Oct. 2, 2003
GameDay
Central | Series
History | Last Meeting
For 35 years, it was a bitter rivalry of postgame snubs,
thrilling comebacks and win-or-else stakes - and then it faded.
Auburn and Tennessee meet again Saturday night, with a group of players who
barely have an inkling of what the series once meant and the scintillating
games it seemed to produce with regularity.
"The Auburn-Tennessee rivalry was once one of the greatest rivalries
year in and year out Auburn ever had," Auburn athletic director David
Housel said. "It would be our first conference game practically every
year from 1956 to 1991.
"Very seldom did a team that lost that game ever become a serious contender
for the crown."
The seventh-ranked Volunteers (4-0, 2-0 Southeastern Conference) are the Eastern
Division leaders while the Tigers (2-2, 1-0) were the preseason favorites to
win the
league before losing their first two games.
The teams ceased being annual foes after the 1991 game when the newly expanded
SEC split up into Eastern and Western divisions with Auburn and Tennessee,
once again, on opposite sides. Now, there's Florida-Tennessee and Auburn-LSU,
rivalries that have picked up steam in recent years.
"If you became an Auburn fan in the '1990s, you don't remember the Tennessee
game being a big, big game," Housel said. "If you became an Auburn
fan from 1956 to 1991, you remember how big the Tennessee game was.
"Your stomach would get tight just thinking about it, because it's so
big for both teams."
Tennessee is 5-0-1 in the past six meetings, but the teams haven't met since
1999 and have played only three times since 1991. They'll meet again in Knoxville
next season and then play on a rotating basis.
The tensions have dissipated, both teams reserving their animosities for other
teams now. Auburn's Tommy Tuberville and Tennessee's Phillip Fulmer will surely
shake hands after the game - unlike Shug Jordan and Bill Battle in 1973.
Jordan was angry because the Vols had punted on first down throughout the
fourth quarter of a 21-0 victory, forcing Auburn's offense to repeatedly contend
with a driving rainstorm. He also said Battle refused the pregame handshake.
The next year, Auburn fans taunted the Vols with chants of "Punt."
"People talk about crowd control and intensity and bitterness," Housel
said. "Auburn-Tennessee in '70, '71 and '72 probably had as much animosity
between those two schools as anybody else in conference, certainly even than
Auburn and Alabama."
The acrimony is gone. The stakes remain high.
The Tigers are trying to redeem themselves from a dismal start. The Volunteers
haven't lost - or looked all that impressive in victory.
The oddsmakers clearly aren't sold, making Auburn a slight favorite in a game
that could convince plenty of doubters for either team.
"I don't know when we don't have a bull's eye on us," Fulmer said. "And
that's the truth. We've had enough success in recent years that everybody says,
'We'll circle Tennessee on our calendars.'
"Auburn is no different than us. They're fighting like heck for position
in the conference, position in the national standpoint and respect in the national
standpoint."
The game, he predicted, "will be a humdinger."
Anything else would be a surprise given the nature of this series.
Six of the last eight meetings were decided by 10 points or fewer, including
ties in 1987 and 1990 and a 30-29 Peyton Manning-led Tennessee victory in the
1997 SEC championship game.
The teams combined for six league titles from 1983-90, with Auburn's last
coming in 1989.
"I'm sure it's going to bring back a lot of memories for some of the
oldtimers," Tuberville said.
The youngsters, meanwhile, are trying to make new ones.
"This is something we've been waiting for, working for all winter and
summer, preparing to win the SEC West," Auburn defensive end Reggie Torbor
said. "We want to see how good we are and how good we can be. If you want
to be the best, you have to beat the best."
Associated Press
Manning Scholarship Ceremony - 6/22
