Tennessee’s pass rush has been dominant this season, ranking third in the country in sacks and dominating in the Vols’ home wins over South Carolina and Texas A&M.
Alabama’s pass protection has been lackluster, particularly by the Crimson Tide’s standards, through its first seven games this season.
But Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe isn’t worried about his protection or Tennessee’s vaunted pass rush ahead of The Third Saturday in October.
“We’re going to have a lot of fun,” Milroe said when asked about Tennessee’s pass rush. “We don’t care about none of that. It’s just another opportunity for us to have fun. We get to play in front of our fans this weekend. We’re going to be excited for that. A lot of energy is going to be in the air with playing a great opponent. … We’re looking forward to the challenge.”
The redshirt sophomore quarterback certainly wasn’t taking a shot at Tennessee, per say, even calling the Vols a ‘great opponent.’ However, Milroe is either downplaying Tennessee’s pass rush’s effectiveness or ignoring it to push positivity about the Crimson Tide’s struggling offensive line to the media.
Opponents have sacked Milroe 15 times in Alabama’s last three games with Texas A&M sacking the first-year starter six times and Arkansas sacking him five times last week.
James Pearce Jr’s and Tyler Baron’s breakout seasons have made Tennessee’s pass rush more formidable than it’s been in years. Against a struggling offensive line and a quarterback that has a tendency to hold onto the ball too long in the pocket, they’ll have an abundance of opportunities to add to their growing sack totals.
It’s been an up-and-down season for Milroe. He beat out Ty Simpson and Notre Dame transfer Tyler Buchner to win the starting quarterback job but the Crimson Tide coaching staff benched him after throwing a pair of interceptions in Alabama’s loss at Texas.
After one game on the bench, Alabama inserted Milroe back as its starting quarterback and he’s performed well since. The Katy, Texas native’s completed 64% of his passes for 1,397 yards, 11 touchdowns and four interceptions this season. This Saturday will mark Milroe’s first start against Tennessee but he’s been apart of the rivalry the last two seasons as a backup.
“It’s a historic rivalry that I’m just learning more-and-more about being in college,” Milroe said. “Very exciting to be a part of a rivalry. Going to take a lot of preparation this week, preparing for how hard this opponent is. But it’s a great opportunity for us and we’re excited for the challenge. It’s going to be great. It’s great to have this rivalry going on and it’s going to be fun.”
Kickoff at Bryant-Denny Stadium is at 3:30 p.m. ET Saturday afternoon. Brad Nessler, Gary Danielson and Jenny Dell are on the call for CBS.
