How the Tennessee Vols will have a hidden advantage against the Alabama Crimson Tide in October showdown

The matchup between the Tennessee Vols and the Alabama Crimson Tide in Knoxville later this month is shaping up to be one of the biggest games of the 2024 college football season.

Tennessee and Alabama should both be undefeated for this year's version of The Third Saturday in October (assuming both teams take care of business over the next couple of weeks). The winner of that game will have the inside track to reach the SEC Championship game.

The Crimson Tide showed last week via their win against the Georgia Bulldogs that they're not slowing down in the post-Nick Saban era. Alabama is just as dangerous as ever (thanks in large part to 17-year old true freshman wide receiver Ryan Williams, who is already an SEC star).

Tennessee has the talent and the competitive makeup to beat the Tide, but it obviously won't be easy. This will be a heavyweight bout that will undoubtedly be an intense battle for a full four quarters.

Fortunately for the Vols, they'll have a bit of a "hidden advantage" in the game.

That's because Tennessee linebackers coach William Inge, who replaced Brian Jean-Mary at UT earlier this year (Jean-Mary left for Michigan), is quite familiar with Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer's offense.

Inge spent five seasons working alongside DeBoer. In 2019, Inge was the special teams coordinator at Indiana when DeBoer's was the Hoosiers' offensive coordinator. When DeBoer was named the head coach at Fresno State in 2020, Inge followed him to California to serve as the Bulldogs' defensive coordinator.

In 2022, when DeBoer took over as the head coach at Washington, he again brought Inge along with him (Inge was the Huskies' co-defensive coordinator in 2022 and 2023).

Inge obviously has some unique insight into DeBoer's offense. And that insight should certainly help the Vols' prepare for a different-looking Alabama offense than what Tennessee faced last few seasons when Saban was leading the program.

How much will this advantage help the Vols?

It's impossible to know. But it's better than having no insight at all into the inner-workings of Alabama's offense under DeBoer (Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables' familiarity with Josh Heupel certainly seemed to help the Sooners defend the Vols' offense last month).

And in the SEC, even the smallest advantage can swing a game.

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