Phones flipped, birds did most of the tweeting and TikTok was just a sound a clock made. Justin Timberlake was bringing “SexyBack” while Miley Cyrus debuted as “Hannah Montana” on the Disney Channel long before any of us knew what twerking was.

You could fill up your tank at $2.29 a gallon and drive to the movie theater to buy a ticket to Martin Scorsese’s “The Departed” or wait a few months and rent it on DVD at your local Blockbuster.

It was a different world the last time Tennessee beat Alabama on Oct. 21, 2006 – one the Crimson Tide’s current stars don't remember too well.

Back then, Alabama’s current backfield was busy slinging webs, Brian Branch was a pizza-hungry pirate and Will Anderson Jr. was preaching inside his neighbors’ living rooms.

Sixteen years later, that bunch will be suiting up for No. 3 Alabama as it looks to extend its 15-game winning streak against No. 6 Tennessee on Saturday inside Neyland Stadium. Before they do, here’s a look at what they were up to the last time the Volunteers topped the Crimson Tide.

Mia McClellan was perplexed while looking down at her son Jase’s kindergarten progress report. She drove all three of her boys to school when they were growing up, so it was a bit concerning to see a slew of absences next to her youngest child’s name.

After calling the school, Mia heard back from Jase’s teacher who explained that she had forgotten to correct the times she had mistakenly missed him while taking attendance. That still didn’t make sense to Mia. Once or twice was understandable, but how was her son mistakenly skipped over so many times?

Jase’s teacher let out a slight sigh.

“Well, I’ve been calling him Jase McClellan,” she explained, “but he finally corrected me and said his name was Jase ‘Spiderman’ McClellan. He hasn’t been raising his hand.”

Mia was familiar with her son’s name preference but didn’t know it occurred outside of the house. At age 4, the current Alabama running back only responded to Jase “Spiderman.” The stubbornness ended up paying off for him as his teacher began referring to him by his nickname for the rest of the school year. In fact, during his kindergarten graduation, Jase “Spiderman” McClellan was the name announced as he walked across the stage.

Mia doesn’t know why her son latched on to the comic book hero, but remembers buying just about every piece of Spiderman merchandise she could find for him. Jase had everything, PEZ dispensers, plates and, of course, his own web blaster.

“He honestly thought he was Spiderman,” Mia said with a laugh. “If you asked him anything, before he responded, he would do that thing with his fingers that Spiderman does before responding. He loved the web blaster. He’d just walk through the house, and if he saw you, you were the victim.”

Interestingly enough, another member of Alabama’s current backfield shared the same obsession. Jahmyr Gibbs wasn’t quite as headstrong as Jase at 4 years old but was just as much of a Web-Head. Gibbs’ mother, Dusty Ross, still remembers her son running around the house with his web shooter, leaving behind a trail of silly string in his path.

“When I say he liked Spiderman, I’m talking obsessive,” Ross said. “He’d be running around shooting webs. He watched all the movies and had Spiderman everything in his room. He had a Spiderman bank, and even to this day, he has a Spiderman flag hanging up in his room back home. When we came to Alabama, we bought him a Spiderman mask to go on display in his room.”

Before becoming the nation’s most feared pass rusher, Will Anderson Jr. appeared destined for a much more peaceful profession.

Bible study sessions with his grandmother mixed with a family that isn’t shy to break out in song saw the Alabama outside linebacker develop into somewhat of a miniature minister during his early years. Give him a fireplace and an audience and Anderson was ready to preach.

One of his first sermons came in 2006 at the age of 5 when his family was visiting a friend’s new house. Noticing an extended mantel in the living room, Anderson saw his stage and seized his opportunity.

“We’re sitting there talking, and all of a sudden Will just gets up,” his mother Tereon recalled. “He got fully into it like, ‘Praise the Lord. Come on everybody. God said you’ve got to be good.’ My friend was looking at me, and I was just like ‘I’m sorry, I don’t know what it is about people’s fireplaces that brings that out in him.’ I guess he just saw that as his place to preach.”

Will never told his parents that he wanted to be a preacher, but there were certainly moments that made them wonder.

“When we put him in football, all the other kids would be practicing, and Will would be out there in the grass singing gospel songs,” Tereon said. “We were like, ‘What have we done?’ Then, of course, as he started growing, he got in tune to what he was doing. But that first year of football, he was out there singing.”

As for how he stacks up as a singer? His family agrees he made the right choice to pursue a career in football.

“I mean he might could carry a little tune,” Tereon said with a laugh, “but that’s about it.”

Halloween of 2006 was a big one for Brian Branch. Then 5 years old, the current Alabama defensive back was finally big enough to tag along with his older siblings instead of trick-or-treating with his mother. Decked out in a pirate costume, he was pumped to hit the neighborhood in search of candy with all the older kids.

“He was so excited,” Branch’s mother, Sharon said. “He kept telling me, ‘I’m so excited I get to go without you, mom.’”

Finally able to stay at home, Sharon figured she’d order some pizza so that her children would have something to eat while she sorted through their candy later that night. Shortly after Brian and his siblings left the house, she answered the door for the delivery man and sat down ready to greet trick-or-treaters.

Moments later, she heard a familiar tap at the door. There stood Brian with just three pieces of candy in his bucket. Surprised to see her son, Sharon asked him if anything was wrong or if he needed to use the bathroom. Brian shook his head.

“No, I saw the pizza guy,” he said. “I want some pizza instead.”

Unlike most kids, Brian preferred actual food to candy, especially when it came to pepperoni pizza. Even back then the defensive back could pack away the groceries.

“His older brothers and sisters would accuse him of eating everything around the house at a young age,” Sharon said. “They called him fatty. He wasn’t fat, but they would call him that because they’d be upset with him eating up all the food.”

It wasn’t just pizza either. Unlike most 5-year-olds, Brian wasn’t a picky eater. From quiche to casseroles, he gave it a try. Most of the time, his plate was cleaned.

“Even at 3 years old, he wanted foods that adults were eating,” Sharon said. “He ate foods that most kids were turning their noses up at. The rest of my kids would try to hide food by putting it in their napkins, but Brian ate everything. His brothers and sisters would say, ‘Brian, did you like that?’ He’d be like ‘Yeah, it’s good to me.’”

Rolling up to her son’s after-school program in 2006, Julie Young was met by a frowning face. Then 5 years old, Alabama quarterback Bryce Young approached his mom in a sulking manner, prompting her to ask him what was wrong.

“They won’t let me play football,” Bryce said. “They think I’m too young. They don’t know I can play.”

Looking to learn more about the situation, Julie went up to the woman in charge who explained that a group of second, third and fourth graders generally played two-hand touch.

“If you could talk to them and see if they can include Bryce a little bit, that would be great,” Julie asked. “He kinda understands football, and it would mean a lot to him.”

The next day Julie arrived to find her son in a much better mood.

“They let me play,” Bryce said as a grin swept across his face, “and I knew what I was doing."

Within a month, Bryce was rolling with the bigger kids on a regular basis, even filling in at quarterback at times.

“I remember one time he was invited to a birthday party and it was somebody in the third grade,” Julie said. “I’m like he’s in kindergarten and we’re going to a third-grade party at a bowling alley. It was just very funny because everybody was older than him.”

At age 5, Bryce was already shooting hoops on a 10-foot rim, throwing the ball over his head with two hands. Despite being undersized, he outraced older neighborhood kids, constantly earning his place on the playground.

“He’s always had this intrinsic thing that makes him want to get better at something and challenge himself,” Julie said. “He always wanted to prove he can play with anyone.”

D.J. Dale has never been small. The 6-foot-3, 300-pound defensive lineman weighed 10 pounds at birth and was already wearing a size 3T shirt by the age of 1. Naturally, when his mother signed him up for football at the age of 6 in 2006, his coaches lined him up in the trenches.

He would have been fine with that had he been able to play on his desired side of the ball. However, instead of working at his current position of defensive tackle, he spent his first few games begrudgingly serving on the offensive line.

“One day DJ gets in the car all mad,” his mother Kershtan Hasberry said. “I ask him what’s wrong and he says ‘I’m tired of Coach Luke. If he tries to put me on the offensive line one more time, I’m going to leave the hole wide open.’”

Hasberry originally signed Dale up for football to help toughen him up after he spent his early years in leg braces. Then a single mom who didn’t follow the sport, she didn’t understand what her son was talking about in the car that day. Fortunately for everyone involved, she didn’t have to find out as Dale was soon moved to his destined position on the defensive line. That’s worked out just fine for him and Alabama over the past four years.

Athletics run deep in the Randolph family. The younger brother of former Alabama basketball standout Levi Randolph Jr. and former Alabama A&M tight end Roderick Randolph, Kendall Randolph spent his childhood taking part in practically every sport available.

That’s what made 2006 so challenging.

Then eight years old, Kendall underwent a massive growth spurt that saw him sprout up 3-4 inches while adding 30-40 pounds. The rapid transformation put a strain on the growth plate in his foot, causing him to sit out from sports until the following spring.

“It was really tough on him,” Kendall’s father Levi Sr. said. “At that time, Kendall was the baby. Having two older brothers, three years apart, everything in the house was competition. So him not being able to play sports until that following spring, it was pretty traumatic for him.”

During Kendall’s time on the sideline, his father consoled him by preaching patience and reminding him, “You’re not going pro tomorrow. You’ve got time to rest.” The offensive lineman was able to carry over that piece of his advice into his Alabama career, waiting his turn while bouncing around several positions for the Crimson Tide.

“I think he learned patience early,” Levi Sr. said. “Just that portion of his made him patient and allowed him to weather any storm he faces.”

It’s no surprise Emil Ekiyor Jr. gravitated toward Nick Saban’s program. Like his head coach, the Alabama offensive lineman has always been a bit of a perfectionist.

That’s been clear since his second-grade year when he portrayed Thurgood Marshall in his school’s African American wax museum. The assignment required Ekiyor to research Marshall and memorize a speech about his impact on American history.

While Ekiyor was able to commit most of his speech to memory, he grew increasingly frustrated at his ability to master it to his liking as his presentation date drew closer. Larnell Burks-Bagley, the CEO of Building Blocks Academy, remembers reassuring Ekiyor at the time, telling him that he would be fine. However, the young perfectionist wasn’t having it.

“His response was, ‘You don’t understand,’” Burks-Bagley recalled. “He said that Thurgood Marshall was one of our greatest leaders, and what he did for African American leaders was outstanding, so he felt like it was his responsibility to do the very best he could do in order to present him.”

Burks-Bagley calls Ekiyor one of Building Blocks Academy’s biggest success stories. Seeing him excel at the same level at Alabama has hardly been a surprise.

“He was the type of student who would always set high goals for himself and achieve them,” Burks-Bagley said. “He was serious about a lot of things that he did, especially academics and education. He would go beyond what our expectations were for him. I think what he did then has enabled him to be what he is now.”