Alabama wide receiver Ryan Williams makes a diving catch against Tennessee Saturday night in Tuscaloosa. The former Saraland star had five receptions on five targets for 87 yards. (University of Alabama photo)
Alabama cornerback Zabien Brown runs back an interception 99 yards for a touchdown at the end of the first half against Tennessee Saturday night. (University of Alabama photo)
TUSCALOOSA — The surgeon general has determined that smoking cigars is bad for your health but perhaps the surgeon general doesn’t know how taking a puff benefits the winner of the Alabama-Tennessee game.
The pungent odor of cigar smoke began to waft through Saban Field at Bryant-Denny Stadium early in the fourth quarter Saturday night and by the time the No. 6-ranked Crimson Tide had formally dispatched the No. 11 Volunteers 37-20, it hung in the air like smog in Los Angeles.
It’s not looking as if Alabama will be one of those close-but-no-cigar teams this season. Saturday night’s victory was the Tide’s fourth straight over a top-25 team without an open date, a first in SEC history.
Can Alabama reach the national championship game for the first time since 2021? There is no question the Tide (6-1, 4-0 SEC) is a playoff team — it has the nation’s second-toughest strength of schedule, according to ESPN’s calculations. The question now is how far it can go — a staggering concept considering how critics were tying coach Kalen DeBoer to the railroad tracks after the season-opening loss to Florida State. DeBoer is now 19-3 against top-25 teams.
Of course, the same mercurial people who are now praising DeBoer as a combination of the Bear, Nick Saban, Bill Walsh and Knute Rockne will toss him on the ash heap alongside Hugh Freeze and James Franklin if Alabama wobbles down the stretch, although that seems unlikely given the obstacle course DeBoer has just successfully navigated.
“The biggest thing for our guys is just the way they’re so committed to the process each and every week,” said DeBoer, who in the aftermath conceded he had not yet partaken in smoking a traditional victory cigar. “You can see it, you can hear it every single day in practice. They’ve got an edge to them still and haven’t lost it since the beginning. That’s hard to do. There’s been enough reasons, different motivation factors, to get up for games and our guys each and every week find a way to do it, so we’re gonna keep the pedal down.”
DeBoer had other motivations to stay away from all the cigars in the locker room; he didn’t want his black hoodie to get any burn holes.
“We’re going to ride the momentum,” he said of his preferred game-day garment. “I told the guys not to get any ashes on it.”
There were no genuinely worrisome moments Saturday night against Tennessee. Alabama had a 99-yard scoring drive and a 99-yard pick-six by cornerback Zabien Brown with a few seconds to go in the first half as the Vols seemed poised to cut the lead to 16-14. Instead, Brown correctly judged UT quarterback Joey Aguilar would have to throw from the 1-yard line since he had no timeouts left and correctly judged the ball would go to a tight end from a bunch formation. Brown read the play perfectly and sprinted the length of the field to make it 23-7. Game over.
“We did a nice job just putting our cleats in the dirt and making them snap the ball one more time,” DeBoer said. “We talk about it all the time — make them snap the ball one more time.”
As Brown raced for his game-turning touchdown, another No. 2 was running with him step-for-step along the sideline.
“I’m waving him in,” said wide receiver Ryan Williams, who had a feeling before the game that Brown was going to do something spectacular. “It was super-exciting.”
It’s also been exhilarating to see Williams’ climb back from early-season struggles and move toward becoming a complete SEC receiver. He had five catches on five targets for 87 yards against the Vols. His routes were sharp and he was physical on the perimeter. More importantly, he figured in many of the Tide’s pivotal offensive moments, making three crucial catches on three scoring drives.
On the Tide’s first possession, Williams lined up wide instead of in the slot, ran a perfect route, stretched out and grabbed a 31-yard pass on a fade ball from Ty Simpson while being covered the way syrup drips from a pancake. He followed that with a 16-yard reverse and soon it was 7-0. FYI, Alabama has won 62 of its last 64 games when scoring a touchdown on its first possession.
In the second quarter, Williams made a fine sight adjustment on a curl-in for a 14-yard gain to put the ball on Tennessee’s 2. Soon it was 16-7.
In the third quarter, with the Tide backed up on its 1-yard line, Williams ran a stop route for a first down to set the 99-yard touchdown drive in motion.
Williams said he never lost his confidence.
“It has always been there,” he said. “It’s just been a matter of playing my game and continuing to keep the joy in the game. You know, it’s a child’s game, just having fun out there, playing for my brothers right beside me.”
Williams did at least partially smoke a cigar after the victory — his first time to experience it.
“I’m not very good at it,” he admitted.
Williams is far better at football — there is no way Alabama can win any championships without major contributions from him — and perhaps he has taken Simpson’s advice to stop overthinking.
“Ryan’s like the top player in the nation,” said Simpson, who was 19-of-29 passing for 253 yards and two TDs Saturday night. “You know, he gets in his own head sometimes because he has so much expectation for himself on who he thinks he needs to be. We’ve had a lot of talks because that’s literally like my little brother. And I’m just like, ‘Dude, just be you.’ You know what I mean? Forget all the outside noise because that guy, he has so much pressure on himself from everybody from the media to himself. He’s a big-time player. I think he was five-for-five targets and that’s what I expect from him. Everybody expects him to do that. This is just the tip of the iceberg.”
The same may be true of the Tide. It can conceivably win out, including at South Carolina, at home against LSU and Oklahoma and on the road at perpetually rehabilitating Auburn, which lost again Saturday night, this time to Missouri in overtime. Afterward, Freeze came off the field with the look of a man who was being dragged by his toenails.
Things are much more pleasant in Tuscaloosa. Alabama won the Third Saturday in October. Winning this game is always good for championship hopes. Losing it isn’t.
