Tennessee football will be a big underdog against the Crimson Tide Saturday. But the lead-up to the game is eerily similar to 1982, when the Volunteers won.
You may think this is crazy. But there is precedence for Tennessee football to pull off an upset for the ages on Saturday when the No. 1 ranked Alabama Crimson Tide head to Knoxville. It just requires going back 36 years.
In 1982, the Vols pulled off one of their biggest wins in school history by topping the Tide 35-28. It ended a long losing streak, was a huge upset, and gave the team newfound momentum after a horrendous start to the year.
As crazy as it is, the lead-up to that game is almost identical to the lead-up to this one. Tennessee’s losing streak to Alabama is the same amount of games as it was then, the Tide have the same amount of hype under a living legend as they did then, and the Vols stumbled into this game almost the exact same way they did back in 1982.
Let’s talk about the losing streak. Alabama was on an 11-game winning streak over the Vols heading into Neyland Stadium in 1982, all orchestrated by Bear Bryant. After the series was tied in 1970, this put the Tide in control.
Heading into Saturday’s game, Alabama is once again currently on an 11-game winning streak over the Vols heading into Neyland Stadium, all orchestrated by Nick Saban this time. And they have never won 12 straight in the series. Nobody has against Tennessee football. Even the Florida Gators had their streak stopped at 11. The Vanderbilt Commodores in the early period went 12 games without a loss and won 11 of them, but a tie in there broke up the streak.
What about the teams’ situations heading into this game? Bear Bryant’s final team at Alabama was undefeated. At 5-0, they had just come off a dominating 42-21 win over the No. 3 ranked Penn State Nittany Lions. The win was enough to suggest that this was one of the greatest Alabama teams.
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Well, this year, Alabama is 7-0 and looking like the greatest team ever with the way they are blowing out everybody. They don’t have that Penn State win on their resume, but they have total and utter domination that we have never seen before in this sport.
Meanwhile, the Tide were heading into Knoxville in 1982 to face a Tennessee football team that had started the year 2-2 with a bad loss at home to the Duke Blue Devils and a road loss to the Auburn Tigers. But a huge road game against a Top 25 team changed everything. The Vols tied the No. 18 ranked LSU Tigers on Oct. 9, and that tie gave them a huge confidence boost a week ahead of the Alabama game. That boost was what they needed to pull off the huge upset.
Tennessee football hosts the Alabama Crimson Tide in a similar situation. They had a bad 2-3 start. But a road game against another ranked SEC team, this time the Auburn Tigers, has given them a huge confidence boost the week ahead of the Alabama game. This time, the Vols won the game, 30-24. Now, they’re coming back home and hoping to carry that confidence over.
So just like 1982, Tennessee faces Alabama this year at home amidst 11-game losing streak. Just like 1982, they are facing an undefeated Alabama team under a legendary coach that appears to be one of the greatest ever. And just like 1982, they are facing them a week after a very successful road game against a ranked SEC team that gave them a huge confidence boost after a rough start to the season.
Considering all of this, well, maybe, just maybe, the signs point to a Tennessee football upset. Or, since Alabama stumbled to 8-4 back in 1982, starting with that loss, maybe the Tide were just overrated then. Nobody believes that about them this year, so that’s one similarity the Vols do not get to enjoy.