Alabama players respect Tennessee rivalry despite recent dominance
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TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Shaun Dion Hamilton isn’t a smoker, except for around this time of year. The third week in October is generally when Tuscaloosa begins to experience relief from the blistering heat as cool, 70-degree temperatures fall over campus.
For the past 10 seasons, it’s also been the week Alabama beats Tennessee.
“My first time smoking a cigar was my freshman year when we played Tennessee,” Hamilton said. “So, I mean, I smoke a cigar once a year. We'll see if we will have that opportunity after the game on Saturday."
Recruiting: Flip Watch for Alabama
No. 1 Alabama (7-0, 4-0 in the SEC) will host Tennessee (3-3, 0-3) on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. CT in what will be the 100th meeting between the two schools. The Crimson Tide hold a 54-37-8 series lead and has won the past 10 meetings against the Volunteers, including a 49-10 bludgeoning last year that saw Alabama rack up 409 yards on the ground.
It’s a tradition for Alabama players to smoke victory cigars after beating Tennessee. Hamilton has lit up a cigar three times in his college career, and the smoke signals coming out of Las Vegas indicate he has a pretty good chance of making it a clean sweep Saturday night. Alabama enters this week’s matchup as a 34.5-point favorite over a Tennessee team that hasn’t scored a touchdown in 10 straight quarters of play.
Nevertheless, Alabama players say they are approaching this week with the attention it deserves.
“I wasn’t aware of that until you just said that, so that’s not really something that we pay attention to,” running back Damien Harris said when informed of the point spread. “Like I said, all I know is that they’re going to come in and give their best effort, so we’re going to have to be ready for that.”
Despite Alabama’s dominance in the series, the Tide needs only to go back two seasons to the last time Tennessee played in Tuscaloosa in order to find proof of how dangerous this matchup can be.
Following a go-ahead touchdown from running back Jalen Hurd, Tennessee found itself on the verge of upsetting then No. 8 ranked Alabama, leading the Tide 14-13 with 5:49 remaining. Alabama was able to answer back on an eight-play, 71-yard drive capped off by a touchdown run by eventual Heisman winner Derrick Henry to retake the lead at 19-14 with 2:24 left to play. A sack and a fumble recovery from Alabama linebacker Ryan Anderson sealed the deal on Tennessee’s next possession, and the Tide was able to limp out of Bryant-Denny Stadium with a victory.
Things were even closer in 2009 as Alabama needed late heroics from defensive lineman Terrence Cody in order to preserve what would go on to be Nick Saban’s only perfect season to date. After controlling Tennessee in a sloppy game, Alabama allowed Volunteers quarterback Jonathan Crompton to find receiver Gerald Jones for an 11-yard touchdown to cut the Tide’s lead to 14-12 with 1:19 to play. Tennessee then recovered the ensuing onside kick and eventually set up a 44-yard field goal to win the game with four seconds remaining. However, Cody was able to get his left arm up in time to block the kick, sending the crowd inside Bryant-Denny into a frenzy.
Alabama head coach Nick Saban referenced both those games during his Monday news conference, stating he believes the rivalry with Tennessee is “very competitive” despite what recent record books might indicate. He expects Saturday’s game to be no different.
“I think you all, like always, you’re always looking for all these assumptions because they have issues, they have problems some kind of way,” Saban said. “Why can’t that be a motivating factor for them and they play their best game of the year? Y’all ever think about that?”
Saban won’t have any problems reminding his team to stay focused this week. Last weekend saw four top-10 teams lose to unranked opponents. Although the extra motivation from the head coach might not have been needed this week.
Hamilton said he started thinking about the Volunteers as he was walking off the field following Alabama’s 41-9 win over Arkansas last week. The senior linebacker said he expects the Tide to go a little bit harder in practice this week as players gear up for what they know will be a battle Saturday.
The extra work makes the postgame cigars even sweeter.
"It's a very good feeling,” Hamilton said of what is now an annual tradition. “We got to have a good week of practice this week and we'll see what happens on Saturday."