HURRICANE MILLS, Tenn. (WKRN) — On a bright October afternoon, it looks like another steady harvest season in rural Humphreys County. Up close, it tells a different story.

Eric Mayberry farms more than 1,000 acres on the land his family has worked for generations. He’s also president of the Tennessee Farm Bureau Federation, which is the largest in the nation.

You can say he knows the risks of farming better than most.

“It’s a gamble,” Mayberry said. “You put a seed in the ground and hope Mother Nature cooperates and that there’ll be a price high enough to make it worth it. You’ve got to have a leap of faith.”

This year, that leap feels longer.

Mayberry said he’s seeing record corn yields — more than 200 bushels an acre — but even that’s not enough to break even.

“Any other time that would be a somewhat joyous situation,” he said. “But it’s not really this year for us because we have so much money invested in this crop-per-acre that we’re going to break even or maybe even lose money on this farm.”

Across Tennessee, farmers are confronting the same reality: input costs that remain far above pre-pandemic levels and grain prices that continue to slide. Global demand for American crops has softened, and exports have slowed, leaving many with less income heading into winter.

“That’s just hard to absorb,” Mayberry said. “We pay full retail for our inputs and then we’re price-takers at the end of the day.”

He said this is his third year in this exact situation. Only this time, it’s worse.

It’s not just a Tennessee problem. Inflation, trade tensions and now a government shutdown have squeezed producers across the country.

“Generally speaking, if you say tariff to a farmer, he’ll start shaking his head,” Mayberry said. “It is not good in the short term. It may be good in the long term.”

According to the Tennessee Farm Bureau, the state’s agriculture industry has lost an estimated $430 million this year alone and nearly $730 million over the last two years. Many farmers, Mayberry said, are holding off on buying new equipment or delaying repairs.

Still, despite the numbers and the worry, Mayberry isn’t giving up.

“I get frustrated with the political systems sometimes, but if you look around the world at some countries and the things they have to deal with, we’re still very fortunate to be Americans,” he said. “And I sure love being an American farmer.”

There are a ton of different match-ups on the field that could determine the outcome of Saturday’s monster clash between No. 11 Tennessee and No. 6 Alabama, but there’s little doubt which one is the biggest concern for most Vol fans. Can the Vols’ maligned secondary slow down Alabama’s passing attack and Ty Simpson, maybe the hottest quarterback in the SEC.

It’s Alabama-Tennessee week, so highlights of Terrence Cody’s “Rocky Block” blocked field goal in 2009 are sure to be prevalent on various college football highlight shows.

Cody sees them, too. Sixteen years after his career-defining moment in the 2009 Alabama-Tennessee game, Cody was a guest this week on AL.com’s “Beat Everyone” podcast with Ben Flanagan.

“I actually do look forward to it,” Cody said of Alabama-Tennessee week. “One of the reasons, because every year they play the highlight. So I see myself on TV once again. I ain’t seen myself playing on TV in quite a bit of years. always brings back great memories to see that highlight and to see everybody still remembers it.”

The blocked field goal was actually the second for Cody in that game, which Alabama won 12-10 to preserve its run to its first national championship in 17 years. The 6-foot-4, 350-something-pound defensive tackle blocked a 43-yard field goal attempt by Tennessee’s Daniel Lincoln early in the fourth quarter, then repeated the feat on a 44-yard attempt on the game’s final play.

Cody came into that game at less than 100%, having sprained the AC joint in his left shoulder the previous week. Ironically, it was with that wounded arm that he blocked the field goal.

“We go out (on the field) and like the whole time in my head I’m just like, ‘I blocked one, you know, let’s get another one, let’s get another one,’” Cody recalled. “I hear the guys on the sideline, ‘TC, TC, go block another one. Block it again, block it again.’ And we call max block. And I just remember looking at Marcell (Dareus), I was like, ‘hey, like, we gotta go get this, man. We gotta go get this. Either you or me, we gotta go get this.’ And I remember lining up and for some reason, I just knew it.

“… . And as soon as the ball snapped, (we) literally just almost put the (snapper) on his back. And I I don’t remember if I felt (the ball) or anything. The only reason I knew I blocked it is because the crowd just went crazy.”

Immediately after blocking the field goal, Cody threw off his helmet and ran down the field. He said it was an emotional day for him, coming on the anniversary of the death of his father 11 years before.

Cody came to Alabama from Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, and was an All-American for the Crimson Tide in both 2008 and 2009. However, being a Florida native, he said he didn’t understand the nature of the Alabama-Tennessee rivalry until he got to Tuscaloosa.

“I didn’t know much about the rivalry and stuff,” said Cody, who played five seasons with the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens and is now defensive line coach at Southwest Mississippi Community College. “I didn’t know much about it until I started paying attention on campus and seeing how everybody acted that week. And it’s a lot of hate. You’d think the Auburn rivalry, there’s a lot of hate, but this one, I think there is more hate in this rivalry than it is in the Auburn rivalry.

“And that whole week, it was like guys were just on edge. People were practicing pissed off. That’s how we approached the game, even though we were beat up going to that game. But we knew we had a mission that week and we just had to go out and execute. And we executed more than they did.

“Cody was already a celebrity in college football circles before the Tennessee game, earning the name “Mount Cody” for his massive size and ability to stuff opposing running games. But the “Rocky Block” took his fame to another level, eventually resulting in the play being immortalized in a Daniel Moore painting.

But despite his crucial performance in the win, Cody didn’t get to partake in an Alabama football tradition following the 2009 Tennessee game. He had so many media interview obligations in the immediate aftermath, that he missed out on the traditional victory cigar.

“So I get into the locker room, and there’s probably about 12, maybe 15 guys in the locker room still,” Cody said. “Everybody else is gone. And … trainers, they’re helping me take my shoulder pads, my jersey, all that stuff off. They wrap me up with some ice. So I’m getting wrapped up, and I’m seeing guys with cigars and stuff.

“So I’m like, ‘where mine’s at?’ He was like, ‘it should be in your locker.’ So I go to my locker, there’s nothing in there. And I’m like, ‘so the guy who wins the game don’t get a cigar? What are we doing? What’s going on?

“I wasn’t gonna smoke it. It was gonna be a memorabilia thing. So I’m looking around. I’m looking at guys smoking cigars, and they’ve got a couple extra cigars stuffed in their pocket. And I’m just like, ‘so F-me, huh?’ So I didn’t get a cigar for that game.”

You can watch the entire interview with Terrence Cody by clicking the link at the top of this post. You can watch other “Beat Everyone” episodes by going the podcast’s YouTube homepage.