‘We want Bama:’ Brian Kelly and Josh Heupel embrace annual challenge against the Crimson Tide, heightened expectations in 2023

MIRAMAR BEACH, Fla. — The SEC finalized a silly stop-gap, eight-game schedule for 2024 on Thursday, tossing a spoon in the garbage disposal on great “secondary” rivalries like Alabama-LSU.

While the SEC intends to protect storied series like Alabama-Auburn, Georgia-Florida and Ole Miss-Mississippi State next season, there’s little guarantee that marquee matchups like the Tigers versus the Tide will happen on an annual basis moving forward.

While Nick Saban clearly isn’t interested in playing Auburn, Tennessee and LSU every autumn, Tigers head coach Brian Kelly feels quite the opposite after just one season in the SEC since leaving Notre Dame.

“That’s why I came to the SEC, to play in those kinds of games,” Brian Kelly said this week in Destin before Thursday’s official schedule announcement.

Would you want Alabama on the schedule every year?

“Heck yeah,” the Tigers‘ head coach responded. 

“I love that kind of matchup. I was in that stadium for that game (last year) and I can tell you there’s not a better atmosphere in college football than being there between two teams that are competing at that level.”

Since Saban returned to the SEC in 2007, the annual showdown between the Crimson Tide and the Tigers has been one of the nation’s — much less the conference’s— best games each fall. That “new-age rivalry” is now in jeopardy, though, with a real possibility that Alabama-LSU will only be played on a bi-annual basis moving forward.

Thankfully, the famed Third Saturday of October series is likely — key phrase being likely — to be protected in the eight-game schedule in 2024, but there are no assurances that a game that’s been played 95-straight seasons will continue on an annual basis in perpetuity.

Before last season’s historic upset over the Crimson Tide, Tennessee had lost 15 straight games in the series, and yet Vols coach Josh Heupel understands the importance of such a storied rivalry for the Vols’ program and fan base.

“It’s a huge game,” he said. 

“It’s a historic rival for our program. I think one of the things that’s unique at Tennessee, from probably my playing career, is the number of opponents that different generations of fans will point to as the game. We don’t have a trophy game. In-state, Vandy. Kentucky, border war. Georgia, Florida, Alabama. Those are all big games for our fan base.

“But the Alabama game’s been the one that’s probably been as longstanding as any of them, and it’s a huge part of our schedule and the tradition of Tennessee football.”

Notably, LSU was one of five SEC schools who were publicly in favor of a nine-game schedule – joining the likes of Georgia, Florida, Texas A&M, Missouri. Alabama was once considered in that camp, but the Tide’s preference flipped after Saban recently expressed frustrations with the team’s rumored three permanent opponents. 

Even Heupel’s support to continue to the Tennessee-Alabama series is a bit muddled, as the Vols were among the programs who were believed to be in favor of maintaining an eight-game slate in 2024.

LSU AND TENNESSEE EMBRACE HEIGHTENED EXPECTATIONS

Regardless of what happens with the 2024 schedule, though, Alabama will play LSU and Tennessee this fall.

The two programs had breakout seasons in 2022, both beating the Tide in memorable upsets and setting the stage for heightened expectations and preseason Top 10 rankings this summer.

“We still have some work to do quite frankly,” Brian Kelly said. 

“But we’re up for the challenge.”

“I didn’t come down here with the thought that these were gonna be average expectations. You know we talk to our players about elite so if we’re going to mirror that, if we’re going to talk to our players about being elite, why wouldn’t that be mirrored on the other side? In other words, we should have high expectations of what’s expected of our program so I think that comes with expecting our players to be elite. I think everybody else should expect that should happen in the development of our program after year two.”

The Tigers went 9-4 in Kelly’s first season in Baton Rouge, winning the SEC West. They bring back a deeper roster, aided by the addition of a host of impact transfers. They are one of two teams in the SEC (the other Vandy), that returns the same head coach, starting quarterback (Jayden Daniels) and both coordinators.

“Isn’t it funny that continuity is defined as Year Two now,” Brian Kelly said when asked by On3 about LSU’s potential to compete for a championship this fall with all it brings back.

“Continuity wouldn’t usually be defined that way, but in this ever-changing world that’s important. Anything that you can get that gives you a little bit of a competitive advantage or an opportunity to get some traction, we’ve got a little bit more traction. We’re developing. We’re certainly a lot further ahead than we were at this time last year, but I know those high expectations come with being at LSU.”

The Vols aren’t being discussed in as many preseason national championship conversations as LSU, but Heupel is looking to continue the program’s momentum after delivering Tennessee its best season in over 20 years. 

Although Joe Milton replaces Hendon Hooker at quarterback, there’s confidence in Knoxville that Tennessee will once again have one of the best offenses in the nation this fall, and can contend for a College Football Playoff spot for the second-straight season.

“Expectations will never be higher (externally) than they are in the building,” Heupel said, believing the best is yet to come for his program as it enters Year 3.

“It’s a great time to be a Vol. It’s been fun building this. When we first arrived, a lot of uncertainty surrounding the program with so many things that we were trying to navigate. The foundation that we’ve laid, how we’ve competed, players what they’ve done, what they’ve continued to do – there’s a lot of excitement.”