There was a Time when the Third Saturday in October was the Game of the Week
Posted on October 18, 2011 by Jacob Bunn
Saturday, the Alabama/Tennessee rivalry, also known as the Third Saturday in October, will make history. It will be the first time the two will play a game started at night in Bryant-Denny Stadium. Why is this significant? Usually, a night start in the SEC means the game has not been picked up by CBS, which has the first television pick of the week. In this case, Tennessee will be playing Alabama in Tuscaloosa on ESPN2 starting at 6:15 P.M. CT. Last year, the game was televised by ESPN and began at a similar time, so this is the second straight year that the suits who decide the weekly television schedule have not thought Alabama/Tennessee was the game of the week.
This will be the ninety-third meeting between the two rivals since the first meeting in 1901. Over the years, this game became the most important regular season game year-in and year-out. Before the SEC Championship Game was instituted, this game had a direct impact on which team won the conference championship many times.
Lately, though, the game has become uninteresting nationally and somewhat unwatchable. In 2009, Lane Kiffin brought a decent Tennessee team into Tuscaloosa and forced eventual national champion Alabama to block a field goal to escape victoriously. With that exception, the last several years have been blowouts in favor of the Crimson Tide.
Until Alabama knocked off Tennessee in 2002, the Volunteers had a seven game winning streak on the Tide. Now, Alabama has a four game winning streak on the Vols. The end result is that this series has lost its nature of being one of the most competitive annual rivalries in the nation. Part of the reason for that is Alabama’s success as of late. But, perhaps the biggest reason for one-sidedness of the rivalry is Tennessee’s implosion the last few years.
Phillip Fulmer left the Tennessee program in 2008 after seventeen years as the head coach in Knoxville. He left a once proud, nationally powerful program in shambles. Tennessee then made a huge mistake by hiring Lane Kiffin as head coach. The football program was already under NCAA scrutiny, but when Kiffin arrived, he made the situation worse with his public antics and multiple recruiting violations. And after one year, Kiffin abandoned Tennessee to become the head coach at the University of Southern California.
Faced with impending sanctions from the NCAA and a dwindling amount of talent on the Volunteer football team, the Tennessee administration decided to hire the son of legendary Georgia coach Vince Dooley.
Since his arrival in Knoxville, Derek Dooley has an overall record of 9-10. Last season, his team clinched a bowl berth because of wins down the stretch of the season over some of the SEC’s annual bottom feeders. This year, if his team does not defeat Alabama, it will need to knock off Vanderbilt, South Carolina, or Arkansas in order to have enough wins to qualify for a bowl. That is, of course, assuming it does not drop one to Middle Tennessee State or Kentucky.
Plagued by the injury to starting quarterback Tyler Bray, this could be a pivotal game for Tennessee’s confidence. It could also be a meaningful game for Dooley’s tenure in Knoxville. He needs a signature win, and Alabama would be more than that. Realistically, I don’t think the Volunteers have much of a chance of coming out on top. But if they can keep it close (within fourteen or so points) going into the fourth quarter, I think it would be a confidence builder.
It seems like the same things that we are saying this year about this game were said before last year’s contest. At some point, things have to change. Tennessee is second in the SEC in terms of all-time winning percentage, but lately wins have come at a premium.
The Volunteers are more than likely going to take back-to-back beat downs from LSU and Alabama. Tennessee needs to get back to the days when it was not only competitive with those schools, but consistently beat them as well. If Dooley cannot do it, then maybe someone else can. But, Tennessee needs to be relevant again in college football.
This year’s version of the Third Saturday in October will feature an Alabama team that is on top of college football’s mountain and a Tennessee team that is traveling in depths it has not seen in years. Bryant-Denny Stadium will be filled with Alabama fans as always Saturday night to watch the game, and I am sure that Volunteer fans will watch the game (at least…the beginning). There was a time, though, when it was a contest that college football fans across the nation simply did not want to miss.
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Email Jacob at jacob@bunnsports.com and follow him on Twitter at @JacobBunn
