Tennessee
Upon Further Review: No. 6 Alabama 37, No. 11 Tennessee 20
Alabama football nabbed its sixth straight win this past Saturday night, beating rival Tennessee 37-20 at Bryant-Denny Stadium for its fourth straight victory over a ranked team (becoming the first SEC squad to ever do that without a bye week in the process).
“Gutty win against a very good team. Well-coached, and they constantly put pressure on you,” Crimson Tide head coach Kalen DeBoer said postgame. “It wasn’t perfect… But our guys did a nice job of continuing to fight just like we have been.”
The victory was only Alabama’s second in the past four rivalry meetings against the Volunteers, but Tennessee was once again left waiting on its first triumphant outcome in Tuscaloosa since 2003. The Crimson Tide (6-1, 4-0 SEC) moved up to No. 4 in the AP Top 25. The Volunteers (5-2, 2-2 SEC) dropped to No. 17.
Player of the Game: Wolf linebacker Yhonzae Pierre has had to step up after long-term injuries to both Jah-Marien Latham and Qua Russaw. The redshirt sophomore has done more than simply fill a void. He’s become a player opposing offenses can only afford to miss at their own immense peril. On Saturday night, Pierre had six total tackles and was credited with 2.5 sacks, one of which resulted in a safety that gave Alabama a lead it would never relinquish.
Play of the Game: There is no doubt about which play in this contest was the most impactful. With nine seconds remaining in the first half, Tennessee ran a play-action that resulted in quarterback Joey Aguilar’s pass being intercepted by sophomore Crimson Tide cornerback Zabien Brown. Apart from the turnover itself, what made that play so remarkable? That query is answered by the fact that the Volunteers were on the one-yard line, and Brown ran the interception back for a 99-yard touchdown to make the halftime score 23-7 Alabama.
Stat of the Game: At no point after the second quarter was this season’s Third Saturday in October a one-possession game. The visitors never led, and a Jam Miller touchdown with just over four minutes to go in the first half brought the score to 16-7. Brown’s colossal interception return created even more separation, and 10 points was the slimmest margin by which the Crimson Tide led during the game’s second half.
Brown co-led the Alabama team with seven tackles in addition to his long touchdown on the interception. It was a game to remember for the sophomore, who’s already had his share of memorable moments on Saban Field in his young career.
Ty Simpson passed for 253 yards against Tennessee. Sophomore Ryan Williams led the receiving group with 87 of those yards, making more than one difficult catch in the process. He didn’t reach paydirt, but Williams had a long of 31 yards and caught all five of his targets, without so much as a single drop.
Volunteers running back DeSean Bishop had 123 rush yards on 14 attempts, good for an average of 8.8 yards per carry. Adding the averages of the three running backs Alabama used in the game provides a yield of 5.5 (Kevin Riley had -2 yards on three carries). Bishop also had two touchdowns.
Before facing Alabama, Aguilar had only been sacked multiple times in a game once, when Mississippi State notched two against him. The Crimson Tide doubled that total, though Aguilar has still not taken more than one sack in a home game.
Redshirt freshman Rico Scott scored for the first time since the season opener in the third quarter against the Volunteers. However, senior Germie Bernard (who was held scoreless in the game) amassed 35 rush yards on the nine-play, 99-yard drive that resulted in Scott’s 11-yard touchdown reception. Bernard was one of the most important playmakers on a drive that gave his team a 17-point lead.
Through two SEC games this fall, Colorado transfer Nikhai Hill-Green only got three total tackles under his belt. In the ensuing two, Hill-Green stepped up his play dramatically. He had six tackles against the Volunteers and is up to 13 in Alabama’s past two SEC matchups.
Bernard has five receiving touchdowns in the 2025 season, but has now gone two straight weeks without adding another one (or more) to that total. By catching the first touchdown pass of Saturday’s game, Horton earned his fifth touchdown catch of the year. He was expected to make an impact upon his transfer from Miami (Fla.), and has done so in more ways than scoring, but his propensity for finding the end zone in big games cannot be discounted.
Daniel Hill has been seen more regularly as of late, with the coaching staff attributing that to the sophomore getting healthier than he was at the start of the regular season. The 34 yards he ran for when facing Tennessee were a career best, and he added a touchdown to go with that. Hill had 29 yards in the 2024 season opener against Western Kentucky; that was his single-game high before Saturday, and he also scored a touchdown in that contest.
Bray Hubbard equaled Brown with seven total tackles, joining defensive lineman James Smith among players who reached that number against the Volunteers. Hubbard led that group with five solo tackles; it is tied for his season-best number in that category, which he accomplished at Georgia on Sept. 27. Brown and Smith combined for five solo tackles in the Tennessee game.
The stable of Crimson Tide running backs minus Jam Miller, who cleared concussion protocol in time to play Saturday, has yet to put its stamp on a game. Hill helped, but once again, the backs didn’t rush for 100 yards or more between them. Even with Miller, three different running backs combined for just 47 yards. Alabama has only reached the 100-yard mark in a Power Four game twice this season, and both times were with Miller on the field, but he had just 15 rushing yards against Tennessee.
OKLAHOMA CITY — Tennessee softball’s opponent for the Women’s College World Series semifinals is set.
The No. 7 seed Lady Volunteers (49-10) will face No. 2 Texas (49-12) at Devon Park on June 1 (noon ET, ESPN). Tennessee and Texas played each other in their WCWS opener on May 28. Tennessee won 6-3.
In the previous matchup, Tennessee used both of its top two pitchers, Karlyn Pickens (15-7, 1.58 ERA) and Sage Mardjetko (16-2, 1.06 ERA). Mardjetko started and allowed just one hit in the first four innings. Pickens finished the game, allowing four hits and three runs but still recording the save.
“Knowing we’ve got to make quicker adjustments, we’ve seen them already,” Texas infielder Katie Stewart said of potentially facing Pickens and Mardjetko again. “Still knowing they’re a really good pitching staff and they’re going to bring it. Just being ready for that. I think just going back, watching film, looking at how we got out and building off that.”
Stewart, the SEC Player of the Year and Texas’ leader in batting average, home runs and RBIs, went 0-for-3 in that first game.
Texas coach Mike White is hopeful that the Longhorns’ familiarity with Pickens and Mardjetko from just a few days prior will help them “pick up where they left off.”
All three of Texas’ runs came in the later part of the game, with the Longhorns scoring off a throwing error and a two-run homer hit by Leighann Goode.
However, he also noted that Tennessee has another talented pitcher in Erin Nuwer (15-1, 0.99 ERA), whom the Longhorns could face for the first time.
“Well, it won’t help us if they throw Nuwer at us,” White said. “They have another one that’s out there that’s pretty good. We’re not forgetting her as well.”
Nuwer hasn’t pitched since Game 2 of the super regionals against Georgia, when she allowed two hits, two hit-by-pitches but no runs in 1⅓ innings. Nuwer’s last start was a complete game against Northern Kentucky in regionals on May 15.
“They have the luxury of us having to beat them twice,” White said. “These pitchers are so good now, they’re able to study what we did, what they did. It becomes that cat-and-mouse game of strategy. That’s what we love about the game, is all the strategy, kind of pitching nuances of the game. It’s going to be a fun matchup.”
Tia Reid covers Jackson State sports for the Clarion Ledger. Email her at treid@usatodayco.com and follow her on X @tiareid65.
Tennessee
Nashville’s Eastpoint Neighborhood groundbreaking marks largest affordable housing project in Tennessee
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Nashville’s newest neighborhood is starting to take shape. The Fallon Company broke ground on the Eastpoint Neighborhood, which developers say is the largest affordable housing project and investment in Tennessee right now.
Mayor Freddie O’Connell says the mixed-use development is designed to benefit all families, accommodating incomes from $20,000 to $80,000 a year. In addition to housing, the development will include upgraded parks and green space, on-site childcare, and retail space.
“This is gonna be how we build Nashville’s next great neighborhood,” O’Connell said.
“We’ll have upgraded parks and green space, it will literally have on-site childcare here,” O’Connell said. “Basically all the ingredients that happen in a great neighborhood are going to be here.”
The development comes as many Nashville families struggle to make ends meet.
“They’re working jobs that are $10, $12 an hour jobs and they cannot afford basic living expenses,” Tony Turntine said.
Turntine and his family are success stories of UpRise Nashville’s free career training program. Through that experience, he has seen firsthand how getting to a better life requires studying, working, mentorship — and help with housing.
“The affordable housing that gives them an opportunity to come out of some of the really lower income neighborhoods they’ve been in and have better, quieter, more wholesome places to live,” Turntine said.
“If people can afford a better opportunity, we see everyone blossom from it. It’s a great day,” Al Brady with UpRise said.
Turntine says the tough choices Nashville families face are real.
“Whether I’m gonna pay the car out or whether I’m gonna get food for the kids,” Turntine said.
Now living and thriving in a new opportunity, Turntine has made it his mission to help others get there too.
“We’re living in a better neighborhood now — we actually just moved last weekend to a house twice the house of what we were in before,” Turntine said. “When you make different choices in life, that gives you different opportunities.”
Do you have more information about this story? You can email me at Amanda.Roberts@NewsChannel5.com
This story was reported on-air by Amanda Roberts and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
101st Airborne veterans get Purple Hearts years after an insider attack
As we honor those who have served our country and made the ultimate sacrifice, it is also heartening to see the military right a wrong. Chris Davis brings us the moving story of a Purple Heart ceremony two decades in the making. It’s worth a watch.
A heartfelt thanks to all who bravely serve.
– Carrie Sharp
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WZTV) — A new Tennessee law aimed at protecting utility customers from the growing energy demands of data centers will take effect in July.
The legislation comes as more than 60 data centers power artificial intelligence and other cyber operations across the state, with about one-third located in the greater Nashville area. As the race to build and power AI infrastructure accelerates nationwide and globally, Tennessee lawmakers say they’re working to ensure ratepayers are not saddled with the added costs of serving these massive facilities.
“We want to have data centers. But we want to put guardrails around that to protect our ratepayers,” said state Rep. Ed Butler, R-Rickman, during a legislative committee hearing in March.
Under the new law, data centers must pay for any new infrastructure required to support their operations, including substations and other power-related upgrades. Utilities are prohibited from passing those costs on to residential and business customers.
“In the rural areas they’re putting a lot of these. And we have had a lot of increased utility bills,” said state Rep. Dennis Powers, R-Jacksboro, during the same March committee hearing on the legislation.
Powers questioned if data centers could be contributing to ratepayer costs. That question wasn’t clearly answered. Regardless, legislators voted the measure through, and Gov. Bill Lee signed it into law to help prevent that from happening.
“If there was a substation that was needed to be put in to provide power for this data center, then the data center would pay for the substation,” Butler said during the hearing.
As communities across Tennessee consider proposals for new data centers, and new laws to regulate (or contain) them, some local leaders remain opposed to bringing the facilities to their areas.
“I don’t think they fit in Robertson County, and definitely not in my community,” said Cedar Hill Mayor John Edwards, who is proposing a two-year moratorium on data centers in his city.
Electric providers and utilities are also preparing for future demand. The Tennessee Valley Authority reports data centers currently account for about 18% of its industrial power load, a figure that’s predicted to potentially double by 2030.
The new law also allows utilities, including TVA, to establish a separate customer or rate class specifically for data centers, providing an additional safeguard against shifting costs to other customers.
As energy demand continues to surge, state lawmakers say the goal is to ensure Tennessee stays competitive, while families and businesses do not see higher electric bills because of data center expansion.
Data center advocates, meanwhile, say many facilities generate much of their own power on-site and use advanced cooling systems that require little or no water.
If TVA moves forward with creating a separate customer or rate class for data centers, FOX17 will continue to follow those developments.
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