TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The game was already well out of hand. Although, you wouldn’t know it from the way the crowd roared inside of Bryant-Denny Stadium.
With No. 1 Alabama leading by 31 points midway through the fourth quarter, Tennessee had a first-and-goal from the 5-yard line and was on the verge of scoring a late touchdown. The Crimson Tide’s defense had other plans. While the touchdown would have been inconsequential to the game, it meant a little more to Alabama given the circumstances.
After last season, all goal-line plays do.
“Basically, we just kind of went back to Clemson,” Alabama linebacker Rashaan Evans said. “We just wanted to stop them on the goal line.”
Alabama allowed Clemson to score a last-second touchdown in last year’s national championship game, as Tigers’ quarterback Deshaun Watson hit receiver Hunter Renfrow on a 2-yard touchdown pass with one second remaining to win the game. Saturday’s goal-line stand wasn’t as important, but Alabama’s defense still wanted to prove a point.
“It was kind of in our minds,” Evans said. “Anytime we get into a situation like that we want to do a great job of just finishing.”
After a 2-yard run from Tennessee running back John Kelly on first down, the Volunteers appeared to score as Kelly crossed the goal line on the following play. However, the call was reviewed and then reversed as it was ruled that Kelly was down before the end zone.
Tennessee was penalized for a false start the next play backing the Volunteers to the 5-yard line as the noise inside the stadium reached a deafening level.
“I think the fans really had a lot to do with it,” Alabama head coach Nick Saban said. “Obviously, they contributed to the offside penalty when they had the ball inside the 1.”
Feeding off that intensity, Alabama stuffed Kelly for no gain on third down to set up fourth-and-goal. Following a timeout, the Crimson Tide finished the job as it was able to pressure Tennessee quarterback Jarrett Guarantano, causing the redshirt freshman to force a pass which Alabama linebacker Mack Wilson intercepted at the 2-yard line.
Alabama then went on to keep Tennessee's defense out of the end zone the remainder of the game, beating the Volunteers 45-7.
“Mack does a great job, and he’s a great linebacker,” Alabama cornerback Levi Wallace said. “It got the crowd going, the defense going. We wanted to motivate the offense so they could go down there and score as well.
The interception was Wilson’s third this season and ties him with Wallace for the team lead.
“We make it a competition,” Wallace said with a smile. “He said earlier this week that he was planning to catch me on interceptions, so we’re having a competition amongst the defense.”
Wallace didn’t do bad for himself, either. The former walk-on recorded six tackles, three for a loss with two sacks. Evans also had a big night with six tackles, two for a loss, and a sack.
Alabama was able to limit Tennessee to 108 yards of total offense on the day. The Crimson Tide made life especially difficult on Guarantano, holding him to 9 of 16 completions for 44 yards and an interception while sacking him four times and hurrying him eight times.
“I think we did a good job. I feel like that was the No. 1 thing we wanted to do was affect the quarterback,” Evans said. “You can just see that we were trying to do anything we could to get him on a scramble or throw a bad pass.”
For Alabama’s defense, that’s always the plan — especially when it gets down to the goal line.
