By: Jeremy Durham, Contributing Sports Columnist
On Oct. 17, 1970, Tennessee wore orange, Alabama wore crimson, and the Vols beat them 24-0 in Bill Battle’s first season. Shut them out cold.
It hasn’t looked like that since. For more than half a century, somebody wore white every time these two met. This Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026, both teams wear their home colors again at Neyland Stadium, 56 years to the day after that shutout.
I’m not saying it’s an omen. I’m just saying I noticed.
The scoreboard
Yes, Alabama leads the series 60-40-7. Bama fans will remind you of that before you finish saying hello. A lot of the damage came in one long, miserable stretch: Alabama beat Tennessee 15 straight times from 2007 to 2021, and Nick Saban went 16-1 against the Vols. For a generation of Tennessee fans, the smell of Alabama’s victory cigars drifting out of the visiting locker room was as much a part of October as the leaves.
About those cigars: In the 1950s, Alabama trainer Jim Goostree started handing them out after wins over Tennessee. It’s technically an NCAA violation, so the winner lights up and then self-reports. Tennessee has gotten to light up twice in the last four years. I’d love to make it three, but I’m not buying cigars until Saturday night.
Before the Saban years, this rivalry had some orange in it. Phillip Fulmer won seven straight from 1995 to 2001. And Johnny Majors gave Neyland one of its great afternoons in 1982, beating Bear Bryant to snap an 11-game Alabama streak in Bryant’s final trip to Knoxville.
The game that changed everything
Then came 2022. Hendon Hooker and Bryce Young, who would go No. 1 overall in the next spring’s NFL draft, traded punches for four quarters. Chase McGrath’s 40-yard field goal at the gun gave Tennessee a 52-49 win. The goalposts went into the Tennessee River, and the streak went with them.
Since then, the series has followed a simple rule: the home team wins. Tennessee won in Knoxville in 2022 and again in 2024, 24-17. Alabama won in Tuscaloosa in 2023 and 2025. Four years, four home wins.
This year, the game is in Knoxville. I’ll take that, but trends don’t play football.
What Alabama brings
The Tide come to Neyland mad, and I’ll admit they have a reason to be. Late in Saturday’s 20-17 home loss to Georgia, Keelon Russell threw toward Rico Scott near the end zone, and Georgia safety KJ Bolden hit Scott well before the ball got there. No flag. A pass interference call would have put Alabama in field-goal range with a first down. Instead, Bolden sacked Russell on the next play, Alabama punted, and Georgia won in Tuscaloosa for the first time in the regular season since 2007.
It pains me to say it, but Alabama got robbed. That game should have gone to overtime at worst.
Enjoy that sentence, Bama fans. It’s the last nice thing I’m saying about you this week.
Here’s the danger: teams that feel cheated tend to play like it the next week, and a second loss would put a serious dent in Alabama’s SEC title hopes. The Tide will come in angry and desperate, and that’s a dangerous combination.
What Tennessee brings
The Vols are 5-1 after finally winning in Fayetteville, but it wasn’t pretty. They needed a fourth-quarter comeback, DeSean Bishop’s 59-yard run, and a redshirt freshman quarterback who turned it over three times in his first career start. George MacIntyre will play Saturday. What nobody knows yet is whether Faizon Brandon will. He was available only in an emergency against Arkansas because of a shoulder injury, and Heupel isn’t tipping his hand. I’ll dig into it Wednesday.
The pick comes Saturday, and I haven’t made it yet. For now, just know this: orange vs. crimson, in Knoxville, on the third Saturday in October, for the first time since Nixon was president. The last time it looked like this, Alabama didn’t score.
I’d settle for a win by one.
Jeremy Durham is contributing sports editor for TriStar Daily. He is wondering if it is sacrilege for a Vol fan to watch the Saban documentary this week.
