Butch Jones: “Aaron Medley is our kicker”

The historic “Third Saturday In October” rivalry game between Alabama and Tennessee may have taken place on the fourth Saturday of the month this year, but that didn’t stop the Crimson Tide from continuing the celebrated tradition of smoking cigars after their 19-14 win over the Tennessee Volunteers.

Medley looked to be the heir apparent to succeed a long list of successful kickers at Tennessee when he debuted last season. No, not by a long shot. That’s when you want to see them.

“I’m very proud of our Tennessee”, Tennessee coach Butch Jones said.

Jones’ team played a few darn good football, too.

Let’s face it: Tennessee was outgunned from the start. He’s missed the last two games and seems unlikely to play at Kentucky. Hopefully the Tide can get healthy and come out firing on all cylinders for an early November game against the Bayou Bengals that once again holds SEC and national implications.

Coker completed 21 of 27 passes for 247 yards, no touchdowns and an interception, while Tennessee’s Josh Dobbs completed 13 of 22 (171 yards).

Since then, the receiver that has made the most strides has been true freshman Calvin Ridley, who has emerged as Alabama’s next star receiver and has drawn comparisons to former Tide standouts Amari Cooper and Julio Jones. Still, it’s interesting to hear Saban speak so favorably of an opposing environment, even going as far to say the Crimson Tide fans should be more like them.

RUNNING COKER: Alabama quarterback Jake Coker isn’t known as a dual threat like Dobbs, but he’s shown a knack for running – if not for avoiding contact. The field goal went wide right, and Tennesse’s field goal troubles in Bryant-Denny stadium continued.

“There are no moral victories”, Jones said. “So it’s a real compliment to them”.

On how this Alabama game feels compared to others: “It hurts”. He’s got to go out and execute and just do your job like we do. Now we’re there. We’re there. It may have been slower than we wanted, assumed, or were able to legitimately believe was possible at times. However, the Vols have a high success rate of converting on fourth downs (5-of-7) and sophomore punter Trevor Daniel has proven surprisingly solid this season.

Those game were about survival, Kerbyson said. This time around was different.

“What we are doing better is really just focusing on the assignment and detail and coming out every day for practice, focusing on getting better and certain skill sets”.

“A loss is a loss”. There is still a lot to look forward to. We knew the offense was going to make plays when they had to. He said, “I’m not going to lose another game in a Tennessee uniform”.

“You know, he’s the leader of our room”, Kirkland said. He might be right.

The rest of the SEC schedule include: a Thursday night game with Mississippi State at Missouri at 7 p.m. November 5; South Carolina at Tennessee, 3 p.m. Connecticut on SEC Network; Auburn at Texas A&M, 6:30 p.m. Connecticut on SEC Network. But maybe it shouldn’t.

The Vols wasted no time answering scoring on a 10 play 75-yard drive when Joshua Dobbs found Josh Smith for an 11-yard touchdown tying the game at 7. Tennessee has not won against Alabama since 2006. Throughout the game, though, it wasn’t the extra safety in the box that made the difference, as the interior of the Tennessee defense was good enough to keep the Alabama rushing attack from creating separation. Teammates have dubbed him “Baby Roethlisberger” and “Vanilla Vick” and said his still infrequent runs have fired them up.