Tennessee faces biggest test yet Saturday as it hosts Alabama

KNOXVILLE, Tenn.—On Wednesday nights within the fall, Calhoun’s On The River is the place to be.

Nestled on the banks of the Tennessee River, the 34-year-old barbecue joint hosts the weekly radio call-in present for Tennessee’s soccer coach, whoever it might be. From 2009 to ’20, 4 completely different individuals got here right here every week throughout the season to speak in regards to the Volunteers. There was brash and daring Lane Kiffin, Derek Dooley and his nation twang, Butch Jones’s brick-inspired clichés and Jeremy Pruitt’s monotone musings.

However inside the restaurant, its partitions lined in Massive Orange sports activities memorabilia, there may be little to no point out of these coaches. There are not any photographs, signed footballs, no schedule posters or paintings. On this showcase of Vols soccer, entire characters are lacking. Video games are absent.

“Properly, there hasn’t been lots to cheer about, however the historical past is there and the custom is there,” says Corridor of Fame quarterback and Vols legend Peyton Manning. “So many followers have skilled the highs of UT soccer and know what it’s like and know what Neyland [Stadium] might be. The brand new era has by no means tasted that.”

Which is why this Saturday has by no means felt extra important.

Alabama and Tennessee will meet within the one hundred and fifth installment of their storied rivalry, however this conflict has each groups ranked inside the prime six for the primary time. Knoxville is in a state of jubilant disbelief—the Vols are 5–0, ranked No. 6 within the nation and solely a landing underdog towards coach Nick Saban and his third-ranked Crimson Tide (6–0).

“This would be the greatest weekend we’ve had since 1998,” says Kim Bumpas, president of the Go to Knoxville tourism group. “It’s like the times of previous.”

Days earlier than kickoff, bars are extending hours, eating places are doubling workers, and the 9,500 resort rooms within the county are all booked. The most cost effective ticket to the sport is $350, whereas midfield seats are going for $2,000 apiece. Greater than 150,000 persons are anticipated on campus. The college is putting in jumbo screens outdoors the stadium for many who can’t discover their approach into the 102,455-seat cathedral. Not removed from Calhoun’s, three dozen boats, most of them streaked in orange, had been already docked as a part of the Vol Navy’s well-known sailgating scene.

The matchup feels a lot greater than only one recreation. And there may be probably no higher barometer for Tennessee’s blazing begin than the vaunted Tide.

Are the Vols actually again?

Twenty months faraway from a 3–7 season that resulted in a 3rd consecutive coach being fired and an NCAA investigation, the Vols are roaring into this one with such momentum and fireplace energy that they’ve shocked each school soccer and their very own fan base—a passionate crew of people that’ve spent 13 years ready for this second. Tennessee, one among school soccer’s most iconic manufacturers, dwelling of the Energy T, Massive Orange and “Rocky Prime,” six nationwide championships and 13 SEC titles, fell into irrelevance.

“Recruits at this time don’t keep in mind the mid-90s or the 1985 Sugar Bowl. I keep in mind these groups. I used to be in New Orleans for that Sugar Bowl,” Manning says.

“That’s what we try to do,” he continues. “We try to ship a message to recruits: Tennessee is coming again.”

Close to the Tennessee athletics compound, autos drive alongside Johnny Majors Drive, cross Doug Dickey Corridor of Fame Plaza, flip onto Phillip Fulmer Approach and arrive at Common Robert Neyland Stadium.

One former UT athletic workers member refers back to the drive round campus as an “unhealthy obsession with the person.” Others would possibly describe it as an aggressive reminder of expectations.

“Irrespective of who you might be and the place you come from, you go to work on Neyland Drive and also you play your video games at Neyland Stadium,” says Dickey, now 90 and residing in Florida. “The person set a precedent, and all people is attempting to get again to that.”

In three completely different stints as coach, the final ending in 1952, Neyland received 4 of Tennessee’s six nationwide titles. Dickey received in ’67, and Fulmer received in ’98. A decade later, Fulmer was fired, and the jury continues to be break up over the controversial dismissal of one of many recreation’s best leaders. Regardless of enjoying within the SEC title recreation in 2007, UT completed ’08 at 5–7, its second dropping season in 4 years and fourth consecutive season with four-plus losses.

“I bought fired after enjoying for the [SEC] championship the earlier 12 months,” says Fulmer. “Individuals screw up typically. Individuals make dangerous selections.”

Tennessee soccer’s trajectory spiraled after Fulmer’s dismissal. From his final season in 2008 to Pruitt’s remaining 12 months in ’20, a collective 5 coaches led Tennessee to dropping information in eight of these seasons, dropped a median of 5 SEC video games a 12 months, misplaced to Vanderbilt 5 instances and completed unranked 10 instances. The Vols additionally by no means beat Alabama and thrice managed to do one thing Fulmer by no means did: lose to Kentucky.

“I’ve been on board with each coach we’ve had. I’m a Vol for all times,” Manning says. “I would like all these guys to succeed. Generally we rent any individual and the followers instantly say, ‘It’s not going to work!’ I attempt to give the particular person all of my help till it could possibly’t be supported anymore. It’s exhausting to place an actual purpose on why it hasn’t labored out.”

Dickey factors to the teaching hires. Others attribute the issues to an alignment with college officers. Some even say issues grew political, which isn’t uncommon in an SEC school city. Throughout one five-year stretch from 2016 to ’21, 4 athletic administrators. That overlapped with the college going via 4 completely different chancellors.

Tennessee’s success within the Nineties was rooted in stability, says John Chavis, the legendary defensive coordinator who labored on the Vols workers for 20 seasons. Chavis labored below Fulmer. Fulmer labored below Dickey, then the athletic director, and Dickey labored below Joe Johnson, the UT president. Provides Chavis: “We had the backing of our AD and president; it didn’t matter what the cash individuals mentioned.”

In 1999, Johnson retired. Dickey adopted in 2002.

“Individuals didn’t know the place their parking place was,” Fulmer says. “I look across the nation and see a lot of the packages which can be struggling, that’s the case—not on the identical web page.”

Whereas Fulmer factors to alignment as the problem, others level to him. His shadow stretched far and vast, to the purpose the place the college needed to report itself for an NCAA violation after Fulmer coached gamers at a observe. Through the search to interchange Jones within the winter of 2017, Fulmer maneuvered himself into the athletic director chair and changed John Currie. It was a “coup,” says one former division workers member.

The story of Tennessee’s 2017 teaching search has been exhaustively informed. The leaked identify of Currie’s prime candidate, Greg Schiano, triggered a social media storm from UT followers that nixed the rent. A pursuit of then Washington State coach Mike Leach was met with such resistance, the varsity ushered Currie out the door. After saying Currie’s departure, the college president launched the brand new athletic director at a department-wide assembly. Fulmer stepped into the room, and attendees erupted in cheers.

“It was weird,” says a workers member, who requested anonymity. “Somebody had simply misplaced their job.”

Manning was a part of the search committee that chosen Currie, one of many extra revered directors in school sports activities who’s now athletic director at Wake Forest. “Nonetheless sorry that didn’t work out,” Manning says. “John is an efficient man.”

Fulmer employed Pruitt in what continued a line of failed coaches who, both earlier than or after their stint at UT, had hyperlinks to Saban. Pruitt labored below Saban for 5 years. Dooley labored on Saban’s workers at each LSU and the Miami Dolphins. Kiffin and Jones finally labored for Saban after their time at Tennessee, and every returned to Knoxville carrying Crimson.

Actually, after the Tide’s 58–21 win in Knoxville in 2018, a photograph of Jones smoking a cigar surfaced, eliciting outrage from UT followers. On Saturday, one other former Tennessee coach returns right here. Dooley joined Saban’s workers this offseason as an offensive analyst.

“I’m glad [Josh] Heupel doesn’t have any Saban hyperlinks,” says Jayson Swain, a former Tennessee receiver and radio host in Knoxville. “There’s just one Saban. You possibly can’t be Saban.”

In January 2021, Tennessee’s athletic division bought a brand new boss, Danny White, who fired Pruitt amid the NCAA scandal and employed Heupel, his former coach at UCF.

The overhaul of the athletic division started, a modernization that featured revamped fundraising efforts and revenue-generating strikes. Lower than two years in, this system has offered greater than 17,000 new season tickets to hit the 59,000 mark in complete gross sales. This previous fiscal 12 months, the college set fundraising information at $80.7 million.

Neyland Stadium has undergone a number of facelifts, with new video boards, a north social deck premium space and decrease west membership stage. The college began one other fundraising effort, the Shareholders Society, that helped present as much as $4 million in investments for athletes.

“At one level, we had 20 tasks occurring,” says UT deputy athletic director Cam Walker, who arrived from Orlando with White. “I checked out Danny and requested what number of tasks we’d have occurring throughout a standard 12 months. He mentioned, ‘About seven.’”

In essentially the most controversial change, White carried out a seat-licensing system in Neyland Stadium that considerably elevated costs for older season-ticket holders who had been introduced in at a decrease charge. He says the rise has generated about $20 million to $30 million in extra income and has helped the Volunteers transfer up the SEC monetary ladder.

Within the Nineties, the Vols’ athletic finances usually topped the convention. Over the previous three years, UT’s finances (round $135 million) has fallen behind Kentucky for eighth within the SEC, regardless of having the third-largest soccer stadium within the league. The finances has now grown to $170 million, and “we’re not even near accomplished,” White says.

The college is getting assist from outdoors entities, too. Its identify, picture and likeness (NIL) effort is among the strongest within the nation. The Spyre Sports activities Group, a advertising company turned NIL fundraiser, distributed about $4 million to some 130 UT athletes this previous season. Its purpose is to lift $25 million, and officers inform SI they consider it’s doable.

“You mix the college alignment with highly effective and enthusiastic donors, a rabid fan base and a robust NIL program, and it’s a excellent storm,” says Hunter Baddour, co-founder of Spyre and a 2008 Tennessee graduate.

The alignment appears to have returned to the times of the Nineties. Even Fulmer is again within the fold. He says he usually meets with Heupel and White. He reveals as much as observe often, as properly, and he says there are not any extra “silos” inside the division he as soon as operated.

It’s why the Vols are “forward of schedule,” says Marcus Hilliard, UT’s soccer chief of workers.

Through the teaching transition from Pruitt to Heupel, UT misplaced 15 scholarship gamers to switch, together with linebacker Henry To’oto’o, now the linchpin of the Alabama protection. In Yr 1 final season, the Vols received seven video games with 69 scholarship gamers, 16 under the NCAA normal of 85.

“It was damaged right here,” Heupel says.

Throughout a gathering on White’s first day on the job, gamers expressed that they had been emotionally and bodily exhausted. They had been annoyed.

“They talked in regards to the quantity of [physicality] and so they had been telling us about accidents in warmups and that they might go into video games drained,” Walker says.

Then Heupel got here in and introduced the enjoyable again. In one among his first strikes as coach, he held a crew dodgeball occasion. The crew has numerous competitions away from soccer, reminiscent of Wiffle ball and softball video games. The crew would eat meals and play video video games collectively, constructing again a way of camaraderie. Throughout Heupel’s first crew assembly, gamers requested if they might play music at observe. A confused Heupel shot again, “What crew doesn’t hearken to music at observe? In fact we are able to play music.”

The gamers cheered.

These small adjustments helped the gamers on the sphere, as properly. Heupel and offensive coordinator Alex Golesh now have the top-ranked unit within the nation after it sat 102nd in 2020. The Vols are averaging 547 yards a recreation, 200 yards higher than that ’20 squad. They’ve scored on 62% of offensive drives, the very best charge within the FBS.

Quarterback Hendon Hooker, rising as a Heisman Trophy favourite, is finishing 70% of his passes and averaging a shocking 10 yards per completion, good for third within the nation. He hasn’t thrown an interception in 239 makes an attempt, courting again to final November.

He’s a microcosm of the crew’s development as an entire. After transferring from Virginia Tech, he misplaced the beginning job final season earlier than coming off the bench when Cade Mays was injured throughout a Week 3 contest towards Ole Miss. He has grown to be a vocal crew chief, snug in his position and assured in his arm.

“His development from once we took over on the first observe at spring ball to now … holy cow,” Heupel says. “He’s gone via ups and downs, and now you see his resurrection.”

Will Hooker and Tennessee flip the Tide? Saban is 16–1 towards the Volunteers, together with a comeback victory within the 2001 SEC championship recreation whereas he was coach at LSU, a loss that derailed the Vols, who had been on observe for what may need been Tennessee’s seventh nationwide title.

In Knoxville, nobody likes the person. “He’s despised,” says Leigh Burch, a 65-year-old Knoxville bar proprietor and UT fan. “They name him Little Satan Nick.”

There is no such thing as a assure for victory. Realizing the fickle nature of his fan base, White correctly tampers expectations. “Simply because we’re having an important run, it doesn’t imply the sky is falling if Saturday doesn’t go properly,” he says. “We will’t be reactionary.”

How passionate are the followers right here? It begins at an early age, says Melissa Charles, a longtime Tennessee booster who’s from the city of Rocky Prime, about 25 miles north of Knoxville. In a single Rocky Prime center college, college students can get further credit score every Friday in a specific class in the event that they put on orange and sing “Rocky Prime.”

“It’s bred into the youngsters right here,” Charles says.

A part of that keenness comes from “Vol Twitter,” a robust social media motion recognized for pushing the soccer program to make adjustments. Final offseason, it hounded USC officers in such a approach that many right here consider it expedited the Trojans’ launch of transferring receiver Bru McCoy. Swain calls it an “orange swarm.”

“The fan base is sort of scarred,” White says.

A couple of months into his tenure, White was launched to Vol Twitter within the replies of upbeat messages he had posted on the social media website. “I’d get tweets scowling and firing again at me,” he says. “I used to be like ‘Man, what’s occurring with these of us?’ They’re simply beat down and in a unfavourable place.”

The angle trickles right down to the gamers, says Todd Kelly Jr., who grew up in Knoxville and performed defensive again for the Vols from 2014 to ’18. “After I was on the crew, nobody in Neyland thought we may beat Alabama. It nearly grew to become an appropriate factor—to be a Tennessee fan and Tennessee participant and lose to Alabama.”

Again at Calhoun’s, the place is jammed. A line of followers, two dozen lengthy, anticipate Heupel to signal memorabilia. Through the name phase, followers air numerous grievances over the cellphone.

Coach, our punter appears too gradual in kicking the ball!

I feel we have to preserve a working again within the backfield to assist cross block!

Amid the proceedings, a whiff of cigar smoke wafts from one of many Vol Navy boats stationed on the restaurant’s riverside dock.

Cigars? Already?

Within the Nineteen Fifties, Alabama began the custom of celebrating a win towards Tennessee by smoking cigars within the locker room, a customized that finally grew to become the norm for the Volunteers. While you beat Alabama, you smoked a cigar, remembers Chris Treece, a 54-year-old highschool soccer coach in Knoxville who performed for Majors. Treece helps run a nonprofit referred to as Legends of Tennessee, which operates soccer camps in underserved areas of the state and holds a fundraiser every year to public sale off costly bourbon and cigars.

This 12 months, as an alternative of buying cigars from a retailer, Treece opened his personal line of Nicaraguan cigars, every with a gold band inscribed with VFL: Vol For Life.

As quickly as Tennessee beat LSU final weekend, orders started pouring within the cigars, as optimistic followers ready for Saturday’s recreation. One of many orders—for 100 cigars—was delivered earlier this week to 1300 Phillip Fulmer Approach. That’s the deal with of 1 Neyland Stadium.

“We despatched them over to the gear guys,” Treece says with amusing. “We haven’t been capable of smoke cigars for some time.”

However maybe the misplaced decade of Tennessee soccer historical past is over. Possibly that is the 12 months the drought ends and the Vols can gentle their cigars.

“Our baseball crew is kicking butt, and [coach] Rick Barnes in basketball is kicking butt,” Manning says. “It’s time for soccer to kick butt, too.”

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