KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A parade of fans came with fist bumps and selfie requests for athletic director Danny White. One Tennessee support staffer walked into the tunnel with a cigar in his hand and tears in his eyes.
Numerous fans dug up grass — especially the most valuable turf underneath the Power T at midfield and the orange checkerboards in the end zone — to take home as a souvenir. Some stuffed patches in their pockets.
“Hey, they got cigars in there!” a couple of players yelled as they pointed into the locker room and jogged to find them after No. 11 Tennessee beat No. 7 Alabama 24-17.
One fan stopped as soon as he got on the field and FaceTimed his dad. Another fan, dressed in checkerboard overalls, hopped over the wall and landed with both feet on the Neyland Stadium grass. One strap of his overalls had been unbuckled and he had a fresh cigar burn on his shoulder.
“We’re baaaaaaaaaaack!” he yelled.
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The fans are back on the field to smoke another round of cigars after beating Alabama, two years after snapping a 15-game losing streak to their rivals. Tennessee’s Playoff hopes were badly bruised after a road loss to Arkansas earlier this month but are buoyed by a win against a top-10 opponent.
In 2022, Tennessee reached No. 1 in the initial College Football Playoff selection committee ranking before losses to South Carolina and Georgia kept the Vols out of the field. Two years later, Josh Heupel’s team looks capable of assuring that season was not a one-hit wonder on Rocky Top.
And the Vols’ offense, after another disastrous first half, managed to win another game anyway, despite being held scoreless in the first halves of three consecutive games for the first time since John F. Kennedy was president.
“This program, when we walk on the field, we feel like we’re good enough to win every Saturday,” Heupel said.
Tennessee has won two in a row vs. Alabama at Neyland Stadium. (Butch Dill / Getty Images)
For much of the past two decades, that wasn’t the case — especially against Alabama. From 2007 until that night two seasons ago, Alabama beat Tennessee by fewer than 20 points just three times. It beat the Vols by more than 30 points eight times.
Alabama may no longer be The Standard in college football, but it’s a standard. And Tennessee endured another nightmare first half, played poorly and won anyway against a chief rival ranked in the top 10. Nothing may be a surer sign of progress in the program.
And in the era of the expanded 12-team Playoff, a night like Saturday makes Tennessee’s road to a spot in the bracket a lot wider and diminishes the impact of a shocking loss like the one to Arkansas. No win can be counted ahead of time in a season like this, but the Vols have just two teams with winning records remaining on their schedule: Georgia and Vanderbilt.
“Our guys are aware. I wish I could put blinders on them,” Heupel said. “There’s still some things on defense. Man, there’s a lot more things on offense we have to clean up. Good teams get better. And this team has to continue to get better.”
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The good news for Tennessee’s offensive struggles is Saturday’s halftime goose egg looked a lot more fluky than when it had 51 total yards in the first half against Arkansas and just over 100 yards against Florida. Tennessee reached Alabama territory on four first-half drives and crossed into the red zone twice, but it settled for two missed field goals, the first fumble of Dylan Sampson’s career and an interception on a pass quarterback Nico Iamaleava tried to throw away.
Iamaleava missed multiple open receivers that could have gotten Tennessee’s quick-strike offense back on track with haymaker touchdowns, but instead the Vols had 143 yards of offense at half and trailed 7-0.
“I missed the shot to score,” Iamaleava said. “If I hit that, it gets our offense flowing and we’re feeling a whole different type of way. I gotta be better on that. But I’m proud of the way we bounced back.”
Tennessee ended up out-gaining Alabama 408 to 314 after a 24-point second half, and Sampson finished the game with 139 rushing yards and two touchdowns.
“Wins are wins in this league. Margins are tight,” Heupel said. “It wasn’t pretty early — 102,000 saw it. Everybody on TV. We did too. But it’s not that far off. That’s why you need to appreciate it when it’s going really well.”
Defense is the Vols’ most consistent force. The Vols hassled and harassed Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe between the whistles and the sold-out crowd handled the rest, especially when the Crimson Tide needed a touchdown late to flip the result.
“It was so loud on the last couple drives they couldn’t get their pass protection set,” linebacker Arion Carter said.
The Vols entered the night second nationally in defensive yards per play and forced an astounding 12 quarterback hurries with three sacks, picking off Milroe twice and adding six more tackles for loss.
Tennessee is flawed. But watch a full day of college football: So is everyone else.
Tennessee’s sudden, sharp offensive decline has been one of the season’s most curious developments, but its Playoff hopes are still very much alive in spite of them. And every game Iamaleava, a first-year starter, plays will bring more experience for the former five-star prospect who returned to the game after a back injury sidelined him for a play in the first half.
The Vols didn’t play well on Saturday. They wrote another unforgettable chapter in one of the SEC’s longest-running rivalries anyway.
Near the end of Heupel’s time with reporters after the game, he found himself in a coughing fit and paused taking questions. It was the cigar, he said.
“I’ll go to battle with these guys any day,” Heupel said. “Another great night on Rocky Top.”
(Top photo: Bryan Lynn / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
