KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Anyone who was in Neyland Stadium two years ago to see, hear and smell (to the limits of olfactory tolerance) Tennessee’s 52-49 upset of Alabama will count it among their most memorable experiences in sports.
I’m confident in speaking for everyone, even the most seasoned observers of stirring moments, on that. The emotional swings and dramatic thunderclaps of that game, leading to the Vols’ first win in this rivalry in 16 years and their first win ever over Nick Saban, blended into a postgame scene of jubilation and cigar smoke. Dejection and anger. Fans pouring onto the field and UT players not wanting to leave it. Goal posts down and goal posts floating.
It looked somewhat the same Saturday after No. 11 Tennessee came back for a 24-17 win over Kalen DeBoer’s No. 7 Crimson Tide, scoring all 24 in the second half. It certainly smelled the same. (Can the Tennessee athletic department spring for and distribute tobacco products of less pungency in advance of the next meeting?) But it wasn’t the same. Because beating Alabama simply isn’t the same.
Welcome to life with everyone else, Crimson Tide fans. You’re still flying first class, of course. But you’re no longer getting your own recliner in the cockpit, sampling meals before they’re served while enjoying bottomless mimosas. You’re just another good college football program.
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And right now that post-Saban program is represented by a team that is so undisciplined, it’s playing below it’s talent level. Saban, the greatest college football coach of all time, still had his share of disappointments, of upset losses and sloppy performances. But underachieving in the Saban era was not winning a national championship.
The DeBoer era is on the verge of debuting with some postseason bowl game while the teams that matter in 2024 participate in the first 12-team College Football Playoff.
Kalen DeBoer is now 0-2 against the state of Tennessee in his first season at Alabama. pic.twitter.com/AznKi3txO9
— Ben McKee (@benmckee14) October 20, 2024
My understanding was that Alabama, Georgia and Ohio State would never miss another postseason tournament once it expanded to this point. As we pass the halfway point of the season, Indiana is in better position to make the Playoff than Alabama.
That speaks as well to how gloriously wild this first 12-team season has been, of course, and perhaps to a higher level of parity in the sport. We’ve got Northern Illinois beating Notre Dame and those Hoosiers crushing Nebraska by 49 points to get to 7-0. We’ve got defending national champion Michigan struggling to complete a pass and perhaps to make a bowl game, while Army and Navy look like natty contenders.
We’ve got Vanderbilt beating Alabama, without the dozen or so improbable bounces such a result would have required for most of the past century.
We still have a clear leader for 2024 game of the year, too: Alabama 41, Georgia 34 on Sept. 29 in Tuscaloosa. That serves as a reminder of how good Alabama could and should be. Anyone who watched the first half of that game and had to make a prediction would have felt good about Jalen Milroe for the Heisman Trophy and Alabama for the national championship. Certainly for a top-four seed and a spot in the semis, at the least.
Making the Playoff? What kind of question is that?
Now it’s a huge one. Alabama can still do it. A trip to LSU is the toughest remaining game on the schedule. The Georgia win will carry a lot of value and a road rout of Wisconsin keeps looking better. Also, Milroe is still the kind of player who can take a team on a streak, freshman receiver Ryan Williams is one of the most talented skill players in the game and DeBoer is an excellent football coach.
He just isn’t Saban — like it or not, the coach who follows Saban is going to be compared with Saban — and that’s becoming clearer by the week. Alabama was the dumb team Saturday. Again, Saban had his rough days and seasons. But how many times did we call a Saban team the dumb team?
Alabama’s game-losing moment provided quite a contrast to Alabama’s last trip to Knoxville. Early in that game, Alabama’s Mekiel Stewart tried to grab a punt that he thought touched a teammate, and Tennessee recovered for a huge early turnover. Saban’s ensuing meltdown was something like Linda Blair from “The Exorcist” but if she were a dragon from “Game of Thrones.”
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On Saturday, after Alabama (5-2, 2-2 SEC) had held Josh Heupel’s Vols (6-1, 3-1) scoreless in the first half, after the Crimson Tide had fought back twice in the second half to take the lead, after a crucial Alabama stop to get the ball back down 21-17, Milroe couldn’t get a pass completed to Kendrick Law over the middle on third-and-7.
Tennessee freshman Boo Carter, who was covering Law, gave him a little shove and had a lot to say to him, following Law as he walked back toward the huddle. Law couldn’t resist, turning and giving Carter a two-handed shove. Carter tried to get a shot back at Law and missed. Officials gave Law a 15-yard personal foul.
The right decision from the officials there would have been offsetting penalties. That would have been better than, essentially, ending Alabama’s hopes with that call. But the reaction usually gets the flag, and the teams that lack discipline are usually the ones that do the reacting in moments like that.
Law came to the sideline and stood there unbothered. It’s not that someone needed to go scream at him — those moments were some of Saban’s worst — but the contrast was obvious. And hard to ignore when Alabama had 14 penalties for 100 yards before that final killer.
“I trust K-Law, I trust him,” Milroe said of Law. “I appreciate him for his grind, his work ethic, who he is as a person. Of course, just an unfortunate situation with the down and distance and where we were on the field.”
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I still like the DeBoer hire for Alabama, though I thought his offense and his touch with quarterbacks might silence the “never follow a legend” soundtrack that usually accompanies endeavors like this. As it turns out, it’s the correct tune. And much more pleasing to the ear than the noise Alabama fans are going to make toward DeBoer this week.
“Get back after it and get to work,” DeBoer said of the response from here. “Do some soul searching, right? And look inward. … All I know is that you just go back to work. That’s all you can do.”
Alabama the DeBoer-led program will be fine, whether or not Alabama the 2024 team finds some fire, discipline and a winning streak to make the Playoff. Fine, just not in an elite category of its own.
Across Neyland Stadium late Saturday, with the stank smoke fading, the goal posts gone and the party on the field over, Heupel spoke at the home news conference about the win. Two years ago, his voice was hoarse from celebration and cracking with emotion after breaking through against Saban.
This time he was doing a lot of coughing, from said smoke, and answering questions about the Vols’ offensive struggles.
Josh Heupel disappearing into the crowd after the interview is legendary. The loudest, wildest environment I’ve ever seen. What a day on Rocky Top. https://t.co/98nap9LVKx
— Molly McGrath (@MollyAMcGrath) October 20, 2024
“Wins are wins in this league,” Heupel said. “Every Saturday, margins are tight.”
This was a huge win in a rivalry game to put Tennessee in a favorable position for a Playoff spot. But those are the words of a coach who knows his team must get better. And knows his program can sit in the same section as the one all other programs used to chase.
(Photo: Butch Dill / Getty Images)
