Haskins: Heupel Has Evened His Ledger With Alabama. The Next Step Runs Through Tuscaloosa

Josh Heupel is now 3-3 against Alabama. For a Tennessee coach, that sentence would have sounded like a fairy tale a decade ago, and it ought to be said plainly before anybody starts writing about a new dynasty: an even record against the Crimson Tide is a good place to stand, and it is not yet the top of the hill.

Saturday's 26-10 win at Neyland Stadium was the most complete of Heupel's three. Tennessee's 2022 win was a 52-49 shootout, and the 2024 game was a 24-17 grind. This one was a beating delivered mostly by the defense. Alabama gained 201 yards, ran for 54, turned it over four times and converted 2 of 13 third downs, according to the Associated Press.

That is not how this series has usually looked from the Tennessee side.

A long memory

The rivalry is old enough to have its own folklore. The first meeting, in Birmingham in 1901, ended in a 6-6 tie. The game settled onto its traditional date in 1928, two years after Robert Neyland arrived in Knoxville, and the "Third Saturday in October" name became official in 1939.

It has run in long tides ever since. Bear Bryant's Alabama won 11 straight from 1971 through 1981. Tennessee answered with seven straight from 1995 through 2001, the best run the Vols have ever had in the series. Then came the drought: 15 straight Alabama wins from 2007 through 2021, all of them under Nick Saban and most of them not close.

Those 15 years are why Saturday matters more than one October afternoon would suggest. A generation of Tennessee fans grew up thinking of the cigar tradition as something only the other locker room got to enjoy. The ritual dates to the 1950s, when Alabama trainer Jim Goostree began passing out cigars after wins over Tennessee, and for most of the 2010s it looked like his successors would never run short of reasons.

Alabama still leads the all-time series by a wide margin. Sports Illustrated's Alabama site listed it at 60-40-7 heading into this season, though published tallies do not all agree because of a vacated 2005 Alabama win and a 1993 tie later forfeited to Tennessee.

What changed

Since the streak ended, Tennessee has won three of five, the AP noted, all three at home. That is real progress, and it came with a different kind of team this time.

Heupel arrived as an offensive coach, and his best Tennessee teams have been built to outscore people. Last season the Vols ranked seventh nationally in total offense and 92nd in total defense, per Sports Illustrated. Heupel then replaced defensive coordinator Tim Banks with Jim Knowles, and Saturday showed what that move was for. Tennessee sacked Keelon Russell five times, forced a fumble on Alabama's first series, stopped a fourth-and-1 at its own 40 to open the second half and picked off Russell in the end zone to end the last threat.

The offense did what it needed to do and not a great deal more. Four first-half drives ended in Cooper Ranvier field goals. George MacIntyre, starting for the second straight week after true freshman Faizon Brandon hurt his shoulder against Texas, completed 21 of 31 passes for 197 yards. The AP called the quarterback spot "a work in progress," and that is a fair description. DeSean Bishop's 159 rushing yards and two touchdowns did the heavy lifting.

Here is the thing an old columnist notices. A Tennessee team that can beat Alabama by two touchdowns without a settled quarterback is a sturdier team than the 2022 version that needed 52 points to get there. Defense travels. Shootouts do not always.

Where the program stands

Heupel came into his sixth season with a 45-20 record, according to Sports Illustrated, and the 2024 team made the College Football Playoff, still the program's only appearance. The Vols are 6-1 and 3-1 in the SEC now, with three straight wins.

Alabama, meanwhile, has lost consecutive regular-season games for the first time since 2007, the AP reported. Nobody in Knoxville should mistake that for a permanent condition. Kalen DeBoer's team was ranked No. 6 coming in, and it will be heard from again.

That is why I would hold the parade. Two pieces of this rivalry are still missing for Tennessee.

The first is a win in Tuscaloosa. The Vols have not won at Bryant-Denny Stadium since a 51-43, five-overtime game in 2003. Every one of Heupel's three wins came at Neyland. A program that has caught up wins on the road, too.

The second is a winning streak. Before last year's game, the AP noted that Tennessee had not beaten Alabama in back-to-back seasons since 2003 and 2004. Alabama won that 2025 game 37-20, so the mark still stands. The Vols have now beaten the Tide in alternating years three times in five seasons. Alternating is progress. Consecutive would be a shift.

Next October

The schedule hands Tennessee its chance at both in the same afternoon. The 2027 game is in Tuscaloosa, and under a two-year agreement the schools announced in August, both teams will wear home jerseys, which means Tennessee will wear orange at Bryant-Denny for the first time ever, according to WBRC. Under the same agreement, this year's game was the first at Neyland since 1970 with both teams in home jerseys.

That is a year away, and there is a season to finish first, starting at South Carolina on Saturday. Tennessee's place in the playoff race will be decided by those last five games, not by this one.

But when the Vols walk into Tuscaloosa next fall wearing orange, they will do it as a team that has beaten Alabama in three of the last five meetings. A Tennessee team has not been able to say that in a long while. Win there, and the conversation about this rivalry changes for real.

Sources: No. 14 Tennessee hands No. 6 Alabama second straight loss, 26-10 (AP via ESPN); 2026 Alabama football early opponent preview: Tennessee (Sports Illustrated); Third Saturday in October (Wikipedia, series history); Alabama, Tennessee to renew long-standing tradition of Third Saturday in October rivalry (WBRC); 'Third Saturday in October' features potent offenses for No. 6 Alabama and No. 11 Tennessee (AP via The Augusta Press, 2025)