Alabama Football: Has Alabama Gotten Its Groove Back Just in Time for the End?

Larry Burton (Syndicated Writer) Greg McElroy was back throwing the long ball, Ingram and Richardson were slicing through the defensive lines, Julio was doing circus catches and the defense was planting Volunteers like a farmer plants corn seed.

Has Alabama finally gotten it's groove back? The 41-10 score over Tennessee would beg to say yes.

With Alabama getting ready to turn "Amen Corner" and face LSU, a top-25 Mississippi State team and perhaps a number two Auburn team in the last four weeks they had better have found it.

Not that simply beating a down and out Tennessee team helped them find it, but it was how they found it.

In the second half of that game, Alabama was, for the lack of a better term, Alabama.

They imposed their will upon a team on both offense and defense and simply ground them into the turf and dominated almost aspect you could dominate.

And while you may say, yes, but it was Tennessee, keep in mind this is the same Tennessee team that would have beaten LSU but for too many men on the field on the last play of that game. I'll bet that thought isn't lost on the LSU staff and team.

This is a team that that passed for  326 yards total, had their two best running backs run for a combined 207 yards and Julio Jones had a record day with 221 yards, so you could say in the second half, they definitely got their groove back.

The second half also saw the defense come to life as they shut out Tennessee, picked off passes and limited the Vols to little more than just eight first downs in the second half and no scores. It was truly worthy of another great game in the history of this long rivalry.

Last year, Alabama needed two blocked field goals to sneak away with a win in this game, and they didn't find their groove until they had a week to rest up .

This year they get to have that week of rest with the giddy feeling of looking like and playing like an Alabama team should. That could help them not only enjoy the off week more but give them the confidence they seem to have been lacking over the last few weeks.

Time will tell whether this is a season changing game or not, but for Alabama fans this was certainly one to savor.