Saban says Tennessee is Alabama's biggest rivalry

nx4bama said:

I always thought that tradition started with Coach Bryant?

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GeorgiaTider said:

For me Tennesse is the team I like to beat and Auburn is the team I HATE losing to.

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UntouchableCrew said:

It's interesting to me that the media seems to always portray the Iron Bowl as the bigger rivalry when most fans and those associated with the program clearly view Tennessee as bigger.

Wonder why that is?

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DzynKingRTR said:

you might be right about that I wasn't very old when Coach Bryant died so I have no memory of his coaching days. I just remember Stallings doing it. I think he also used to blast Rocky Top.

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CajunCrimson said:

The Iron Bowl is Auburn's Bowl Game.....that is why they feel so accomplished. Because they feel like they have made it to a bowl every year. And maybe they are right. Their last meaningful game most years is against a highly ranked Alabama

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cbi1972 said:

In-state rivalries generate more actual conflict.

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81usaf92 said:

I've always felt that Auburn is a game we can't afford to lose in order to avoid embarrassment and a game they must win to be relevant. It always feels good to win just to know we don't have to deal with another darn shirt.

Tennessee is and always will be the game that I want us to rub it in on them. Its the delicious special cigar I get to smoke that I've been saving in my humidor for the whole season,it's the red and orange leaves of October, and it's the chance to get even for all those years in the wilderness that we endured under the fulmer regime and the streak.

Basically I view the auburn game as an intense sibling rivalry, and the Tennessee game as a deep rooted hatred filled with a rich tradition. IMO

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DzynKingRTR said:

When I was looking at colleges to get my architecture degree, one of the many schools suggested to me was Tennessee. My reply was “I would rather be a ditch digger than go there. Another school was Auburn, my reply to that was just "no, i want to go to a smaller school."

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Con said:

I am proud to say that my son is a junior this year and we have been visiting colleges to see what would be the best school for him and he wants no part of Tennessee. It just makes me feel so good inside. Their fans are already telling me that they will get us this year like they did Florida.

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selmaborntidefan said:

I bring my 'about to turn 47' bias here as well.

The simple truth is this: when I was coming up, we generally killed BOTH of them. The second Alabama game I really remember, we went to a friend's house for a BBQ on a beautiful autumn day and Tennessee tore out to a 17-0 lead on us (yeah, I know, it was October 20, 1979, three days after the Pirates beat the Orioles to win the World Series) and we came back to beat them, 27-17. It was exciting. But from my vantage point as a fan starting in 1978, we just didn't lose to ANYBODY. From 1971-1979, the only SEC games we lost were Auburn in 72 and Ole Miss and UGA during a rebuilding year in 76 (and the Auburn was such a fluke as to be written off).

But what really made the Iron Bowl rivalry national was a set of circumstances that all ran together. Bryant beat Auburn to win 315, and I tell you now that nobody in the whole country was paying any attention to Auburn (who were 5-5 coming into the game), the game was only national because of the record. The next year, Bo Jackson came of age and then Bryant died. The games of 82-83-84 (which was televised in the morning btw) were all classics.

But what really gave national notice to this was 1985 and Van Tiffin's kick. The two teams benefited from the fact CBS was showing Miami routing Notre Dame, 58-7, so a lot of fans turned over to the better game. I've talked to MANY college football fans of other teams that don't know much about the history of the rivalry (like that we went four decades without playing them) but remember that 1985 game.

There was never 'really' a 'Third Saturday in October' quite like that even though there have been some very good games. So nationally the perception is Auburn...even though I'd say 90% of non-SEC fans have no idea where Auburn is located (as in which state).


But Tennessee - at one time - was the very best of all rivalries in sports. It was a lot like the Alabama-Penn State gentleman's rivalry of the 1980s (that makes us all ill now). It was that way as long as I could remember even through a losing streak to the Vols - until it came out what Phil was doing and the fact we lost a solid decade of fanhood.

And for that reason, I simply cannot pull for Tennessee. Let those weasels feel what it's like every single year for fifteen years to go out knowing you have no shot at the national title. They've had nine - as far as I'm concerned, we can start talking about penance sometime around 2021.

Phil ruined a phenomenal rivalry.

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selmaborntidefan said:

...even though I'd say 90% of non-SEC fans have no idea where Auburn is located (as in which state)...

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selmaborntidefan said:

I bring my 'about to turn 47' bias here as well.

The simple truth is this: when I was coming up, we generally killed BOTH of them. The second Alabama game I really remember, we went to a friend's house for a BBQ on a beautiful autumn day and Tennessee tore out to a 17-0 lead on us (yeah, I know, it was October 20, 1979, three days after the Pirates beat the Orioles to win the World Series) and we came back to beat them, 27-17. It was exciting. But from my vantage point as a fan starting in 1978, we just didn't lose to ANYBODY. From 1971-1979, the only SEC games we lost were Auburn in 72 and Ole Miss and UGA during a rebuilding year in 76 (and the Auburn was such a fluke as to be written off).

But what really made the Iron Bowl rivalry national was a set of circumstances that all ran together. Bryant beat Auburn to win 315, and I tell you now that nobody in the whole country was paying any attention to Auburn (who were 5-5 coming into the game), the game was only national because of the record. The next year, Bo Jackson came of age and then Bryant died. The games of 82-83-84 (which was televised in the morning btw) were all classics.

But what really gave national notice to this was 1985 and Van Tiffin's kick. The two teams benefited from the fact CBS was showing Miami routing Notre Dame, 58-7, so a lot of fans turned over to the better game. I've talked to MANY college football fans of other teams that don't know much about the history of the rivalry (like that we went four decades without playing them) but remember that 1985 game.

There was never 'really' a 'Third Saturday in October' quite like that even though there have been some very good games. So nationally the perception is Auburn...even though I'd say 90% of non-SEC fans have no idea where Auburn is located (as in which state).


But Tennessee - at one time - was the very best of all rivalries in sports. It was a lot like the Alabama-Penn State gentleman's rivalry of the 1980s (that makes us all ill now). It was that way as long as I could remember even through a losing streak to the Vols - until it came out what Phil was doing and the fact we lost a solid decade of fanhood.

And for that reason, I simply cannot pull for Tennessee. Let those weasels feel what it's like every single year for fifteen years to go out knowing you have no shot at the national title. They've had nine - as far as I'm concerned, we can start talking about penance sometime around 2021.

Phil ruined a phenomenal rivalry.

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cbi1972 said:

I am 44.

The Olan Mills photographer called me Major Ogilvie to get me to smile for the school picture.

I was seven for the Goal Line Stand in 1979, and really didn't comprehend what all the fuss was about. As you said, Alabama didn't really lose to anybody.

I was nine for Bryant's 315th win in Legion Field, one of the few games I actually got to attend in those days. The 50-50 crowd split was cool.

It wasn't until Pat Dye and Bo Jackson made Auburn competitive that the Auburn rivalry started to heat up for me. "Bo Over the Top," "Wrong Way Bo," and "The Kick" are cemented in my memory, and provided my first encounter with trash talk, which was completely unknown to me before then.

I remember well "My Bo" -- a "My Girl" parody making fun of Bo Jackson and his speech impediment, that I-95 played on the radio following the famous botched play.

Sure, Alabama lost to Tennessee in the early 1980s but there was no one to rub it in.

Then I went to boarding school in Tennessee starting in 1986. Tennessee had won four straight, but Alabama was good and Tennessee was not. Thankfully, Alabama whooped Tennessee, rushing for 450+ yards and six touchdowns, and Shula threw two touchdowns on three (3!) completions en route to a 56-28 thrashing that didn't seem THAT close. A long Alabama winning streak over Tennessee began that year, so I never had to endure the pain of a loss in enemy territory, but I did come to know firsthand of their unadulterated hatred, and learned to reciprocate it. We were the only ones to beat them in 1989. They came close to returning the favor in 1992, but came up short. They will never forget and never forgive, and that's fine. Incidentally, that winning streak came to an end the one time I attended a Tennessee game in person. In 1995, on the first play from scrimmage, Peyton Manning hooked up with Joey Kent for an 80 yard touchdown, setting the tone for a defeat as miserable as the 1986 victory was sweet.

fify

I still have Tennessee friends and I have to just ignore Facebook around the time of game week.

There is no getting away from Auburn fans. They're insufferable when they're any good.

Between Fulmer's antics, and Tuberville's Fear the Thumb, I don't care if we never play either one of those teams ever again, but if we do, I want us to stomp a mudhole in them and walk it dry.

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