The University of Tennessee may have given Paul Finebaum a diploma, but the Alabama Crimson Tide made him a millionaire. The face of college football for ESPN appeared on Wednesday's edition of Get Up to discuss very important things, such as the Third Saturday in October. It is a major rivalry game between these two SEC blue-bloods, but Finebaum is siding with Alabama over Tennessee this year.
This year's game will be in Tuscaloosa vs. two one-loss teams. Alabama's one defeat came at home to the Big 12 contending Texas Longhorns. As for Tennessee, the Vols continue to have no clue how to beat SEC East rival Florida down in Gainesville, even if we are not entirely sure if the Gators are the least bit good. Regardless, this is a critical SEC matchup with College Football Playoff implications.
Given that Finebaum made his career covering the Crimson Tide from his days in Birmingham, he is putting all of his eggs in the Alabama basket, much like his ESPN colleague Mike Greenberg did with the Aaron Rodgers-led New York Jets. We all know how Greeny's Jets are doing without Rodgers...
"No, I'm going to start going all-in on Alabama like you are on Aaron Rodgers and the Jets, because they can do no wrong right now, Greeny, you know that. Nick Saban has done a really nice job of turning this season around. It was over after that Texas loss, and then next week the controversy over the quarterback situation. But they're playing well, they're not great, they make a lot of mistakes. They are eking by teams, but they will get by Tennessee on Saturday."
While she did not completely echo Finebaum's sentiment, ESPN's Heather Dinich does think that Alabama is vulnerable and could potentially get got at some point down the line later this season.
"I learned my lesson about picking against (Alabama) putting them on upset watch. But I will say that as long as they continue to make the mistakes that they have, they will remain vulnerable, no matter who they're playing. And Nick Saban would probably agree with this, because when you look at them, 106th in the country in penalties, their running game is averaging less than 4 yards per carry. And when you talk about the sacks, No. 132 in sacks per pass attempt. That's a bit of a recipe for disaster when you're playing an elite team. But we'll see what happens this weekend. Not upset alert, but vulnerable."
Even with Dinich and Finebaum's hard-hitting insight, are the Tide going to cakewalk past the Vols?
Paul Finebaum is all-in on Alabama getting past Tennessee this weekend
Although I have doubts about either of these teams being serious contenders for the College Football Playoff, the winner of this game could emerge as Georgia's most formidable challenger in the SEC. Alabama would have to face the Dawgs in Atlanta for the SEC Championship, while the Vols will host UGA at Neyland in the latter part of the season. As far as the loser is concerned, they are frauds.
To me, I trust the Alabama defense to do more at home than the Tennessee one. Offensively, these two teams have been up and down after undergoing coordinator changes, as well as losing their starting quarterbacks to the NFL. Jalen Milroe is not Bryce Young and Joe Milton III is not Hendon Hooker. We also cannot overlook both schools losing Bill O'Brien and Alex Golesh to bigger jobs.
Ultimately, this is still probably the second-best game on the slate for Week 8 outside of the one going on in Columbus between the No. 3 Ohio State Buckeyes and the No. 7 Penn State Nittany Lions. Admittedly, it is next to impossible for this season's Third Saturday in October to eclipse last year's barn burner that went down to the wire in Knoxville. As fans of this sport, we can only hope...
Look for the winner of this game to be in a great spot to win double-digit games and be a contender.
