As Nick Saban looks at the state of SEC football, he sees Vanderbilt football as a major outlier for one main reason.

“The only place you play in the SEC that’s not hard to play is Vanderbilt,” Saban said. “At Vanderbilt, you have more fans there than they have. And that’s no disrespect to them, it’s just the truth. When we played in Nashville, we had more fans, Alabama fans, than they had Vanderbilt fans.”

Brent Venables and company have their work cut out for them in preparing to stop star quarterback Nico Iamaleava and one of the top offenses in the sport, at least through three games. The former five-star and first-year starter has helped the Vols outscore opponents 191-13 thus far. Iamaleava seems to have bolstered Heupel's up-tempo attack.