Mark Ingram on Third Saturday in October: ‘I hate everything about Tennessee’
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Mark Ingram’s heart and soul are deeply embedded in Alabama‘s rivalry with Tennessee, and that rivalry known as the “Third Saturday in October” will once again be staged in its rightful place on the calendar this Saturday night in Tuscaloosa.
The game will kick off at 7:30 p.m. ET on ABC, and when it does, Ingram’s blood will be boiling just like it was when he was a star running back at Alabama from 2008-10. Ingram won a national championship with the Tide in 2009, and he captured the Heisman Trophy that same season, so Ingram has many fond memories of his years playing for Nick Saban.
What he isn’t particularly fond of? That would be the team that wears orange and hails from Knoxville, the 11th-ranked team in the country that will be trying to knock off Ingram’s 6th-ranked Tide in primetime. Ingram hosts The Triple Option college football podcast with Urban Meyer and Rob Stone, and near the end of Wednesday’s podcast, when it was time to discuss a particular SEC battle this Saturday night, Ingram wasn’t going to leave any words out.
Naturally, Ingram picked favored Alabama to prevail and get to 6-1 in the battle of 5-1 teams, but it was the way he picked his alma mater that was of particular intensity and entertainment.
“Guess what? A fourth straight top-20 matchup for Alabama. You want to talk about teams who are battle-tested?” said Ingram about his Tide, before unleashing on the Vols. “Man, you know, Tennessee coming to town, we hate Tenenssee. I hate everything about Tennessee. I hate the colors. I hate the checkered board (end zones). I hate the mascot. I’m not a dog guy. I just hate everything to do with Tennessee.”
So, yeah, Ingram is going with Alabama in this one, which shouldn’t shock anyone on either side of the fierce rivalry.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
