR of 61.6, compared to Simpson’s 89.0.
We talk about Alabama’s elite secondary every week in our previews, but this game was an ideal chance for the Crimson Tide to use its secondary as a pressure point and Bama took full license to do just that. Brown finished as Alabama’s leading tackler, but Lee and Jackson each made a few significant plays, too. If Alabama can just get the safety play to line up with the results it has gotten from its corners, anyone that wants to beat Alabama will probably have to do it on the ground.
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Follow Jess Nicholas on X at @TideFansJessN