Alabama Football: The Vols are believing their long nightmare will end Saturday
By Ronald Evans
The days since Tennessee beat Alabama football will reach 4,382 on Saturday. The Vols, giddy about beating a bad Auburn team are talking a win over the Crimson Tide.
It was October 21, 2006, when Alabama football last lost to the Tennessee Vols. The 2006 Crimson Tide went into the game at 4-2 and fought hard in Knoxville. Despite a puny offense that could only muster 211 yards, the Crimson Tide led until 3:12 left in the fourth quarter.
Three Tennessee turnovers hampered the Vols. Neither team could get much on the ground. Jimmy Johns led Tide rushers with 37 yards. Arian Foster led the Vols with 34 yards. One of Foster’s yards was the winning touchdown. The final score was 16-13 Vols.
It was a bitter loss for Alabama football, its tenth in its last twelve tries against Tennessee, going back to 1995. The Vols have had little to cheer about since.
How different was the world in October 2006? Twitter had been launched just three months earlier. The iPhone had not yet been invented. And Phil Fulmer weighed a good 50 pounds less than he does today.
Only three of the then 12 SEC head coaches are still college football head coaches today. They are Urban Meyer, Mark Richt and Ed Orgeron. Almost all of the rest are out of coaching: Tommy Tuberville, Houston Nutt, Rich Brooks, Bobby Johnson, Sylvester Croom, Les Miles and the Vols former coach and now AD, Phat Phil Fulmer. Mike Shula is coaching in the NFL and Steve Spurrier will be coaching in the new spring, minor league.
In 2006, Nick Saban was making NFL players cry. Then Mal Moore summoned him to the most fertile terrain in college football. Fortunately for Alabama football fans, Miss Terry would not let Nick say no.
Life has been hell for the Volunteers ever since. In the decade prior to 2006, SEC teams won four national championships. One of them, in 1998, was earned by Tennessee. In the 12 seasons going back to 2006, SEC football teams have won nine national championships. Alabama football has won five of the nine.
Since that 2006 victory over the Crimson Tide, the Volunteers have been mostly irrelevant. The Tennessee overall record from 2007-2017 is 74-70.
It is sweet irony a man who tried his best to destroy Alabama football through the NCAA, has suffered so much for his mendacity. Once a generally respected football coach, Phil Fulmer has become a large buffoon. He shouted crass comments about the state of Alabama on Saturday, in the Auburn, post-game locker room.
As he did, his coach and Saban protegé, Alabama born and bred, Jeremy Pruitt looked on. Jeremy Pruitt may not have learned what asparagus was until an adult, but he has class his boss will never possess.
Fulmer’s and Pruitt’s team will lose again on Saturday. One man will deserve it, the other won’t. And Crimson Tide fans will continue to count the days for another year.
The post linked above is from last fall. It details some of Fulmer’s past shenanigans and other affronts to Alabama football fans.