The week inched along, but we’re finally ready for the Crimson Tide and the Volunteers. Sometimes, you’ve got to set aside the trash talk and the matchups and schemes, and instead take a look at the big picture of this rivalry. That’s where we come in.

Here’s nine things you need to know about Bama versus UT.

1. The modern rivalry more or less begins with General Neyland at Tennessee. Alabama and UT had played yearly from 1903 to 1914, but then left off playing for 14 seasons. When the rivalry stopped, Alabama led 8-2-1, with all eight wins being shutouts. Neyland began coaching at Tennessee in 1926, and two years later, the two teams began playing again, and the Third Saturday in October game had become a tradition in 1939. Neyland ended up going 12-6-2 against Alabama, and the rivalry had drawn even when he finished coaching in 1952.

2. The rivalry gained further fuel because Bear Bryant struggled with Tennessee when he was coaching at Kentucky. Despite the fact that Bryant led the Wildcats to success that they have never again equaled, he won just once (his final try) in eight tries against Tennessee, including a painful 7-0 loss in 1950, which probably kept Kentucky from being the universally acknowledged champions of college football that season. Tennessee beat Bryant in his first Alabama-UT matchup in 1958, tied the Tide in 1959 and beat them again in 1960. At that point, with one win in eleven matchups with Tennessee, Bryant’s luck finally shifted. He ended up with a 16-7-2 record against the Vols while at Alabama.

3. The most points scored in an Alabama-UT game? With a little help from the NCAA, that’s 2003, when UT pulled out a quintuple-overtime 51-43 win over Alabama. Casey Clausen and Brodie Croyle traded scores in that 94-point contest with Clausen getting the last word. UT receiver James Banks caught two touchdowns and rushed for another in that game. The game was tied 20-20 at the end of regulation, but again, thanks to the overtime rules, it ends up looking like a shootout.

4. There were seven ties in the history of the series, with the last coming in 1993, just three seasons before the NCAA essentially outlawed the tie by adopting rules providing for overtime play. Tennessee led the Tide 17-9 in the fourth quarter, but after Jay Barker led a touchdown drive and receiver David Palmer ran the ensuing 2-point conversion into the end zone, Tennessee ran out the last few seconds of the game and took the tie.

5. Top performances from the rivalry for the Tide include Gary Hollingsworth passing for 379 yards for the Tide in a 47-30 victory in 1989 (fifth-most passing yards in a single game in school history), Bobby Humphrey’s 217 rushing yards in 1986’s 56-28 win over Tennessee, and Amari Cooper, who set his own school record with 224 receiving yards in a 34-20 win against Tennessee two seasons ago(he eventually matched his own mark with 224 yards vs. Auburn later that season).

6. The honor roll of UT history in the Third Saturday in October features Jeff Francis’ 358 passing yards against the Tide in 1987 in a 41-22 loss. Francis and Peyton Manning each twice passed for 300 yards against Bama. Other notable performances include Travis Stephens’ 162 rushing yards in a 35-24 win back in 2001, and Anthony Miller’s 156 receiving yards in a 56-28 loss in 1986. Honorable mention goes to UT’s Johnny Majors, who beat Alabama four times as a coach and also rushed for 117 yards against the Tide in 1955 in a 20-0 win.

7. Despite the quasi-official nickname of the rivalry as the Third Saturday in October, it isn’t always played then. In the modern era, once in 1995, the two teams played on the SECOND Saturday in October. UT rolled 41-14 as Peyton Manning hit Joey Kent with an 80-yard score on the first UT play of the game. Fourteen more times, the teams ended up playing on the FOURTH Saturday in October, including last year’s 19-14 Alabama win on October 24th. The game has been played as late as October 26th in the modern era, most recently in 2013.

8. From 1932 to 1997, Alabama played its home half of the rivalry at Legion Field in Birmingham instead of at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa. Alabama was 21-14-6 in the games played at Birmingham. The last game in Birmingham was a 38-21 Tennessee win on October 18, 1997.

9. In the 24 years of the SEC Championship Game, the winner of the Third Saturday in October has gone on to win the SEC title seven times. Once in 1999, the loser of the game went on to win the title (Alabama lost to UT 21-7 but beat Florida for the SEC title 34-7).

Joe Cox

Joe Cox is a columnist for Saturday Down South. He has also written or assisted in writing five books, and his most recent, Almost Perfect (a study of baseball pitchers’ near-miss attempts at perfect games), is available on Amazon or at many local bookstores.