When Alabama football faces Tennessee in Tuscaloosa Saturday, the Volunteers will be a different-looking group than the one that beat the Crimson Tide last season. The most obvious change came at quarterback, with Joe Milton taking over the reins from Hendon Hooker, who’s off to the NFL’s Detroit Lions.

Results have been a bit mixed so far, with the UT offense lacking some of the punch it had last season. Still, Nick Saban said Milton makes a dangerous matchup for the Tide this week.

“I don’t see Joe being a whole lot different than what we’ve played against in the past, when Hooker was there,” Saban said. “Guy can throw the ball, he’s accurate, he’s got a strong arm, they can make plays down the field, and they take a lot of vertical shots, so he’s certainly capable of making those plays. But he’s also athletic enough to extend plays in the pocket and run if necessary.”

Milton has completed 112 of 182 passing attempts this season. He’s thrown for 1,264 yards, 12th in the SEC, a season after Hooker went for 3,135 yards, good for fourth in the league.

The redshirt senior has also rushed 32 times for 173 yards on the season. On Monday, Saban discussed the need for the Crimson Tide defense to be solid in its fundamentals against Milton.

“You don’t tell them anything different than any other time they play a quarterback (like that),” Saban said. “You can’t get pushed by the quarterback. You have to keep the guy in front of you. We’ve got to have disciplined pass-rush lanes. Need to try to make the guy throw on time from the pocket, and hopefully we can cover them well enough to make it work on the back end.”

In last week’s win over Arkansas, the Tide faced another mobile quarterback in KJ Jefferson. Alabama did enough to win the game, but the 6-foot-3, 247-pound signal-caller was able to use his legs and strength to drive UA crazy, at one point tossing cornerback Terrion Arnold off of him “like a gnat on a cow’s ass” in the words of Saban.

Milton is also both mobile and strong, standing 6-foot-5 and weighing in at 235 pounds. He can be tough to tackle, but according to linebacker Deontae Lawson, it’s a different challenge.

“I don’t think it really matters that much but it was great that we saw that this past week, so it can be a challenge (and) we know that we got to gang tackle,” Lawson said.

Alabama and Tennessee are scheduled to kick off at 2:30 p.m. Saturday. The game will be aired on CBS.