Back during the 2016 College Football Playoff, Alabama’s defense turned in a dominant effort while blowing out the Washington Huskies 24-7 to reach the National Championship Game.

Now, as the Huskies prepare to do battle with Auburn to open the 2018 season in Atlanta, coach Chris Petersen sees a lot of similarities in the Tigers’ defense and Nick Saban’s Crimson Tide units.

Recently, Petersen compared this year’s Auburn defense to Alabama’s, praising the Tigers for looking a lot like their rivals on that side of the ball (via AL.com):

“I think that the quality of team we’re playing is certainly like those teams we played there,” Petersen said. “I look at Auburn on defense and it seems very Alabama-ish to me. It’s that physical style, that really athletic, they don’t give you anything, you got earn everything, they’re fast, all those things. That seems really, really similar.”

Petersen will have to hope that this year’s Washington offense is more up to the task of facing an elite defense than the 2016 squad was, otherwise the Huskies could be in for a very long day.

Auburn and Washington are set to meet in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game on Saturday, Sept. 1. Kickoff is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. Eastern time and can be seen on ABC.