Alabama DL Tim Smith has the perfect clap-back for any Tennessee player who wants to trash-talk him on Saturday

Fifth-year Alabama DL Tim Smith believes that if any Tennessee player trash-talks him during the upcoming Third Saturday in October clash between the Crimson Tide and the Vols, it’ll be because that player has been playing like trash himself.

"That ain't got nothing to do with you," Smith said of trash talk from opposing players . "In my opinion, I told them, if somebody got to sit there and tell you you're trash, they the trash one. Like, you clearly not working hard enough for me to go back and forth with you.

"But when you're telling me, 'Oh, you trash, you trash,' you're not working hard enough buddy. If you were working hard enough, you wouldn't have the breath or energy or mindset to be telling someone you're trash. You're trying to get in my head to make me mess up or crash out. So that's how I take it. If you telling me I'm trash, I've been whooping your ass the whole game. Simple as that."

Smith made it clear that this isn’t a uniquely Tennessee problem, either.

"That happens every game," Smith said. "It don't matter. I'm talking O-linemen in general. If you -- anybody, if that's your sport, if you feel like you have to sit there and talk trash to get them out of their mind, hey man, that's you."

Alabama defense has more to answer for than just opposing players’ trash-talk

A defense that has given up 65 points to Vanderbilt and South Carolina over the past two weeks has more to answer for than opposing players’ trash talk. The Crimson Tide’s identity is in flux in the Kalen DeBoer era and may believe the “Bama Standard” has been lowered.

It’s gotten so bad that some are calling for Nick Saban to return to the program to undo the damage first-year defensive coordinator Kane Wommack has done.

While Alabama fans are notoriously tough on DCs – Pete Golding never got a fair shake from the fanbase and Tosh Lupoi was blasted despite losing one game in his one year – Wommack is allowing perennial also-rans to run through his defense.

Responding to trash talk isn’t the biggest issue on the Alabama defense’s plate. It’s responding to the narrative that they’re not who they used to be.

Because if that’s true, Tuscaloosa isn’t going to be known as “Title Town” for long.