Face it: The Third Saturday in October isn’t really a rivalry and Tennessee fans know it!
Smokey
The extra time of the bye week provides a little time for reflection, and it coming after Tennessee Hate Week has the Vols still on my mind.
Let’s face it, of all the schools who claim a rivalry with the Tide, hands down the most loathsome fans are the Vols. Auburn fans at least have a little bit of room crow, but let’s be honest. Tennessee fans have no rational basis for their insane expectations or the belief that their team is on par with Alabama.
Here are my reasons for declaring UT fans as our most delusional and hated opposing fanbase:
The irrational belief that Tennessee and Alabama are comparable programs
While Alabama’s played football one season less, the Tide hold a 116 game advantage all-time. Head to head, Alabama has won 59 of the 106 meetings between the two schools.
Tennessee claims 6 national titles, 16 conference titles, and 41 consensus all-Americans with no Heisman Trophy winners. Alabama in contrast lays claim to 18 national titles, 33 conference titles, 88 consensus all-Americans, and 4 Heisman winners.
Alabama has won 36 of the last 51 head-to-head matchups including streaks of 9 and 15 consecutive wins during that stretch.
No rational person can honestly claim that this rivalry has any semblance of parity, but to hear most Vol fans, one would think the two schools are practically mirror images of one another.
The insane complex that the officials have it in for Tennessee
The narrative that Tennessee fans want to push is that SEC officials cost them the game yet they cannot admit that a wider disparity existed in their favor in the 2022 contest between the schools. In that game, Alabama was penalized 11 more times for a total of 92 yards while this year’s disparity was only 7 penalties for 50 yards difference.
While the more obvious explanation is that home teams benefit from a favorable home environment that results in fewer penalties, Tennessee fans rarely let reason get in their way.
Phillip Fulmer
Alabama fans will never forgive Fulmer, who got his job as UT’s head coach by unceremoniously pushing his boss (and Vols legend) Johnny Majors out the door, missing SEC media days running from a 2002 subpoena in a case related to his alleged reporting of recruiting violations by Alabama. Though widely rumored to be engaged in their own recruiting shenanigans involving booster Roy Adams and signing Kenny Smith (who Alabama boosters were found to have paid in his original recruitment to Bama), Vol fans annoyingly act as if their program was squeaky clean.
Clay Travis
The biggest blowhard in sports media today, Clay Travis’ recent inane insistence that the Vols have “caught up” to Alabama is the most recent example of a career built on being louder than correct at almost every turn. The obnoxious Clay quite frankly everything that many Alabama fans hate in Tennessee fans. He’s like a chicken-$h!+ wrestling heel who continues to keep his title by cheating his way to the top while telling the world how great and talented he is.
They say every dog has his day, but Bama fans know the truth: if Smokey is ever really going to have his, he’ll need to hit the transfer portal and head to Tuscaloosa.
Roll Tide!
What do you think about the Vols as Bama’s most annoying rivals? Let’s hear you!
