Former players recall favorite memories from Alabama-Tennesse rivalry

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — A 98-ton rock sits on Tennessee’s campus in Knoxville, Tenn. You’d have to live under it to ignore the Volunteers’ recent struggles against rival Alabama. The Crimson Tide has won its past 10 games against Tennessee, and all indications point toward that streak extending past Saturday as Alabama enters this week’s matchup as a 36-point favorite.

To some, that has diminished the rivalry or better yet ended it altogether. After all, both teams have to win occasionally for a rivalry, right? Numbers don’t do the matchup any favors either.

No. 1 Alabama (7-0, 4-0 in the SEC) comes into the game leading the SEC in scoring offense, rushing offense, total offense, scoring defense, run defense and turnover margin. Life championships and five-star hearts aside, Tennessee (3-3, 0-3) enters leading the conference in pass defense, kick return and not much else. The Volunteers have not scored in 10 quarters of play and are fresh off a heartbreaking loss to South Carolina last week.

All that is true, but to measure the Third Saturday in October by stats and numbers would be selling it short. Ask anyone who has played in this game and they’ll tell you the scoreboard is only half the story. The Alabama-Tennessee rivalry is measured in redemption, heartbreak, anxiety and relief.

To celebrate the 100th meeting between Alabama and Tennessee BamaInsider.com caught up with three former Crimson Tide players and asked them for their favorite memories of the rivalry. Here are their stories:

Brodie Croyle laughs when asked to name his favorite moment against Tennessee.

“There are so many, it’s hard to pick just one,” he interjects.

The former quarterback has a point. Playing for Alabama from 2001-05, he’s experienced both the ups and downs the rivalry has to offer. There’s the time during his redshirt freshman season in 2002 when he helped lead the Crimson Tide to a 34-14 win in Knoxville, a victory that snapped a seven-game winning streak for Tennessee.

His "most fun” game came the following year as he and Alabama came up on the losing end of a five-overtime thriller in Tuscaloosa. While perhaps the most exciting game of his career, he couldn’t pick a loss as his favorite.

Croyle eventually settled on his senior season in 2005, a year where Alabama was on the rise after suffering the ramifications of a two-year bowl ban and heavy scholarship reductions. Alabama entered the game as the No. 5 team in the nation, playing host to No. 17 Tennessee.

Locked in a defensive struggle, Croyle doesn’t remember why Alabama couldn’t seem to score, just that despite moving the ball “pretty well” the Crimson Tide had only three points to show for it at the end of the third quarter. Tennessee answered back with a field goal early in the fourth quarter to tie the game. Then things took a turn for the worse.

Croyle was sacked twice on Alabama’s next possession, forcing the Crimson Tide to punt from its own 19-yard line. A 39-yard punt gave Tennessee the ball at its own 47-yard line with 9 minutes to play. The Volunteers proceeded to work their way down to the Alabama 4-yard line on what appeared to be the game-winning drive.

However, momentum soon swung again.

After back-to-back penalties pushed Tennessee back to the Alabama 14-yard line, the Crimson Tide received the break it desperately needed. On third-and-goal, Tennessee quarterback Rick Clausen completed a screen pass to Cory Anderson. After catching the ball the fullback broke toward the end zone until he was met by Alabama safety Roman Harper at the 4-yard line. Harper got his helmet on the football, jarring it free and sending it out of the end zone for a touchback.

Croyle knew that was all he needed. Pulling on his helmet, the quarterback turned to his teammates and told them, “Alright, here we go.”

After getting the ball at its own 20-yard line, it looked like Alabama’s offense would stall again as two stuffed running plays set up a third-and-9 with 3:28 to play. That’s when Croyle decided to take things into his own hands.

“We were running a lot of comeback routes that game, and I was sacked two or three times waiting for our receivers to come back,” Croyle recalled. “On third down, I turned to D.J. Hall and said ‘Can you run a go-route?’ He was like ‘Yeah, of course.’ I just told all the receivers to run a go route and I’d handle the rest.”

Sure enough, the quarterback remained true to his word, dropping back five steps before hitting Hall for a 44-yard pass at the Tennessee 35-yard line. Looking back, the quarterback chuckles at making the right call, especially knowing what was in store for him had the play gone wrong.

“Let’s just say the conversation would probably not have been a good one,” he said.

After the long bomb, Alabama moved the ball down to the 14-yard line to set up a 34-yard field goal attempt from Jamie Christensen with 18 seconds left. Watching from the sidelines, Croyle remembers feeling confident as Christensen stepped up for the kick.

“Christensen had earned the nickname of “Money” that season,” Croyle said. “He earned that nickname because he might not have made every kick, but when it came to crunch time he didn’t miss. You always felt pretty good when he lined up at the end of the game.”

Christensen’s kick was good, giving Alabama a 6-3 victory and paving the way to a 10-2 season and a victory over Texas Tech in the Cotton Bowl.

Baron Huber doesn’t remember exactly where he was when team captains were announced for the Alabama-Tennessee game during his senior season in 2009, but the former Crimson Tide fullback will never forget the feeling he had when he heard his name called.

Huber, a Knoxville, Tenn., native, grew up rooting for the Volunteers and says he’s probably seen roughly 100 games inside Neyland Stadium. During family vacations as a child, his parents used to joke with him telling him to close his eyes while they drove through Alabama so he didn’t have to see it. That all changed when he received an offer in the mail from then Alabama head coach Mike Shula.

“They didn’t have to ask very hard,” Huber said. “After going down there for a football camp and receiving an official offer I really fell in love with the place. You hear people all the time saying that it felt like home and it really did for me. That was really hard to say considering I grew up hating Alabama as much as I did.”

Naturally, when Huber heard his name called by Alabama strength and conditioning coach Scott Cochran the Monday before the game, it meant a little extra to him. Huber was never a star player, especially after current head coach Nick Saban took over the team and transitioned away from the fullback position. So, when the senior heard his name called as a captain he took an extra moment to let it sink in.

“Knowing how much that game meant to me, being a kid on the other side of the fence and being able to not only play in that game but represent my team in our state of Alabama as a captain,” Huber said. “Outside of the birth of my daughter that was the greatest moment of my life.”

Huber went on to record his only reception of the year during the game, catching a 4-yard pass from quarterback Greg McElroy. However, his favorite moment came while he was on the sidelines.

Coming into the game as the No. 2 team in the nation, Alabama entered the matchup a bit beaten up after playing the first seven weeks without a bye. The fatigue showed as the Crimson Tide struggled to put Tennessee away during the game.

Leading 12-3 with 3:53 remaining, a roughing the kicker penalty on fourth-and-4 gave Alabama a fresh set of downs at its own 38-yard line and appeared to allow the Crimson Tide to put the game to bed. Although, that’s when things would begin to fall apart.

Running back Mark Ingram fumbled on the next play, giving Tennessee the ball at the Alabama 43-yard line. From there the Volunteers marched down the field against a tired Crimson Tide defense. The drive was capped off by an 11-yard touchdown pass from Tennessee quarterback Jonathan Crompton who hit receiver Gerald Jones with 1:19 to play to cut the score to 12-10. After the Volunteers recovered an onside kick at their own 41-yard line with a minute to play, panic swept over the crowd inside Bryant-Denny Stadium.

“We pretty much did everything you could do wrong,” Huber said. “We turned the ball over, we blew assignments, it was just an absolute screw up. I think a lot of that came with being mentally tired.”

Tennessee continued to pound a winded Alabama defense through the air as Crompton eventually found receiver Luke Stoker on a 23-yard pass to put the Volunteers in field goal position at the Alabama 27-yard line. Meanwhile, all Huber could do was watch helplessly from the sideline.

“You almost feel stranded,” Huber said. “I don’t know if you’ve ever run out of gas before, but it’s like looking at your tank and knowing that you’re on E and you have 20 miles to the next exit. You’re thinking you might get there, but more than likely you’re going to run out of gas.”

By the time Tennessee kicker Daniel Lincoln lined up for a 44-yard field goal to win the game with four seconds remaining, Huber had positioned himself near Alabama’s locker room in order to get off the field as quickly as possible.

“The thing I thought about because I’m superstitious was, the one game I’m captain is going to be the one game we are going to lose this year,” Huber said. “... I was somewhere between ready to throw up and ready to cry.”

Then a miracle happened.

“They snapped the ball, and I think everyone on our sideline jumped,” Huber said. “I actually heard it before I saw it. I’ll never forget it. It’s one of those bone-chilling noises that you hear and you’ll never get rid off.”

The sound Huber heard was the ball ricocheting off defensive lineman Terrence Cody’s arm as he blocked the kick. That was followed by a loud cheer from the crowd as Alabama held on for a 12-10 victory.

The win kept Alabama’s undefeated season alive in what would go down as its only perfect season under Saban to date. The Crimson Tide later went on to beat Texas in the BCS National Championship Game.

Former Alabama offensive lineman Mike Johnson keeps a picture from a game against Tennessee he’ll always remember. Like several of the players who joined Alabama before the Saban years, his memories against the Volunteers are mixed. Johnson redshirted during Alabama’s 6-3 win in 2005 and started as a senior during the 12-10 game in 2009. Although, the picture hanging on his wall isn’t from a moment you’d expect.

Instead, the offensive lineman chose a memory from a 29-9 win during his junior season in 2008, not for what it meant in history but rather its significance to the team and one of his favorite teammates.

The play came when Alabama already had the game well in hand, up 22-3 with 9:50 left in the fourth quarter. On a second-and-goal from the 4-yard line, Alabama pitched the ball to running back Roy Upchurch who waited briefly as Johnson opened up a hole in the left side for him to burst through for a touchdown. Following the play, Johnson grabbed the running back in the end zone as he celebrated the score.

To some, it was simply another touchdown in a blowout victory in Knoxville, but Johnson knew what it meant to his teammate. Earlier in his career, Upchurch, the No. 73 player overall in the 2005 class, earned the unfortunate nickname of “Irrelevant Roy” from Saban, who criticized the running back for not putting in the work needed to live up to his potential. Upchurch offered 4.4 speed in the 40-yard dash and was one of the more versatile backs on the team. However, according to Johnson “personal demons” contributed to Upchurch's lack of work ethic both on and off the field.

Those issues began to disappear during Upchurch’s junior year in 2008. Johnson said he noticed a light bulb go off in his teammate's head as Upchurch began to buy into Alabama’s process. Soon after, his potential finally began to show.

“For an offensive lineman, it’s a special relationship with a running back,” Johnson said. “I remember looking at Roy Upchurch’s eyes when we got in the huddle and being like ‘Let’s go get you 150, let’s get you in the end zone. It’s not that I blocked any harder for Roy, but I wanted it more for him.”

Upchurch finished the game with a team-high 86 yards and a touchdown on 14 carries while adding 13 yards on two receptions. More importantly, he proved to himself and the team just how far hard work could take them.

“I honestly look back at that memory as one of the times in college that I finally understood that we were a great team and we were building a dynasty,” Johnson said. “He was one of my favorite teammates, it was one of my favorite plays, and it’s one of my favorite memories because that game was a little bit of a coming out party for all of us. It made us understand that we were going to be a very good football team for some time to come.”

Alabama went on to finish the regular season undefeated before suffering a loss to Florida in the SEC Championship Game and another defeat to Utah in the Sugar Bowl. However, the season paved the way to the Crimson Tide’s perfect run the following year.

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