Alabama football is doing a little bit of everything in 2023. It’s played championship-caliber football weeks after struggling against a team that won one game a year ago. Its offense has been boom or bust. The defense is elite amid short periods of inconsistency.

However, the Tide has won six straight heading into its bye week, including a great comeback over rival Tennessee, a 34-20 final. Postgame, Nick Saban was asked what it’s been like watching his 17th Alabama team grow each week.

“I love it. It’s been great, the challenges are great,” said Saban. “I enjoy coaching this team. That’s not to say they’re taking years off of my life but I’m OK with that. It’s fun because they got a good spirit about them. We got good relationships on our team. I think the players legitimately care about each other.

“They respond well to their coaches so it’s really fun to coach them. I don’t think we sometimes show the maturity from a competitive standpoint to do everything on a consistent basis, which is what we keep trying to work toward. But I’ll tell ya, eight weeks in a row, and the grind that we’ve had the last four to five weeks with the games in our league, I think psychologically we probably had a little bit of a tired team out there at the beginning of the game. I think the momentum of the game gave them the energy they needed to play the way they could, the way they’re capable of playing.”

Alabama entered the SEC portion of its schedule facing multiple questions not just about its season-long goals, but the state of Saban’s dynasty after a Week 2 loss against Texas and near disaster at South Florida. Alabama then squashed Lane Kiffin and Ole Miss, stormed over Mississippi State in Starkville and won two nail-biters at Texas A&M and then at home against Arkansas.

On Saturday, the Volunteers jumped out to a 13-0 lead while Alabama’s offense looked lost. The Tide threw a turnover in the end zone and allowed a last-minute touchdown before the intermission. But like he has repeatedly throughout the season, Jalen Milroe rallied from two turnovers and started producing explosive plays. Alabama scored a touchdown on its second play after halftime, kickstarting a 27-0 run.

The Crimson Tide can clinch the SEC West and a trip to the conference title game when it returns to the field against LSU on Nov. 4. Alabama has a one-game lead in conference play over the Tigers and has one other in-division game left against Auburn.

“I do think the resiliency that the players sort of showed their ability to overcome adversity,” Saban said. ” … It takes a lot of resiliency, a lot of perseverance from those players to bounce back from that because it was a horrible way to end the first half. They did a fantastic job of it.”

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