Josh Heupel’s gaze narrowed into a 1,000-yard stare inside the Bryant-Denny Stadium visiting media room. His silence would speak for him. A cloud of cigar smoke billowed from the field, hoards of Alabama fans and players enjoying their victory.

Following the Tide’s 34-20 comeback over Heupel’s Tennessee Vols, one reporter decided to pontificate before asking a question about the officiating.

“It seemed like at points in the second half, your defenders were having to play two-hand touch and they (Alabama) were allowed to play Mortal Kombat out there a little bit. Did you feel like it was a bit one-sided?”

As they finished, Heupel began to rhythmically one-two tap on the podium. Each set followed by a pause and a harder push. After a roughly seven-second pause, a UT aide called on someone else.

“Next question, yeah,” Heupel interjected. “Was that long enough silence?”

Alabama (7-1, 5-0 Southeastern Conference) rallied against Tennessee (5-2, 2-2) in the second half scoring 27 straight points. The Vols were flagged for eight total penalties, four on both sides of the ball, and six came across the third and fourth quarters. The Tide was flagged once. While there may be some questions about the SEC referee crew in Knoxville, infractions played a major role in this 2023 edition of the Third Saturday in October. Just as it did a year ago.

In Tennessee’s 52-49 win, Alabama committed 17 penalties, gifting the Volunteers 130 yards. Penalties were a major hindrance throughout 2022, with pundits calling the issues unbecoming of a Nick Saban-led program. The hostile environments of Texas, Tennessee and LSU seemed to cause the most issues. Entering camp, returning defensive coordinator Kevin Steele and players outlined the punishment system: up-downs for individual players on their first mistake, their entire position group would join if they committed another.

“Each and every day we go out there in practice and we want to not have any penalties. We want to have less than four penalties a game everything like that,” Chris Braswell said. “We just want to go out there and be disciplined and I felt like we were very disciplined in this game.”

Alabama has been called 49 penalties in 2023, which ranks it in the lower third nationally. UA had double-digit showings against Texas and at Texas A&M, one loss and another comeback win. It remained a major red flag in the opening month-and-a-half, with at least six touchdowns and one interception negated after Alabama committed a foul. Tennessee marked a season-low after Seth McLaughlin was called for a snap violation.

Against the Volunteers, the visitor’s penalties manifested in crucial moments. Nick Saban pleaded on his Thursday radio show for the Tide faithful to be loud enough to impact the game just once. The announced attendance of 100,077 spectators, most wearing that signature ‘A’, acquiesced. Veteran UA players called it one of the best crowds in their time in Tuscaloosa.

Multiple Vols drives stalled due to a holding call. Two different Tennessee defenders jumped offsides in the third quarter, popping the crowd again and triggering one Alabama offensive lineman to clap his hands and start marching forward as the officials moved the ball.

“Our fans were fantastic,” Saban said, “they had a huge impact on the game in terms of the penalties at the end of the game and not allowing them to score.”

Nick Alvarez is a reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @nick_a_alvarez or email him at [email protected].