Just reminiscing

[Creek Walker]

My earliest college football memory comes in 1988. My dad was driving us along old coal-haul roads in the Cumberland Mountains to look at the fall colors, and John Ward and Bill Anderson were on the radio. Tennessee was 0-6, and playing Memphis State at the Liberty Bowl. In Wartburg, the tiny town at the base of the mountains below where we were driving, some guy named Joe had climbed onto the roof at a gas station and vowed not to come down until the Vols won a game. Tennessee beat the Tigers that day, 38-25, starting a five-game winning streak to end the season and kicking off one of the greatest eras in Vol history. It was a great time to be introduced to UT football, and I fell in love with those guys on the radio calling the game.

That Tennessee-Memphis State game had nothing to do with Tennessee-Alabama, of course. But I tell that story to tell how I fell in love with Tennessee football. Fast-forward three years, and I was wandering around the city park in my hometown of Oneida. It was the annual steam train festival. A train-load of leaf-peepers caught a steam train every year for an excursion up the Norfolk-Southern Railroad to Oneida, where they would disembark for lunch and to explore crafts booths. My grandmother made crafts and sold them at the festival, and I was there to help her. While the tourists shopped, I roamed. In Birmingham, Tennessee and Alabama were playing. I was wearing a Walkman, listening to John and Bill call the game. Over and over, people stopped me to ask me what the score was. How did they know I was listening to the Tennessee-Alabama game? Because I was a 12-year-old boy in East Tennessee, it was the 3rd Saturday in October, and I had headphones on. What on earth else would I be listening to?

That's what Millennials, bless their heart, don't understand about this Tennessee-Alabama rivalry: just how big it used to be, just how much it mattered. And I get it. We haven't upheld our end of the bargain. Of course they don't remember what it was like to hate Alabama with every fiber of your soul if you were a Tennessee fan -- or vice-versa. While Alabama has been winning national championships, we've been irrelevant. It hasn't even been fun to trash-talk them in the week leading up to the game, because we've known a beat-down was coming. Even in the years when we were competitive (like 2009 and 2015) we expected to get beat.

But I'm excited for this generation of Tennessee fans, because this week they get to experience what it is like for Tennessee and Alabama to play and the entire country to be watching. My son is 16. He was 6-months-old the last time Tennessee beat Alabama. He has been almost unable to sleep this week, because he's so excited about the game this weekend. I told him last week, "This is what it was like for this game every single year in the '80s and '90s." I'm not sure he believed me.

I have no idea whether Tennessee can beat Alabama. There is still a sizable gap in the talent that these two teams field. What I truly believe is that it will be a competitive game, unlike 13 of the past 15 years. But I'm more excited about the build-up for the game than for the game itself, however weird that might sound. The entire college football world revolves around Tennessee-Alabama this week, and it feels so much like old times that it makes me almost giddy. It's been way too long. Do you realize that ESPN's College GameDay has been filmed live on location since 1993 and this is the first time the show has ever been in Knoxville for a Tennessee-Alabama game? It's just the second time GameDay has ever featured Tennessee-Alabama (the other being that glorious 1995 game in Birmingham, which the Vols won 41-14).

As I've gone about my business this week, I've thought about that 1991 game when I was just a kid wandering through the park with my Walkman on. Alabama won 24-19 that day after Andy Kelly threw an interception late. I don't have to Google that; I remember it like it was yesterday. I've thought about a lot of the other Tennessee-Alabama games, too. Like the one in 1990. It was tied 6-6 and Tennessee was lining up for a game-winning field goal. But Alabama blocked it and turned it into a game-winning field goal the other way. That was maybe Johnny Majors' worst loss ever. The Vols were #3 and had national championship aspirations. Alabama was unranked, but derailed Tennessee's season. Or 1992, Majors' last game in the series, when Alabama with its magnificent defense won 17-10 on its way to a national championship. Or 1993, when David Palmer scored on a two-point conversion with 21 seconds left and Alabama somehow managed to leave with a tie. Or 1994, when Peyton Manning threw an INT late and Tennessee lost 17-13.

Yes, all of those games ended in losses, but they're etched in my memory because as a young boy growing up a football fan in East Tennessee, there was just something special about the 3rd Saturday in October. And of course I remember the good times, too -- the 41-14 win in 1995, the 70-yard run by Jay Graham to lift Tennessee to a 20-13 win in 1996, the 38-21 win in 1997, the 35-18 win in 1998, the 21-7 win in 1999, and so on and so forth. It seemed like that the SEC hinged on this one game every single season. It was the most important game of the season, even when it wasn't. Then Tennessee lost its way, while Alabama found its goat, and the script was flipped.

Now here we are. For the first time since 1995, Tennessee enters the 3rd Saturday in October undefeated. Alabama is also undefeated, and it's the first time since 1989 that both teams have entered this game unbeaten. There's a lot of hype around this game in East Tennessee this week. Everywhere you go, people want to talk about Tennessee and Alabama.

My message to my 16-year-old is what my message would be to any young Tennessee fan this week: Enjoy this. Savor it. This is what it used to be like every 3rd Saturday in October in East Tennessee in the '80s and '90s. With any luck, Tennessee will remain relevant and this game will start meaning something on the national scene once more. It's been way too long since it has. But for this Saturday, at least, this game in Knoxville will help shape the College Football Playoff picture. Two great teams, both relevant on the national stage, squaring off in a high-stakes game. And it feels like old times.

The old-timers who defined Tennessee and Alabama -- men like General Robert Neyland, Paul Bear Bryant, Johnny Majors, Wallace Wade, Doug Dickey, Jim Goostree -- understood what the 3rd Saturday in October meant to these two football towns, Knoxville and Tuscaloosa, and to the SEC and all of college football. I can't help but think that General Neyland and Bear Bryant are smiling down this week.

[VinnieVOL]

 "This is what it was like for this game every single year in the '80s and '90s."

Man, ain’t that the truth.  Win or lose Saturday, the feeling … it’s coming back.

[10EC]

"This is what it was like for this game every single year in the '80s and '90s."

Man, ain’t that the truth.  Win or lose Saturday, the feeling … it’s coming back.

It’s why my sons had to go to this game.  So few are like this.

[FLVOL]

It’s why my sons had to go to this game.  So few are like this.

I'm envious, for sure. Win or lose, stick it out until the end and enjoy, that's what it's all about

[Coupe De VOL]

I was at that Memphis St game with an old HS buddy who had just graduated from Ole Miss.  My buddy, the freaking C*&$*#&$cksucker, was rooting for the Vols streak to continue.  Some friend, huh???    I guess some Vols fans forget and some may not know, but there was a high level of hate betwixt Rebels and Vols in the 70s and 80s.  Kinda like that between Vols and Dawgs today.  Anyway we stopped the streak and my ol' pal was bummed.  God love 'em.  You are right --- that win was the beginning of the best run in Big Orange history.  It culminated with that glorious win in Tempe ( I was there as well!) and it started to fade win we lost that SECC to the fizzleing Bayou Bengals. 

This game tomorrow could be the dawning of a new Orange age.  ESPN power ratings has our chances at 30%.  That seems about right, but I'd say our chances are a little better - maybe 35-40%.  Depth in Defense and the lack of a stud RB are big concerns for us, IMO.  Hooker is going to have to run for us to have a chance.  It seems we have not had hooker run too much with that option play and it has gotten predictable, IMO.  That will have to change.  We will have to run that play honest and have Hooker take advantage of openings when he sees them.  THat of course will lead to him getting banged up and possibly knocked out of the game.  I have a feeling he will get knocked out of the game tomorrow.  WIll Milton be ready.?  He is a better runner, IMO, but we all know his problem with throwing accuracy and throwing touch.  Milton has shown improvement at that in the times he has been out there, but there were also times this season when Milton still looked like he could not hit easy targets.  I think the 'W' may very well come down to Milton - I hope I am wrong, but we will see.  I'm not expecting a win - and I HATE to say that - but there it is.  However, it surely is the best chance we have had in many, many years.  GBO!   

[BanditVol]

I attended every single bammer game from 1986 to 1998, I only missed 1999 because I was in grad school at Purdue, but I had quite a streak going with all those frustrating losses CW mentions followed by satisfying wins. I was a college frosh in 1985, and that win was an away game, Since bammer was down in the late 80s, or at any rate in 1986, I fully expected us to win in 1986, the first time I attended UT-bammer, but we lost.  Just imagine how frustrating those next 7 years were, particularly the 9-6 fiasco in 1990 which was the first year I lived in Alabama.  So it was just amazing to see the 41-14 blowout in 1995.  At last we had kicked that crimson arse!  The next 12 years were also great, then Satan fell down from heaven and turned the series in their favor. This was also the shizzle head responsible for ruining our 2001 season, BTW.

It's past time for some payback.

I fully expect us to win tomorrow.  The numbers seem to favor bammer, but the ESPN FPI is a recursive algorithm that incorporates games from the whole season and even back into last year, it can take a game or three to reflect actual team strength IMO.  Our ass-whipping of LSU is weakened by earlier games still being considered by FPI

Beyond that, all the intangibles favor us this year (for once!).  Home field advantage.  Status of Bryce.  Momentum (easy win over LSU on road vs close call vs Tamu at home).  Vols have nothing to lose, bammer is the dynasty that has to defend its rep.  I'll even throw in the gut feeling by by Vols and non-Vols that this is finally the year.

Having said that, I also agree with the statements above that a loss will not stop this team.  We will still have everything to play for, and 10-2 is still our best season in a long, long time (holding out for 11-1 or 12-0 though!).

But how sweet a win will be. I am confident we can. We will see soon enough.