2. Tennessee at Alabama
LINE Alabama -25.5
ATS PICK Alabama
This pick comes with a slight caveat.
Of course you’re never, ever wrong with picking Alabama, especially at home.
When it was locked in against Ole Miss, it won in a walk – although only by 21. After the Texas A&M debacle, Bama rolled by 40 over a Mississippi State team that has a good enough defense to have made that closer.
Tennessee is a bit different, and there’s a reason this pick is No. 2.
Is QB Hendon Hooker playing, and is he going to be close to his normal self?
Banged up against Ole Miss and out late, he’s been practicing a bit but there’s no word yet on if he’ll be able to go and if he can produce.
I don’t like this part of the Belief System thing because I never, ever believe in dogging a college player in any way, even if critiquing is sort of what we’re all supposed to do.
The Tennessee O won’t do a thing against this Bama D if Joe Milton is under center for a prolonged period of time.
It would be great to see him come up with something special after the way the Ole Miss game ended, but he’s just not accurate and consistent enough.
Tennessee is a bit overloved because it was so good against a bad Ole Miss defense, and because it rolled by a mediocre South Carolina, and because it blew away a miserable Missouri defense.
The Vols lost at Florida by 24. You’re asking for 26 from Alabama.
And finally, if all else fails, and everything else melts down, and I’m so screwed up by a lack of sleep over the last six weeks and a diet consisting of nothing but peanut butter and coffee that my prognostication abilities are way, way off, THIS will save us all.
NEXT: College Football Pick Against The Spread No. 1: Oklahoma at Kansas