By Kevin Wilkerson, College Football Blogger
With 16 wins in the last 17 gmes – including 15 in a row – many of the media covering college football and the SEC in particular, have been asking in articles and on TV interviews if the Alabama-Tennessee rivalry is still, well, a rivalry.
To them, one team’s dominance on the field relegates it to just another game.
But unlike those media members and outlets, PubClub.com goes beyond what happens on the field and talks to the people. That’s how you can best get the pulse of the series. We were in Tuscaloosa for the Third Saturday In October and interviewed several fans for our live TV show, PubClub LIVE, and can tell you without question that to them, the Alabama-Tennessee rivalry still means something. You can see all these interviews on the PubClub LIVE Facebook page at the above link.
Need proof? I’ll give you something that’s 80 proof. During the week of the game – which they continue to refer to as “Tennessee Hate Week” and not just “Tennessee Week,” you can’t get any Jack Daniels. Not just that, but the bars post videos on their social media accounts of them smashing bottles of Jack Daniels.
During “Tennessee Hate Week” you can’t get Jack Daniels or any other Tennessee whiskey at any bar in Tuscaloosa. With the exception of one, Moe’s Original BBQ downtown; that was the only place we found in our research.
The older generation is still ticked at former UT Head Coach (and current AD) Phil Fulmer for trying to bring down the Alabama program by reporting apparently false information about Alabama’s recruiting in the early 2000s that helped get the Crimson Tide on probation.
The younger generation – the coeds in particular we talked with a lot of them for PubClub LIVE! – can’t stand the color orange. It’s not a good wardrobe look for one thing.
All age groups cherish the history of Alabama-Tennessee, dating back to its roots in the 1930s, to Paul “Bear” Bryant’s breaking out victory cigars when the team beat UT and to this day with Nick Saban’s modern dominance.
If the standard press would get out of the press box and into the bars and tailgate party like PubClub.com, then they would quickly reach the same conclusion that the Alabama-Tennessee rivalry is sill alive and well.
#collegefootball
#rolltide
#alabamafootball
#tennesseefootball
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