Who do you think is Tennessee's biggest rival? Your choice says a lot about you!
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Tennessee football has at least a half-dozen rivalries. But fans see them differently.
They checkered Neyland Stadium for a win over Florida. They stormed the field when the Vols beat Alabama.
But some long for the good old days of playing Auburn every season. Others consider beating Vanderbilt as a Thanksgiving weekend tradition.
Some fans are digging deep into their pockets to buy tickets to Tennessee’s game at Georgia on Nov. 5, which they view as a rivalry.
And many fans still call it the “Battle for the Barrel” when No. 3 Tennessee (7-0, 3-0 SEC) plays No. 17 Kentucky (5-2, 2-2) on Saturday (7 p.m. ET, ESPN).
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“I think it’s unique that there are so many (rivalries) that are circled by our fan base,” coach Josh Heupel said. “If you talk to different generations of Tennessee fans, you’re going to get a different answer as far as what the big game is.”
But who specifically are these Tennessee fans? Your answer says something about your age, favorite players and history with the Vols.
With tongue planted firmly in cheek, here are representations of the fans who prefer one rivalry over the others.
This fan prefers the Alabama rivalry
This is a semi-retired, third-generation Tennessee fan in his late 60s, born and raised in East Tennessee. He doesn’t like alternate uniforms or the transfer portal. He taught his grandkids the Ten Commandments on Sundays and Gen. Neyland’s seven maxims on Saturdays.
This fan cried the day John Ward died and again when Johnny Majors followed two years later. He respects Nick Saban but often says, “He’s no Bear Bryant.”
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This fan considers No. 3 Tennessee’s 9-6 loss to Alabama in 1990 as the lowest point of his life. Despite bad knees, he stormed the field when the Vols beat Alabama on Oct. 15.
This fan was lukewarm about paying players for their name, image and likeness. But he proudly forked over cash to wear Jalin Hyatt’s “Gimme 5!” T-shirt. And he’s been humming “Dixieland Delight” for almost two weeks.
This fan prefers the Kentucky rivalry
This lifelong Vols fan is gray-headed and lives a quiet life at the base of Jellico Mountain, near the Tennessee-Kentucky line. He prefers to watch games on TV but treks to Knoxville or Lexington once every fall.
On his bookshelf, this fan has a replica beer barrel trophy, which traditionally went to the winner of the Tennessee-Kentucky game. A few years ago, he and his cousin got into a heated argument about which school rightfully owns a checkerboard pattern.
This Vols fan doesn’t mind Heupel’s up-tempo offense. But he boasts about players playing both ways back in his day. And he thought basketball was a second-rate sport except when Ray Mears was donning an orange jacket on the Tennessee bench.
This fan prefers the Vanderbilt rivalry
The Tennessee fan who prioritizes the Vanderbilt rivalry works in Nashville.
For years, he taunted co-workers about the Vols dominating the Commodores since the 1930s. Even when Jay Cutler led Vanderbilt to a win over Tennessee in 2005, this fan joked that it took the best quarterback in Commodores’ history to beat the Vols once. (He doesn’t know about Bill Wade, nor does he care.)
This fan quit his job after Thanksgiving in 2018, citing “six years of verbal abuse by co-workers.” A bow-tie-wearing human resources officer with a Tim Corbin-autographed bat on his shelf ignored his complaints.
This fan loves Heupel and despises James Franklin. But he posted anonymously on a message board in 2021 that Tennessee should’ve hired Franklin.
This fan prefers the Georgia rivalry
This Tennessee fan lives near Chattanooga and roots for the Vols in football and the Atlanta Braves in baseball. His former in-laws are Georgia fans, and he refers to his ex-wife as a “hobnail boot.”
He follows recruiting news religiously and believes Tennessee can’t win a national title without plenty of players from Georgia.
This fan loves the Vols but concedes Herschel Walker was the best college player he ever saw. However, he argues that James “Little Man” Stewart was Walker’s equal for one day in 1994 when he rushed for 212 yards and four TDs in a 41-23 win over a ranked Georgia team.
Whenever fellow fans list the best wide receivers in Vols history, this fan inserts Jauan Jennings into the conversation. And he had to eat crow for prematurely saying Kirby Smart was a mediocre coach.
This fan prefers the Auburn rivalry
This Tennessee fan hates SEC expansion because it split the league into divisions and took Auburn off the Vols’ yearly schedule. She thinks the traditional New Year’s Day bowl lineup was far better than the Bowl Championship Series or College Football Playoff.
This fan has an uncle who lives in Birmingham. She cares about the Iron Bowl more than most Tennessee fans and casually refers to Cam Newton as “Scam” Newton.
And her prized possession is an autographed 1985 Sports Illustrated with Vols quarterback Tony Robinson on the cover, commemorating Tennessee’s upset win over Bo Jackson and No. 1 Auburn.
This fan prefers the Florida rivalry
The Vols fan who values the Florida rivalry was a Tennessee student in the late 1990s. He thought Peyton Manning was snubbed for the Heisman Trophy. But on the night of the ceremony, he shouted at the TV: “Well, you shoulda beaten Florida!”
This fan always takes Phillip Fulmer’s side in any Fulmer vs. Majors debate. He thinks the worst insult ever said was “you can’t spell Citrus without U-T.” And he heard his grandmother curse for the first time when referring to Steve Spurrier.
This fan has a blurry selfie photo with Al Wilson as his Facebook profile image. He claims to have pulled down the goalpost when the Vols beat Florida in 1998, although there’s no footage to corroborate that. And these days, whenever his teenage son asks to borrow the car, he replies, “No, sir-ree! No, sir-ree!”
This fan prefers Ole Miss rivalry
This Vols fan is a rarity and singularly motivated by a hatred for Lane Kiffin. She was enrolled at Tennessee but dropped out of school in January 2010 after being arrested for arson in a couch-burning incident on campus.
She thought Fulmer should’ve been fired years earlier. But she later changed his tune, pinning to her Twitter page a photo of Kiffin with the caption: “You can’t buy loyalty.”
This fan was belligerent on message boards and social media, blaming Kiffin for a decade of disappointing football. She hasn’t said a nice thing about Ed Orgeron in 13 years and didn’t attend a Tennessee game for almost the same amount of time.
But this fan was spotted on Neyland Stadium security cameras on a rowdy October night last year. She had a mustard bottle and a golf ball in her hands. Ushers lost track of her, and she hasn’t been seen since.
Reach Adam Sparks at adam.sparks@knoxnews.com and on Twitter @AdamSparks.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Who is Tennessee's biggest football rival? Your choice says a lot
