After passing a tough road test against Texas A&M last week, No. 1 Alabama returns to Bryant-Denny Stadium on Saturday to face Tennessee at 8 p.m. CT. The Crimson Tide has a whopping 12-game winning streak over the Volunteers and has yet to lose the rivalry game under head coach Nick Saban.

Alabama heads into this week’s matchup as 34.5-point favorites according to VegasInsider.com. Here are five questions to consider heading into the game.

With his arms spread wide and legs kicking uncontrollably, redshirt freshman defensive lineman Christian Barmore could hardly contain his emotions following his first career sack last week against Texas A&M.

“The kid, he was literally in tears,” fellow defensive lineman Raekwon Davis said. “It was fun to watch him get his first sack. He was excited about it.”

Barmore hasn’t seen the field much this season, but he’s brought that same level of passion with him on every snap.

“He brings a lot of energy,” linebacker Terrell Lewis said. “He’s a high motor guy, just as far as you know he’s going to come in and play hard. We just need to carry him along, too, because he’s another younger guy. But as far as talent and motor-wise, we love having him on the field, and he brings great energy to us. He turns the whole defense up, in my opinion.”

Barmore has appeared in five games this season, recording eight stops, including a sack and two tackles for a loss. The 6-foot-5, 310-pound defensive lineman has been especially disruptive on passing downs, as was the case last week when he tallied a career-high four pressures and three quarterback hurries, according to Pro Football Focus.

Barmore has been on the field for a total of 61 snaps this season, including 16 against Texas A&M last week. However, we might be seeing more of the former four-star recruit moving forward. During Wednesday's practice, the freshman was seen working on Alabama's first-team defense out of the dime package.

“He’s a good pass rusher,” Saban said. “He gives us something inside that I think is very helpful in pass rush. It’s a role that we’ve been trying to sort of groom him for and the more knowledge and experience that he gets. He did a good job in the game, so we’ll try to continue to use some of that inside pass rush that he gives us to help us in the future.”

Alabama’s taking things slow with injured kicker/punter Will Reichard as he continues to recover from a hip flexor injury he suffered on a kickoff against Southern Miss on Sept. 21. The injury has kept the freshman out of Alabama’s past two games against Ole Miss and Texas A&M.

Saban said Reichard punted on Tuesday and kicked some on Wednesday but still listed him as day-to-day heading into Saturday’s game.

“We have to manage it based on the symptoms,” Saban said. “You know, it's kind of like doc told me when I was coming off my hip surgery, he said, it's great to do the rehab, your work. I know all your life you've been taught to push, push, push, push, keep working, you know, when it hurts, you work through it. But he said for one time in your life when you're hurt, when it hurts, you gotta stop.

“And that's kind of how we got to manage this injury with (Reichard). You know, if it hurts, we got to stop. We got to make sure that he continues to make progress and we don't have a setback. And I think so far we've been able to do that. So we'll just see how it progresses day-to-day.”

Through four games, Reichard is 4 of 7 on field goals and 21 of 22 on extra points. He has also 22 touchbacks on 29 kickoffs and is averaging 39.67 yards on three punts.

Returning back to his home state this past weekend, Jaylen Waddle put on a show in front of friends and family. Most everyone in attendance came away impressed with the dynamic sophomore as he earned SEC Special Teams Player of the Week honors averaging 32 yards on his four punt returns, including a long of 43 yards. His mom, on the other hand, had one big complaint.

“She said I got tackled by the punter, so she had some jokes about that,” Waddle said. “She was kind of serious though. She was definitely serious. But it was all good. My mom's my biggest critic, so it was (good) coming from her.”

Technically, Braden Mann didn’t record a tackle on Waddle. Although the Texas A&M punter did slow the Alabama returner down on a 43-yard return in the second quarter as well as a 42-yard return in the third quarter. While Waddle didn’t score on any of his four returns, he found the end zone for the first time this season, taking a screen pass 31 yards for a touchdown in the first quarter.

Through six games, Waddle leads the nation averaging 22.25 yards per return. He’s been especially hot over his past three games, averaging 27.63 yards with three returns of 40 or more yards.

Given his current success rate, Waddle might start to see teams kick the ball out of bounds on punts in order to prevent returns. When asked if he thinks teams will continue punting to him he replied, “I hope so.”

“But every team has a game plan,” he said. “So if that’s (kicking the ball out of bounds) in their game plan, we've got to adjust and still make it happen.”

Waddle isn’t the only Alabama player in the midst of a special-teams streak. Ale Kaho has recorded blocked punts in back-to-back games.

The sophomore linebacker got things started against Ole Miss when he blocked a punt before falling on the ball in the end zone after it was bobbled by Tyrell Shavers. Last week, he again got his hands on a punt, allowing Shavers to scoop it up at the 2-yard line for a touchdown.

“Oh man, he’s an extremely great player,” Davis said of Kaho. “I mean, that’s his thing. He loves special teams. He loves running down the field and trying to block punts and trying to score the ball. That’s what he do.”

Last season Kaho totaled 11 special-teams tackles to lead all Alabama players. He also recovered a fumble on a punt against Mississippi State. So what makes him so successful in that aspect of the game?

“Well, first of all, Ale’s a really, really good competitor,” Saban said. “He really gives good effort and plays hard in everything that he does. He contributed all last year on special teams, and he sort of developed into a guy that has really good knowledge and experience. You couple that with his energy and intensity and attitude that he plays with on special teams, which some guys don’t see the value in that, the combination of those things, I think, can make him very effective.

“We think he’s a really good football player on defense. And he’s missed some time a little bit around here and that’s sort of not helped his development in terms of knowledge and experience, and it would certainly help us if we could get him to that point because he’s a good football player on defense, as well.”

Landon Dickerson continues to take reps as Alabama’s first-team center this week even as Chris Owens returned to practice following a knee injury that kept him out of last week’s game against Texas A&M.

Dickerson moved over from right guard to start in place of Owens last week. He was one of eight Alabama players recognized by coaches after missing just one assignment over 67 snaps while helping the Crimson Tide record 448 yards of total offense against the Aggies.

“I thought it went pretty well,” Dickerson said. “A lot of things I need to work on, a lot of things I’ve got to improve this week, assuming that’s where I stay for this game. That’s yet to be determined. But still, just in general, a lot of things whether it be communication, fundamentals, anything really. I’ve got a lot of stuff to work on.”

Earlier this week, Nick Saban said Dickerson “did a nice job in the game,” while stating that the team will have “some kind of decision to make toward the end of the week” if Owens is available to play. At the moment, it would be a surprise if Dickerson didn’t deliver Alabama’s first snap Saturday.

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