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If you are a current Tennessee undergraduate student of typical age, you are probably too young to remember the last time your school’s football team defeated Alabama. You keep hearing tales of this being a great and competitive rivalry, but you’d like to see proof.
It didn’t come Saturday, and that sent Volunteers fans, already reeling from criticism after last week’s junk-throwing debacle against Ole Miss, into a tailspin again as the Crimson Tide knocked off the Vols for the 15th time in a row:
#sadSECfans #BAMAvsTENN pic.twitter.com/Iwwp5Kf1QV
— sadSECfans (@sadSECfans) October 24, 2021
Tennessee led for a while in the first half and hung in for a long time but sent their fans home sad again:
#sadSECfans #BAMAvsTENN pic.twitter.com/tbvzcyXWg8
— sadSECfans (@sadSECfans) October 24, 2021
Also, one Vols fans brought mustard, a callback to one of the many objects that spectators chucked 0nto the field last week in Knoxville. As far as we know, the bottle stayed in the stands this time:
Y’all… I see mustard pic.twitter.com/bhAifLqgZ8
— Alabama Outsider (@AlabamaOutsider) October 23, 2021
The habit of the winners lighting victory cigars in this rivalry game continued among Bama fans (somewhere, Red Auerbach is smiling):
— no context college football (@nocontextcfb) October 24, 2021
South Carolina’s game against Texas A&M went great for Gamecocks fans if they look at the boxscore selectively. Very selectively (the Aggies actually won 44-14):
South Carolina obliterates Texas A&M, 14-3. pic.twitter.com/t3idTWXh6k
— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) October 24, 2021
The A&M game was such a blowout that this image aired late in the game:
Texas A&M v. SCar is showing the post game presser location during a commercial break. There are 8 minutes left. pic.twitter.com/xGbAgQOcJP
— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) October 24, 2021
We always vow not to pick on Vanderbilt in this space (more often than not we even keep our word), but it’s worth remembering that there is one sport at which the Commodores are not only good, they’re good enough to draw genuine ire from opposing fans:
There are two people in this world: pic.twitter.com/Modegktvfh
— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) October 23, 2021
Clemson lost again on Saturday as Tigers fans continue to witness the toughest season they have experienced in quite a while. Would it shock you to learn that they might be having a hard time finding sympathy?
Clemson fans: it's just so hard staying invested in a team this horrible, yknow?
FSU fans: pic.twitter.com/5wxrSS7pcw
— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) October 23, 2021
Indiana was routed at home by Ohio State, and to make it worse it was raining:
— no context college football (@nocontextcfb) October 24, 2021
Also in the Big Ten, Illinois stunned Penn State in a 9-overtime game, the record for most OTs. Our screens were just not built for such things:
This Penn St/Illinois box score is fun @nocontextcfb pic.twitter.com/oCqmbiEvOk
— sadSECfans (@sadSECfans) October 23, 2021
Oklahoma came back to win against Kansas — wait, the Sooners had to rally from a halftime deficit to beat Kansas??? — in yet another game that made us wonder how this team remains unbeaten week in and week out. Seems like it’s stressful for Sooners fans, too:
@SurrenderCobra It is very early…. pic.twitter.com/Rq22GBNLvT
— MM (@matthew_maner) October 23, 2021
The situation led to some #SurrenderCobra sightings:
— Bryan Fischer (@BryanDFischer) October 23, 2021
Finally, UCLA gave us another Cobra when its bid to upset Oregon came up short:
— no context college football (@nocontextcfb) October 23, 2021
At least we had no major projectile-throwing incidents this week. Progress, right?
Longtime newspaper veteran Jim Tomlin is a copy editor and writer with SaturdayDownSouth.com.