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Alabama coach Nick Saban and Tennessee coach Derek Dooley share the same football philosophies - right now, though, the state of their teams couldn't be more different.
Dooley spent seven years on Saban's staffs at LSU and the Miami Dolphins before taking his first head coaching job at Louisiana Tech. Saturday's meeting between the seventh-ranked Crimson Tide (6-1, 3-1 Southeastern Conference) and the struggling Vols (2-4, 0-3) will mark the first time the two have been on opposite sidelines.
''Will it be odd a little bit before the game? Probably, but once the game starts you're so locked in to the game and managing the game that you don't really think about that,'' Dooley said.
Dooley, 42, spent 2000-2002 as Saban's recruiting coordinator at LSU, essentially building what would become the Tigers' 2003 national championship team. He also spent time as the tight ends coach and running backs coach before earning the title of LSU's assistant head coach in 2004, and coached the Dolphins tight ends during the 2005 and 2006 seasons.
''He's a very bright guy, and a student of the game - all parts of the game,'' said Saban, 58. ''He wasn't one of those guys that just thought he was a one-position coach on offense or a one-position coach on defense. He understands the big picture of issues and problems that you have to deal with in a program. I think he's got all the right stuff to be a very successful college coach.
They still visit with each other's families at Alabama's Lake Martin and share an occasional round of golf during offseasons. They talk on the phone too, though Dooley doesn't seek the kind of advice he did when he first got started at Louisiana Tech in 2007.
Dooley had already absorbed Saban's coaching philosophies before he became a head coach: run the ball on offense, stop opponents' run games and pressure quarterbacks on third down, develop a strong special teams unit and return game.
''It's why I was in the same program for seven years because that's what works, and they do it really well, and they do it with great players,'' Dooley said.
Those principles are what has made the Crimson Tide so good as it's gone 20-1 over the past season and a half, winning the 2009 national championship along the way.
They're also what the Vols have spent hours on trying to improve as they've bumbled their way through the season. Dooley inherited a mess at Tennessee, which had had two coaches in the previous two seasons and had a number of player defections with each coaching turnover.
''In my experience, that first year is very, very difficult in terms of your staff, everybody getting on board, getting the players to buy in,'' said Saban, who went 7-6 his first year at Alabama. ''I don't think you can just look, especially in first years, at record and results ... is the foundation being built for what you need to do in the future so you have a chance to be successful and you can build on what you have? It looks to me like that's happening there based on watching how they play.''
When Dooley leads Tennessee on the field Saturday for the first time in the storied ''Third Saturday in October'' rivalry, Saban's face won't be the only familiar one on the Alabama sideline. Alabama defensive coordinator Kirby Smart, linebackers coach Sal Sunseri, defensive line coach Bo Davis and tight ends coach Bobby Williams were among Dooley's colleagues at LSU.
And Saban will see his former linebackers coach, Lance Thompson, dressed in orange for a second year in a row.
''It's going to be a battle of the wits,'' Tennessee sophomore defensive end and Mobile, Ala., native Willie Bohannon said.
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AP Sports Writer John Zenor in Tuscaloosa, Ala., contributed to this story.
