Explaining why 1995 Alabama vs. Tennessee is special to Volunteer fans

The dog days of summer are a perfect time to reminisce on past glory and some of the games that helped shape college football rivalries that persist to this day. For Tennessee, one such game with Alabama comes to mind.

It’s the 1995 contest, a game that the Volunteers won convincingly over the Crimson Tide.

Why that one?

“Because it ended a streak in Legion Field. It was Peyton Manning‘s true coming out party,” said Volquest’s Brent Hubbs on the Andy Staples On3 show. “That’s Peyton Manning vs. (Bill) “Brother” Oliver, who was a defensive guru at that time. Tennessee scores on Play No. 1. Driving down I-59 to that game Tennessee fans looked up and saw the No. 9 (Freddie Kitchens) on every bridge.”

The game was huge for Tennessee due to the lead-in.

The Volunteers had been winless in the previous nine games in the series, which included a particularly disappointing result at Alabama two years prior.

“You know, Tennessee had had a tie game, which was like kissing your mother, in ’93, because Tennessee outplayed them and David Palmer had a two-point conversion,” Hubbs said. “And you kind of had this, ‘Was Tennessee ever going to beat Alabama? When was it ever going to happen?’

“And that for Phillip Fulmer was a major milestone win, because at Tennessee, listen, as Doug Dickey once said, you’re paid to win three games: Georgia, Alabama and Florida. And for a long-time Tennessee fan, Andy, it’s the Alabama game. And that one solidified Fulmer, who also almost went to Alabama from Winchester. There was a lot of natural ties there. But that slayed the dragon in ’95 and was a major milestone. That was a plant-the-flag win.”

Tennessee not only won, it did so in style. Manning and the Volunteers scored 41 while holding the Crimson Tide to just 14.

Why is it considered one of the best games in Tennessee-Alabama history for the Vols? Well, let Hubbs answer that question.

“Your question about best games is a really unfair question,” Hubbs told Staples. “I love you. You and I get along great, but it’s a really unfair question. Is it the greatest game or is it the greatest game because of its impact? I can find games that were really better games probably, Andy, but they didn’t carry an impact because they didn’t do anything with it.

“Think about where Tennessee’s program went after the ’95 season and what they evolved and became into. That was the planting of the flag to the national championship in ’98, so to me the ’95 Alabama game has to be near the top, if not one of the top games.”