The Alabama Crimson Tide have now won 12 straight games in a row over the Tennessee Volunteers on the SEC gridiron. This isn’t a rivalry any more, guys.
The Third Saturday in October used to mean something. Two SEC blue-bloods in the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Tennessee Volunteers would quite literally meet on the gridiron every third Saturday in October to assert their football dominance over their bitter rival.
This rivalry had been so culturally significant in the SEC that when the league expanded to 12 teams and two divisions (East and West) in 1992, this annual game had to be included, despite these two teams now playing in opposite divisions. Cross-divisional rivalries were born largely because of this game, as well as the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry between the Auburn Tigers and the Georgia Bulldogs.
While Auburn versus Georgia rarely fluctuates more than a few games or so in either school’s favor, Alabama has dominated this cross-divisional rivalry so much that this may not even be a rivalry any more.
No. 1 Alabama scored more points on Tennessee than it ever had on Saturday with a blowout 58-21 victory over the Volunteers in Knoxville. This is the 12th straight game that Alabama has been victorious over Tennessee. Since arriving in Tuscaloosa via the NFL’s Miami Dolphins, Nick Saban has never lost to Tennessee since becoming Alabama’s head coach in 2007.
The last time Tennessee beat Alabama was in 2006. Current Tennessee athletic director Phillip Fulmer was the Volunteers head coach, as he beat Mike Shula’s Crimson Tide 16-13 at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville. That was Shula’s last season leading his alma mater’s football team.
Flash forward to fall 2018, there are middle schoolers that have never seen the Tennessee faithful celebrate with a boisterous version of “Rocky Top” after topping Alabama. These 12 and 13-year-olds might be super awkward as they embark on puberty, but not as awkward as how many coaches have led the Volunteers since 2006. That would be five: Fulmer, Lane Kiffin, Derek Dooley, Butch Jones and now Jeremy Pruitt.
Pruitt just got the tar beaten out of him by his previous employer. He was Alabama’s defensive coordinator just last season. Tennessee may have won its first SEC game since 2016 last week over Auburn, but the Volunteers look to be galaxies away from contending with Alabama in a football game.
With Heisman Trophy front-runner Tua Tagovailoa having at least one more guaranteed victory at home next Third Saturday in October, there is no logical reason to expect the streak not to extend to 13 in 2019.
Pruitt may eventually figure it out in Knoxville. Saban is human and will retire from coaching some day, maybe. But what will remain the same is the nature of this hammer versus nail rivalry between neighboring Southeastern states. Alabama will be Mjölnir to Tennessee’s dollar-store thumb tack.
It stinks finally and fully to admit this, but Tennessee isn’t a rival to Alabama any more. The Crimson Tide have huge rivalries with Auburn and the LSU Tigers. Texas A&M has beaten Alabama more times (one) since joining the conference in 2012 than Tennessee has.
Ole Miss, who has only beaten Alabama 10 times ever, has won two in a row over the Crimson Tide more recently than has Tennessee. The last time that Tennessee held a winning streak over Alabama, we were in the first term of the George W. Bush Administration in Washington back in 2003-04. Barack Obama was in his second term the list time the Rebels topped the Crimson Tide twice in a row.
Historically, Alabama has been Tennessee’s biggest football rival. Now, the Volunteers aren’t guaranteed to win games annually over the Kentucky Wildcats or the Vanderbilt Commodores.
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Sadly enough, the SEC needs this rivalry to matter. This game which is normally the CBS SEC Game of the Week is now only an afterthought, seemingly over after Alabama takes a 14-0 lead over Tennessee. It only took five minutes this year, so here we are. Peyton Manning is not walking through that door. This streak is both ridiculous and reality.