Alabama Football: Can Josh Heupel reignite this rivalry?

Alabama football has dominated this so-called rivalry.

If you look into the past, you can find plenty of great matchups between Alabama football and the Tennessee Volunteers. There have been entire eras where these powerhouses have duked it out in the SEC. However, that is no longer the case.

Tennessee has not beaten the Crimson Tide since 2006. If a Vols fan bought a cigar after their last win in preparation for their next one, it would be old enough to have a learner’s permit. Tennessee has rifled through coaches looking for someone to bring the Vols back, and the closest they got was a two-point loss in 2009.

Every SEC team has replaced their head coach at least once since Saban joined Alabama football. The Vols have tried everything from former NFL coaches to Saban assistants, but they have a new man in charge. Josh Heupel is in his first year as Tennessee’s head coach, and he will face the Tide for the first time in his tenure with the Vols.

If you look at this game, there is no doubt that Alabama is the heavy favorite. Tennessee has a quality offense, but they lack balance and discipline. There is a gap in talent, performance and coaching. Alabama football playing at home makes matters worse, so Tennessee’s odds of winning this game are miserable at best.

Still, Tennessee didn’t hire Heupel to win this year. They want a paradigm shift over the next few seasons. Can he do that?

Heupel is a great developer of talent. Despite coaching outside of the Power 5, UCF was always competitive. He’s also respected, which will help with recruiting. However, it will take more than that to beat the Tide. Jeremy Pruitt was a great recruiter, and that ended up being his downfall in Knoxville.

Heupel adopted a better situation at UCF than he did with Tennessee. Still, he’s done a solid job so far. The foundation is as strong as you could hope. We’ll just have to see if he can bring in quality recruiting classes and turn the potential into production.

Even if everything goes right, Heupel took the Tennessee job for a reason. He was not one of the top prospects for high-level opportunities. His ceiling will turn Tennessee into an occasionally ranked team that can maybe upset Alabama once or twice when the stars align. The likeliest scenario is that Alabama continues this streak until Saban inevitably retires, and it may continue past that as well.