00:00:00
Speaker 1: Let's go, man. We're back in Chad Withrow's second home. Yes. Hutton here, Withrow here. Hutton and Withrow mornings and Dixieland Delight Friday night. Let's go, man. We've got Alabama, Tennessee. We are in Knoxville. Wagon Wheel is our location. Also a second home for us. Yes. We're in Knoxville, spelled K-N-O-C-K-S-ville. Yes. Yes, apparently. Hey, this is a beautiful spot. We are here.
00:00:26
Speaker 2: We're going to get you a scene setter for the weekend here, Tennessee and Alabama. Incredible spot in the old city, Hutton. And every time I come back, I feel like the winds of East Tennessee call me a little bit more and more each time.
00:00:39
Speaker 1: They're back. And this time it was a little warm for the Texas game, right?
00:00:44
Speaker 2: It was a much more lively crowd early for Texas because the game was early. Tennessee fans understand that this is a marathon, not a sprint. You pace yourself, right? There are people trickling in here right now. They know we're not going to go out until a little bit later than we would have before an 11 a.m.
00:01:02
Speaker 1: Or noon kickoff, right?
00:01:04
Speaker 2: And then you get yourself prepped the way you should. As Josh Heupel said, if you want to get there early, take advantage of the happy hour inside the stadium with half-priced beverages. Then you do that. But we're going to have a blast here tonight. Good to have you here with us, Hutton.
00:01:16
Speaker 1: Good to be back, man. You were here for the Texas game.
00:01:18
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah.
00:01:18
Speaker 1: So it's good to be here. This is going to be a blast. We're presented by Hard Rock Bet right now. At Hard Rock Bet, you can download the app. You can roll with us at hardrock.bet.com. The line currently Alabama favored on the road by 7.5. They come in with a 15.5 points over under total points scored. And I get the feeling you're okay with this. Not okay with it. But you think it's fair?
00:01:43
Speaker 2: Yeah, a lot of the predictions I've seen, people talking about this game, 27-24 is a popular pick.
00:01:49
Speaker 1: Okay.
00:01:50
Speaker 2: One way or the other for Tennessee or Alabama. So that 50-and-a-half point line would make a lot of sense with that one.
00:01:55
Speaker 1: Yep.
00:01:56
Speaker 2: Being a 51-point total. Look, I think that we're going to talk about this game a lot, but Alabama's offense is so much further along than Tennessee's offense. On the flip side, Tennessee's defense is better than Alabama's defense.
00:02:11
Speaker 4: It is.
00:02:12
Speaker 2: Tennessee's defense is going to go up against a starting center who's never really played for Alabama, possibly in this game.
00:02:20
Speaker 1: With Gilliam on the other side, let's go.
00:02:21
Speaker 2: Xavier Gilliam might be, as Cole Kubrick said, the best defensive player in America. There's a lot of things to like about Tennessee in this game, Hudden. I just keep going back to Keelan Russell has a QBR of 90, third best QBR in America this year. Their quarterback play has been so much better. And the story with Tennessee, obviously, George McIntyre, the backup, now the starting quarterback for the Vols.
00:02:44
Speaker 1: Yep. I mean, coming off the Arkansas game, it wasn't like you absolutely sucked. There's got to be more with the conservative play calling that we saw from Josh Heupel. And I think there are ways to do that in this game that take advantage of the Alabama defense's the way they could have against Auburn or Arkansas. We'll get to that in a moment. But I look at this, I think there's an absolute great chance that Tennessee keeps this close for a game. And with that in mind, I'm thinking 7.5 makes me want to take Tennessee. With a field goal kick, whatever it might be, both special teams very efficient this season. Neither field goal kicker has made a kick beyond 50 yards. So you've got to get around the 32-yard line or so. That's your That's your spot. I think it's a close game tomorrow. I do. And I'm about ready to take Tennessee plus the 7.5. I do think the under hits.
00:03:38
Speaker 2: Josh Heifel, 2022-2024, wins this game in Knoxville. He's 2-0 against Alabama at Neyland Stadium. When you look at what they were able to do in those two games, in 2022, Hutton, we were there. It was a laser show. It was Hendon Hooker hitting Jalen Hyatt. It was five touchdowns. It was every time Nick Saban in Alabama at the time.
00:04:01
Speaker 1: Not in a certain defense.
00:04:03
Speaker 2: Josh Heupel had the right call dialed up, and it was bombs away.
00:04:07
Speaker 1: It was a big run.
00:04:09
Speaker 2: It was a huge scramble by Hendon Hooker. Every answer they had. Tennessee's defense got shredded in that game by Bryce Young also. It was a true shootout in that one, right?
00:04:18
Speaker 1: It was the best single performance at quarterback that Alabama's seen. Yep.
00:04:23
Speaker 2: It was unbelievable to watch. It was a magic show. 2024, Josh Heupel had a really good defense. He had Dylan Sampson who could run, played conservatively. They win the game 24-17. Nico made some big throws. Made a huge throw to Chris Brazel for the touchdown. The go-ahead touchdown eventually won the game, right? I feel like this game is kind of a balance between the two. where Tennessee's got to find something through the air. They've got to get George McIntyre going. They've got to get Mike Matthews the football. They've got to get Braylon Staley playing better. But also, Tennessee's got a great defense in this game too. So can Josh Heupel go 3-0 against Alabama? I mean, college football fans, I don't think for the vast majority understand the historical significance of Tennessee and Alabama in the SEC race for years and years. For a Tennessee coach, given what they just went through, from Blaine Kiffin to Derek Dooley to Butch Jones to Jeremy Pruitt, to have a volunteer coach go 3-0 against Bama at Neyland, that would be gigantic for Josh Heifel.
00:05:30
Speaker 1: It's been since Jeremy Pruitt wore the COVID sheath. Yeah, over his face, his entire face. The babushka. Yes, it's been since then that Alabama won in Knoxville. Chad, I think, believe it or not, I think George McIntyre's going to run it. The boot is wide open. It is wide open, and on the RPO, he's going to do it one time. He's going to go, he's going to boot out and actually have the threat of running it. I think he gets a big yardage off of this. He makes the defense run. actually have to defend this. Because right now, I mean, it's been there. He just hasn't done it. I realize why. But it makes me think of the Peyton Manning running in with the ball in his hand. That is wide open. And if we see Faison Brandon in this game in certain spots, it's a run. That's the way I'm going to view it. And if we see McIntyre, it's a pass. I don't want to see, or it's a handoff. I don't want to see that the entire game because it's so obvious. If he just does it one time, it's a 20-yard gain. It's just that obvious, Chad. Can he do it? He's got to be the one to pull it and go.
00:06:33
Speaker 2: If Highpool and Faison Brandon can hit a pop pass in this game, I want to see the old Tim Tebow offense in 2006 where Urban Meyer would put Tim Tebow in and run situations.
00:06:42
Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:06:43
Speaker 1: But occasionally he would roll out and throw it. And every time Tim.
00:06:46
Speaker 2: Tebow threw it, it was a huge play. I want to see the fake quarterback draw where they're telegraphing. They got three tight ends in. All this is going on. Hit Luka Wolf, the freshman from Austria, at tight end. Something no one is predicting at all, right? If you're going to this game, I say that. I'm not joking. Josh Heupel needs three to four scheme plays like that. where you're going to have a situation where the defense is coming up, you're going to go up to it, fake run, throw it to somebody. In order to beat Alabama and keep your offense on the field, it's going to take some of that for Tennessee. I feel like the Texas game, I was saying the same thing. It's going to take some turnovers. It's going to take a special teams touchdown.
00:07:28
Speaker 1: Guess what?
00:07:29
Speaker 2: Tennessee got a special teams touchdown in that game. The punt return from Quay Moss. They got the onside kick in that game. They still couldn't win it in the end. When you go into a.
00:07:38
Speaker 1: Game feeling that way, it's a tough spot to be in.
00:07:41
Speaker 2: But this Tennessee team and Josh Hypel and Joey Halsley in particular, they're capable of drawing something up like that.
00:07:48
Speaker 1: And they have to be excellent in the red zone. Yep. Um, you know, it was, uh, Womack, Kane Womack, who got, um, Aguilar in the red zone last year. And that totally changed the game to give it a lot of different looks in the red zone. They, they have to be able to overcome that with McIntyre. And if they do, if they're able to be excellent, the red zone score touchdowns there, they can win the game. Um, Everyone's saying don't turn the football over. No one wants to. You just have to win the turnover battle and be able to go and score and capitalize. You have great field position. You know, you can't bounce the ball off your running back's shoulder pad. No. Ten to half. No.
00:08:24
Speaker 2: I mean, by the way, speaking of the play last year, talking about with Joey Aguilar before half, flashbacks to that with the Arkansas game. As the clock is ticking down to three seconds, and he's running down the field, I'm thinking, please, God, somebody tackle this dude. Thank God for Darius Jackson, rah-rah, as his teammates call him, for hustling. He was running a route down the field and caught the defensive line behind. And George McIntyre tripped him up initially, was right behind him, running him.
00:08:49
Speaker 1: Down as a quarterback. Can't have that.
00:08:52
Speaker 2: Can't have stupid things like that. Look, Tennessee opened the second half against Arkansas with a five-yard false start. You cannot do things like that. When you're set and ready, get on the field and get ready to get a drive going. You can't have stupid mistakes like that to start drives if Tennessee's going to win. But when I look at both rosters, Alabama's very good. They're better than Tennessee on offense right now. These rosters are very similar from a talent standpoint. And this game is at home. And you are a big underdog. For a game like this over a touchdown underdog, Vegas is saying they do not believe.
00:09:26
Speaker 1: They believe.
00:09:28
Speaker 2: Alabama loses to Georgia. They're going to bounce back. This is the week they come back. In the boomerang effect, they're going to win. Tennessee squeaks by Arkansas. They feel like they're going to let down.
00:09:38
Speaker 1: Prove them wrong. Prove them wrong if you're the Vols. They believe that Keelan Russell is going to go on the road in a huge road test. And with a huge home field advantage. We saw that against Auburn. That factored in. They believe Keelan Russell is going to handle it. He's handled everything very well. But keep this in mind. It was Keelan Russell initially. They wanted George McIntyre. in the recruitment. That's also a storyline with all of this is they landed McIntyre. I mean, I think George McIntyre's final choices were, yeah, Tennessee, Bama, and LSU were the last three. And it was McIntyre that went to Tennessee.
00:10:14
Speaker 2: Nothing about the quarterback situation from Tennessee makes sense.
00:10:17
Speaker 1: Let me address this also, okay?
00:10:19
Speaker 2: And I think if you look at Tennessee, right now they're 10th in the SEC in recruiting out of high school. I believe that they have shifted their focus away from spending so much money on freshmen in college and high school players to they're going to hit the portal hard every single year. and they feel like that's a better route to go. But at quarterback especially, you cannot go back-to-back years with George McIntyre, borderline five-star, over-a-million-dollar-a-year guy, to an over-two-million-dollar-a-year guy in Faison Brandon. This is not the way. All the Star Wars quotes and everything out there, this is not the way. Like the way they've done it. You can do it and sprinkle in one guy to develop, and then you wait a couple years, you get the guy that can transfer in and contribute immediately. Tennessee doesn't have that, though.
00:11:07
Speaker 1: They've got two guys one year apart. Maybe the strategy has just been the rules aren't in place to actually protect the contract, like the way Nico bolted, right? Like he's got his money, he played, and he's gone. the return in investment doesn't meet the actual up front, even though he played. So maybe it is just a one-year plan until you have rules and structure in place. I mean, it may not even matter who you recruit for a year.
00:11:32
Speaker 2: Look, if it works out, Jared Curtis at Vanderbilt the same way. Bryce Underwood is not working out at Michigan. And this is another example of that. Huge investment out of high school. You're our three-year guy. You're going to start right away. Faison Brandon, next example. was rough against Texas. Granted, he was hurt, was rough against Auburn. He gets taken out. Jared Curtis, Vandy is not good this year. They're battling Arkansas tomorrow to see who's going to be last place in the SEC. I'm very confident in saying that. That is going to be their one win, I feel like, right now for one of those teams in this game.
00:12:05
Speaker 1: I'm taking you over.
00:12:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, in their game. But again, like, Can you keep Jared Curtis three years? Are you going to keep Faison Brandon three years? Look, if Faison Brandon comes back next year as a starter, and Tennessee's a playoff team, which we'll get to, could be different with 24 teams in the playoffs.
00:12:19
Speaker 1: It could be.
00:12:20
Speaker 2: But if they're competing at the top of the sport for the next two years, you win. It's a win for you. If George McIntyre is truly the guy, it's a waste. Well, it's a waste of resources, and it's not the route to go in today's college football.
00:12:35
Speaker 1: It only works if your coaches are coming back. We didn't see that at Michigan because of other rare reasons. Yep. And you've got to have both sides come back and invest. Chad, let's not even go to the 2014. If Tennessee wins this game tomorrow, they are jumping into the college football playoff. Oh, yeah. It is realistic at that point. You're in it. And you give Bama another loss. LSU's already got their two losses. They're in a great spot. I mean, you got the win over Bama with their 7.5 points. That won't be remembered, though, the 7.5-point favorites by Bama. No. Because they lost to Georgia, that back-to-back loss. It looks good right now.
00:13:11
Speaker 2: If you're a Tennessee and Alabama fan, I mean, Alabama, obviously, you were very close to beating Georgia at home.
00:13:16
Speaker 1: You're upset about that. 5-1 versus 5-1. This is what we wanted. Here we are. We're in Knoxville. We are at Wagon Wheel in the old city.
00:13:25
Speaker 2: We wanted 5-1 versus 5-1 with playoff hopes on the line. Now, look, if you're Tennessee, realistically, you've got to split these next two games. You can't lose both.
00:13:36
Speaker 1: You're out.
00:13:37
Speaker 2: You've got to beat Bama or you've got to beat South Carolina. You beat both, Hutton. You're sitting really pretty. Going into November, right? If you win one of the two, you're alive in November. You get a bye week on Halloween day. So you're still in a good spot going into November with Kentucky coming into Knoxville to start the month. And then you've got that trip to A & M.
00:13:58
Speaker 1: Yes.
00:13:58
Speaker 2: But outside that, you've got LSU coming in. All the top opponents for Tennessee right now, if you look at it. Kentucky, and as good as they've looked. Bama tomorrow.
00:14:08
Speaker 1: LSU. They're in Neyland Stadium. They're all here.
00:14:11
Speaker 2: And Tennessee has not won enough big games at Neyland in the last year and a half. Texas was a continuation of that in this game. Go win a big game at Neyland. Go win two of the three big games that Neyland left. You don't have to win all of them. Win two of the next three. You're going to put yourself in a position to play for.
00:14:30
Speaker 1: That national title. They've been able to overcome some high pool problems. Lutz liked hearing about Kentucky being good, by the way. Yeah, he is. He's like, damn it. Finally, Kentucky's a challenge to Tennessee. He's also happy. They are, by the way. They're very good. Yeah. I mean, he's also very happy that the weather is much better this weekend than it was in Lexington last week.
00:14:48
Speaker 2: Something we found out is Lutz is not a fan of cold weather. But I'm like, I mean, this is like 60s, 50s.
00:14:52
Speaker 1: This is perfect. It's like 60s right now. Actually, it feels like 50. It's probably 70 degrees outside. Well, the wind is blowing. Because it just dropped so fast. I sound like a Jim Cantore over here.
00:15:04
Speaker 2: The wind is blowing slightly northwest to southeast. It's a little bit breezy. Feels more like 62, Hutton, but what we know is it's going to be perfect weather this weekend for Tennessee and Alabama.
00:15:15
Speaker 1: I cannot wait. We're going to be in the stadium tomorrow, and it's going to be awesome. We have a fight in one of these games behind you. I thought you said there was going to be a fight behind us right now. I'm watching one of the games. I was like, am I going to have to throw hands? Army and Coastal Carolina just got into a brawl. Um, they were showing, they were showing up one for last season. They ran up the game. Okay. And Chad, your hard rock lock of the week right now, uh, 10, three, not good to lane down by seven. The spread six and a half plus six and a half. We need the green way to get going right here. Hutton. They're down seven right now, but are you 17? And what, what was the record? 14 to one, 14 to one. He's going to be 17 to one soon. Um, And this was the definition of the heat check.
00:15:54
Speaker 2: I did no research. I do nothing but I just looked at it and said, what's my gut reaction?
00:15:58
Speaker 1: Tulane will cover. They will. Need to stop. Need to stop right here, Hunt. We need to stop. Hardrock.bet slash play. My lock of the week. We'll find out tomorrow. Ohio State, Indiana taking the under 51.5. It's dropped to 50. So I would get it up. Take the 51.5. I think it's going to matter just based on what we're seeing with the drop. We're going to go through some games coming up. We also have The last time you and I were here for the Bama-Tennessee together was our night with Alan Bean, Clay Travis. Yes. And that was when all the demons were exercised. Yes. It was cathartic. It was genuine, emotional. And when I say emotional, we mean it in terms of what we saw from Clay. Yeah. In the back of a pickup truck. He's flying private jets now. Yes. Then we were taking an Uber in the back of a pickup truck.
00:16:48
Speaker 2: I mean, he paid about as much as you would for a private jet to that pickup truck owner.
00:16:53
Speaker 1: But, yes, it was in the back of a pickup truck. It's a classic moment. We're going to play that because we have it on video where we were able to get out of Neyland Stadium somehow. We walked about a mile and a half, two miles, to get up Neyland Drive and close to Kingston Pike.
00:17:10
Speaker 2: I can tell you exactly where we were. We were pulled over in an agricultural building. And then finally someone stopped.
00:17:16
Speaker 1: I forgot about the eye builder. You're right.
00:17:18
Speaker 2: They were getting turned around, and we stopped them. And Clay said, I think I'll pay you $ 500.
00:17:23
Speaker 1: To drive us back to our condo. He was pulling a Yui. He said, come on. Because he couldn't get through. Yeah. And he's having to turn around. And Clay was just like, I'll just give you cash. I've got a few hundred.
00:17:31
Speaker 2: I remember Clay walking up to his room at the Airbnb to get the cash to bring back to the guy.
00:17:35
Speaker 1: Yeah. And we're back there with, like, their newlyweds, right? Like, there were, like, it was, like, two newlyweds. Probably in their 20s that drove us. He had to, he took the, this is not in the video at all. He took the bed of the cover, the bed cover. He rolled that back, took all of that stuff that he had there, put it in the cab. He had one other guy with him, I feel like. That guy was probably sitting on all that. There was a lot of.
00:18:00
Speaker 2: Trust in Knoxville that night because I feel like we could have been the Manson family taking him back to a house.
00:18:06
Speaker 1: They could have been murderers also. Didn't care.
00:18:09
Speaker 2: We were all in orange, and we said, you know what? We're going to figure this out. We trust you. We're going to ride back. We're going to pay you the $ 500. We're going to trust you with our women and put them in the back of the truck, too, if we need to. Everything was fine.
00:18:23
Speaker 1: You're right. And guess what happened? Nothing bad happened.
00:18:25
Speaker 2: It's amazing, America, when we come together in moments like that and everyone feels the glee of a big win on a college football Saturday.
00:18:34
Speaker 1: Incredible. They didn't make a big mistake that night. No mistakes were made. I'll never forget it.
00:18:39
Speaker 2: That guy got $ 500 richer for driving 15 minutes.
00:18:42
Speaker 1: And for a moment that we have in the history books, it's legendary because it's college football. It's the fabric of why we love sports because of the impact it has on the past, present, and future. Here's Clay Travis in the bed of the pickup truck as we're about halfway back to the Airbnb, and we start saying that we just beat Bama to me. Clay, you were tearing up at the end.
00:19:08
Speaker 4: I cried.
00:19:09
Speaker 1: I mean, that's how much it meant to me.
00:19:10
Speaker 4: It's embarrassing to be 43 years old and cry at the result of a football game, but I'll tell you this. When Tennessee in 1990 lost to Alabama, I was thinking about this when I was watching. I was with my grandpa who played for General Nealon in the 1930s. He's going to cry again.
00:19:25
Speaker 1: Cry. Cry. I was watching the game with him. Cry. I was watching the game with him.
00:19:31
Speaker 4: Tennessee was supposed to beat Alabama.
00:19:32
Speaker 1: They didn't ever beat Alabama when I was a kid.
00:19:34
Speaker 4: And 1990... Tennessee was trying to field goal.
00:19:39
Speaker 1: It got blocked.
00:19:41
Speaker 4: Alabama recovered and made a field goal to win 9-6. And I cried after that game. And I was at my grandpa's house. in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Red Bank, to be specific. And he was so disappointed in me that I cried about a team, about Tennessee losing. And he said, you know, you don't cry about losing football games. But I'm probably going to cry here. When Tennessee, when that kick was not good, and then Tennessee made the kick to win, I thought back to being 11 years old. And I felt like it was almost like cosmic and karmic justice that Tennessee made that kick after Alabama missed it. It took me back to being 11 years old in my grandpa's house in Red Bank, Tennessee, who played for General Neal in the 1930s.
00:20:33
Speaker 1: What a fucking win. Unbelievable. Cigars are next. Yes, definitely. Clay, you were– how about that? Oh, the emotions. The emotions. Wow. I mean, Clay's got three sons. Yeah. I think he may have traded one of them in for that win. I'm kidding.
00:20:53
Speaker 2: He loves his sons. Of course we know Clay. Clay, we know you love your sons more than the win over Alabama. But I will say, in moments like that, if you're a fan of a school, and I was right there with him that night, there is an emotional crossover there. Of euphoria. That's very rare. Alan Bean, who was there that night, we're probably going to go see him tomorrow at tailgating. We're going to go see him inside the stadium.
00:21:17
Speaker 1: Absolutely will.
00:21:18
Speaker 2: He, in fact, has said, bring me Hutton because I want to recreate 2022.
00:21:23
Speaker 1: Bring it on.
00:21:24
Speaker 2: And Lutz reminds us, one of his sons is an Alabama fan. That's the son who would have been traded for that win had Clay wanted to trade a son, no doubt.
00:21:31
Speaker 1: Yep.
00:21:33
Speaker 2: Alan Bean wants to run it back with 2022 with you. But there was a game even in 2015 where Tennessee comes from behind against Georgia and beat Georgia and Mark Richt. And I remember me and Alan Bean leaving the stadium.
00:21:45
Speaker 1: Because it was so euphoric. They were dead. They were gone.
00:21:48
Speaker 2: They were down 21-3 or 24-3 or whatever it was. They come back and win. It's moments like that you'll always remember.
00:21:54
Speaker 1: See, I got the vibe that year that Tennessee was going to win the game because everybody was saying, is this the year? We've got the team. You've got Hooker. He's on a run. He's playing great. You've got the receiving core that's able to– you have some alphas in the receiving core. You have some speed in the receiving core. You have an offensive line that's protecting the quarterback. There were things that you saw that you were like, they can keep up and attract me. They really can. Can the defense hold them? The answer was no, but Alabama's defense couldn't stop them either. It was a classic. I don't get the sense there's that same belief this year. Going into the game, I don't hear a lot of sense. We got a chance to be a college football playoff legit. Not just a contender, but we'll be in it after this game on Sunday. I don't hear that. So I'm not feeling the buzz like I was in 2022. I want to. I just don't think it's not comparable. That's why Allenby probably doesn't want me to come break the streak. Well, and look, I'll say it in this way, and this is why you're not hearing that. Tennessee has lost their identity under Josh Hyde. Let's be real about it.
00:22:53
Speaker 2: 21-22, Tennessee fans felt confident because they said, a year ago, we scored with everyone. And we exceeded expectations. Coming off NCAA sanctions left by Jeremy Pruitt.
00:23:06
Speaker 1: Right. Everything else.
00:23:07
Speaker 2: But they were going to score points. They were going to go for it on fourth down. 2022 was the perfect mix of everything. Opportunistic defense. And they had an offense that was going to go for it. They were going to step on your throat.
00:23:18
Speaker 1: You're right.
00:23:18
Speaker 2: They were going to go deep. And then what happens? 23, they're sort of mid everywhere. They're a good team, but not great. 24, they got a great defense. They got a pedestrian offense. 25, they got a great offense and a terrible defense. It's a seesaw effect. What do we have in 2026? Pedestrian offense.
00:23:37
Speaker 1: Another quarterback, yeah, you're right.
00:23:39
Speaker 2: We got Josh Heupel kicking a 51-yard field goal on 4th and 1 against Arkansas.
00:23:45
Speaker 1: And hooking it, right? Yeah.
00:23:47
Speaker 2: You've got all these different things where it's Josh Heupel that smoked that damn cigar when they beat Alabama. And was so happy in that game. That's the Josh Heifel Tennessee needs tomorrow.
00:24:00
Speaker 1: If they're going to win.
00:24:01
Speaker 2: He's got to bring back that we're playing with house money. We're going for it. We're not afraid. We got the horses. We've got the offense. That mentality needs to return at some point for Tennessee to win a big football game like this.
00:24:15
Speaker 1: I think that needs to return in spots. In spots though. Have those ready. But don't feel like you have to pull it out. You don't have to because you're a defense. You're right. That's right. You don't. Have it ready, though. He's got to be willing to pull the trigger, and so does George McIntyre. But on fourth and two, don't kick a 51-yard field goal. I totally agree with that. I don't care if you run it. Figure out a way to get the first down and go for it. Do you think we see Faison Brandon tomorrow? Yes. That's another part of this. I do. Is how do you use him? The way this news story has gone out all week with, oh, Brent Hubbs had the report on purpose. You know, you've got the report where Hubbs is like, I'm hearing that he's much more involved in practice. After being an emergency quarterback last week, that's a huge jump. I think he's not going to start, but he's going to play. I think three players will take snaps for Tennessee tomorrow. Okay. Okay. George McIntyre. Yeah.
00:25:06
Speaker 2: Faison Brandon and Mike Matthews. I think all three. I think Mike Matthews, they showed them that look against Arkansas late, right before they scored the go-ahead touchdown, where they went direct snap to Mike Matthews. I think at least three. I think you could see a fourth player take a snap tomorrow.
00:25:22
Speaker 1: It's that type of game. It's a big football game.
00:25:25
Speaker 2: You don't have to play outside yourself and play like you're crazy, but you need to play like you're confident and you're.
00:25:31
Speaker 1: Going to go score points. And maybe the conservative aspect has been setting this up a bit. Yep. You know, with the play call and the sheet.
00:25:37
Speaker 2: What we say in 2022 is like holding serve. A touchdown was just, oh, well, they held serve. Oh, Bryce Young just hit another pass. Alabama held serve. It was so back and forth, you felt like a stop or two was going to win it. Because everyone was scoring back and forth.
00:25:52
Speaker 1: And it came down to a kick. So, yep, one stop could have done it. Chad, coming up, Ellie Mae Williams is going to join us from Sporting State. And we get a vibe. She's a Tennessee grad. We'll get a Tennessee check. She knows the rivalry.
00:26:03
Speaker 2: She understands it. She's the daughter of a football coach. We're going to talk about some of the history between these two teams.
00:26:09
Speaker 1: She's going to know this. I want to know the football player that's most popular on campus. She's not on campus anymore. I know, but she would know. Okay. She would know. And I don't think it's the freshman. It's not the highly recruited one. I don't know who it would be. I have a guess. We'll save it. Let's do it. We'll save it. Hey, this is Dixieland Delight Friday Night Chat. Wagon Wheel, we're in your second city. Yeah, yeah. This is our second home. Wagon Wheel is amazing. Old City.
00:26:36
Speaker 2: Mark Jernigan, the owner, has been very kind to us over the years. We love this spot. Great country bar in the Old City. They're playing country music behind us. It's Tennessee, Alabama. The leaves reflect the colors on the field. We got both home uniforms being worn tomorrow. We're listening to country music.
00:26:52
Speaker 1: Oh, that's right. We're talking ball tonight. Doesn't get any better than this. Dixieland Delight to continue the ride on this. Stay tuned. We're back. It is Dixieland Delight Friday night here on Sport and State at sportandstate.com. YouTube channel at Hutton and Withrow. Glad you're with us. Football season is here. Third Saturday in October coming up. The eve has arrived. Ellie Mae Williamson with us as well here just off campus at Wagon Wheel. Good to see you.
00:27:18
Speaker 3: Thanks. Thanks for having me, y'all.
00:27:20
Speaker 1: I'm excited to be here. So I was asking a question to Chad. He's got to guess the most popular football player on campus. Normally it's the quarterback. It's not that right now. It's... There's not an obvious answer, I don't think. You would know this just based on the fact that you know the team, you know the friends that are on campus right now.
00:27:39
Speaker 5: I would have to go with either Deshaun Bishop or Arion Carter. And a hot take, Xavier Gillum.
00:27:45
Speaker 1: Oh, okay. He's the best player on the team.
00:27:47
Speaker 3: I would say so.
00:27:48
Speaker 5: And the funny thing about him is he actually didn't start playing football until his junior year of high school. So for him to come onto a college campus without much of a recruiting experience or fans getting to know.
00:27:57
Speaker 3: Who he was.
00:27:59
Speaker 1: I don't know.
00:28:00
Speaker 3: He's exploded.
00:28:01
Speaker 2: It's pretty amazing when you see L.A. made the amount of transfers to Tennessee that have hit immediately. Xavier Gilliam, Quay Moss. It would be weird to say the big man on campus is the guy who's been here for five months or however long they've been here, six months. But those two guys have been big-time contributors. Deshaun Bishop's good answer. Arion Carter with what he's doing for cancer research also.
00:28:24
Speaker 1: They've covered that.
00:28:25
Speaker 3: That's what I would say.
00:28:26
Speaker 1: Pretty popular guys, right?
00:28:27
Speaker 3: For sure.
00:28:28
Speaker 5: I think those are the top three, though. Xavier, honestly, McIntyre, though, too. I mean, you can't say a quarterback.
00:28:34
Speaker 1: After tomorrow, he could be.
00:28:35
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, you've got to look at your quarterback as somebody that's going to be leading your offense. So I would say George, even though he really hasn't much, many snaps and much time, I still want to.
00:28:44
Speaker 3: Go with the quarterback answer.
00:28:46
Speaker 1: Chad, do you think you'll go with McIntyre? I would not yet.
00:28:51
Speaker 2: I will say if George McIntyre wins this game tomorrow, I will run on the field and kiss him on the mouth.
00:28:57
Speaker 1: So then he would definitely be the most popular guy.
00:29:00
Speaker 2: This is, and you wrote about this, I know also, the rivalry between these two teams. I was watching Dave Portnoy at Barstool. questioning Casey Smith about Tennessee and Alabama.
00:29:10
Speaker 1: People hate each other. I didn't even know that. He didn't even realize it was a big rival.
00:29:14
Speaker 2: But the history between the two teams, third Saturday in October, Ellie Mae, you've written about it.
00:29:20
Speaker 1: It's a pretty cool experience.
00:29:21
Speaker 5: Yeah, and this is a story too that not many people know about. The cigars are something that you have to do. Winner has to do it. It doesn't matter what it is. You've got to smoke the cigar afterwards. I actually had the opportunity to work with Legends of Tennessee, which is Jabari Davis and a lot of other VFLs who have gone together and they started a VFL cigar that was smoked on the 2022 year after Tennessee had that 15.
00:29:47
Speaker 3: Winless streak that they had. And so.
00:29:51
Speaker 5: I was very familiar with that story.
00:29:53
Speaker 3: Trust me.
00:29:53
Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:29:53
Speaker 5: I mean, the stadium looked like it was on fire just from the cigar smoke. So it's one of those like Southern delicacies and traditions that has been carried on through many generations. And the story of it all. So I was always familiar with cigars and, you know, smoking them after when, whatever, but the story of it, I was like, there's gotta be an origin.
00:30:10
Speaker 3: There's gotta be something.
00:30:11
Speaker 5: And after a few research, I found something on ESPN about an Alabama trainer. And so I was like, okay, I'm going to dig deeper here. I couldn't, Sadly, the man passed away, Jim Bustry. But I was like, I am going to find a son. I'm going to reach out. We were playing phone tag back and forth all this week and reached out to him. We had a long conversation just about where it all started and what he remembers from it.
00:30:37
Speaker 3: So here we go. History lesson here. trainer actually graduated from Tennessee. So he's a Tennessee graduate.
00:30:46
Speaker 5: He was the trainer under Mickey O'Brien and General Neeland way, way back in the day. And he was also a Letterman golfer. So he was a student athlete at Tennessee. Left after that final year with General Neeland and moved to Clarksville, started high school athletics and started raising a family. And then sure enough, the athletic director at Alabama called up O'Brien and was like.
00:31:08
Speaker 3: Hey, I need somebody to come and play.
00:31:10
Speaker 1: As Rocky Top plays.
00:31:11
Speaker 3: As Rocky Top plays.
00:31:12
Speaker 1: Perfect serenade for the story.
00:31:13
Speaker 5: And I would just like to say, this is a song about just for Tennessee. Now, let's get into that later. Dixieland lies is a song about Tennessee.
00:31:20
Speaker 1: Must discuss.
00:31:23
Speaker 5: I will die on that hill. If there's one hill I will die on, I will die on that hill. Rocky Top's great, but Dixieland Delight is our song. So anyways, yeah, Mickey O'Brien calls, gets a call from the athletic director of Alabama and is like, we need somebody to come and we need a trainer here. Who do you recommend? And of course, Gushere gets the call. So he picks up his entire family, his family of three and his son I talked to on the phone. He told me, you know, we moved in 1957, and we were there. So he was there for Earsworth. Last year of Earsworth, I think that's– I think it was either Earlworth, Earsworth.
00:32:00
Speaker 3: Something like that.
00:32:00
Speaker 5: But, yeah, was there for his last year, and those were tough times for Alabama.
00:32:05
Speaker 3: Really tough times.
00:32:06
Speaker 5: We thought it was bad, like, going into 22, losing as much, but, like, that was Bama back during that time. This is right before the legendary Bear Bryant comes in and saves Alabama.
00:32:15
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:32:16
Speaker 3: You're over here like you're right.
00:32:19
Speaker 1: No, I don't know. It's what you live through, right? If you don't beat Bama, you don't remember ever seeing him.
00:32:25
Speaker 2: Well, and it's also, it's so different now, I think, for this generation. Because, you know, even growing up, it was like you had these heroes that were from the states they represented. You know, the great Tennesseans. Phillip Fulmer played at Tennessee and coached Tennessee. He turned down an offer from Bear Bryant to go to Knoxville, which is a big deal. He was on the state line at Winchester in Franklin County where he was from. You had so many stories like that of interconnected players that ended up going to their state school.
00:32:57
Speaker 1: Now it's much more mercenary-like. Right?
00:33:00
Speaker 2: Like, hey, we got guys from Penn State that have no connection to Tennessee until they got here that are balling out for the Vols.
00:33:06
Speaker 1: And that's fine, too. It's just different. So I do think the educational aspect of it is important. Yeah. So make sure these folks know about what they're getting into. Because Florida was the big rival.
00:33:17
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah.
00:33:18
Speaker 1: Because Saban wasn't in Bama.
00:33:19
Speaker 3: Yes.
00:33:20
Speaker 1: You know, and then Saban got there in 2007 and changed that. Yeah. And then it became Bama again. Yeah. And I think if you ask The generation behind us, they would say Bama as the biggest rival. Yeah, for sure. The players, though, always say Bama. Yeah. Oh, for sure.
00:33:34
Speaker 2: For me, it's Bama. I mean, and I'm not that old yet, knock on wood. There's wood over here.
00:33:40
Speaker 3: Well, Ryan McGee even said it today.
00:33:42
Speaker 5: We had a media opportunity with him during SEC Nation while they're here tomorrow. And he had just said, like, in this day and age of college football, you try and create so many different rivalries just based off of, like, who went and got my head coach. If you look at Ole Miss and LSU, like, no one would have ever thought those two schools would become rivalries. And that game would have so much built-up hate. going into it. But, like, that's just where we are in college football right now. You look at the transfer portal, like you mentioned, like, these guys don't really know the history behind these traditions. And so, like, with the Legends of Tennessee, with programs and DFLs and the guys that are pouring back into these schools after they leave, I think that's super important to keep those traditions alive, to keep the game more human, more pure.
00:34:23
Speaker 3: I don't... It's one thing to watch a college football game, but it's another thing to.
00:34:26
Speaker 5: Watch it against your rival and to know the history and the story behind it.
00:34:31
Speaker 3: It's completely different.
00:34:33
Speaker 2: So great job at Texas OU last week. What do you have planned for sport and state tomorrow getting ready for the game?
00:34:39
Speaker 5: Yeah, so tomorrow we're going to SEC Nation. I'll be there bright and early, so I'll be around. I'll be looking for fans. I'll be grabbing different stuff, different types of content ideas. We're going to be doing some fun interviews. I think they're really going to enjoy some of these questions. I'm not going to give it.
00:34:53
Speaker 3: Away on the live.
00:34:54
Speaker 1: No, no, no, don't do that.
00:34:55
Speaker 5: I want these unique live reactions when I meet these people. But, yeah, just kind of getting some stories behind who they think in college football is thriving, their different rivalry stories, stuff like that, some pure old-fashioned hate.
00:35:08
Speaker 1: Have you smoked a cigar before?
00:35:09
Speaker 3: I have never smoked a cigar.
00:35:11
Speaker 1: That's a good video.
00:35:11
Speaker 3: I have never smoked a cigar. And honestly, I don't know if I.
00:35:16
Speaker 1: You coughing on a cigar would be good. You have to do that tomorrow if they win. Yeah, you're a UT grad. You got to do it.
00:35:21
Speaker 3: I honestly should. I should have done it in 22.
00:35:23
Speaker 1: I just.
00:35:23
Speaker 3: I didn't want to cough in front of everyone. I was like, maybe I'll practice tonight. I don't know. Like, I'll do a practice run.
00:35:30
Speaker 1: There are so many people who have it. I mean, the players have it either, by the way.
00:35:33
Speaker 3: That is true.
00:35:34
Speaker 5: That is very true. Well, so back to the cigar story, though. Where it all came from.
00:35:38
Speaker 1: So.
00:35:39
Speaker 5: Fourth year of Paul Bear Bryant being the head coach, he comes into Tennessee.
00:35:44
Speaker 3: And as a college trainer, your job is to be.
00:35:48
Speaker 5: That hype man at 6 in the morning on a road game, whatever it is. But he comes in. It's been 13 years since Alabama has won against Tennessee.
00:36:00
Speaker 3: And so.
00:36:01
Speaker 5: He comes in there to the locker room right before he leaves, and he's like, guys, before we get on this bus, I just want to let you all know, if y'all beat Tennessee, I will dance.
00:36:09
Speaker 3: Around this locker room naked, butt naked, nothing on.
00:36:13
Speaker 5: And these guys are like, oh, yeah. I don't know how that hypes up, a group of guys, but it is what it is. He was really putting himself out there for the team.
00:36:21
Speaker 1: Really, literally. And then they did, and then they decided– We're going to smoke cigars.
00:36:27
Speaker 5: Well, his son was like, I remember my dad, you know, That's why I told Coach Bryant, just like, if we win, like, I'll get cigars and we'll pass them out.
00:36:38
Speaker 3: So he went to a convenience store right before they got on the bus, went to a convenience store, went back to the hotel.
00:36:43
Speaker 5: And his son was telling me, like, I remember watching my dad pack those cigars in his bag before he left.
00:36:48
Speaker 3: These, like, convenience store, old school, they're probably really good. Just from, like, day and age that they were.
00:36:54
Speaker 1: In, 1961. I mean. I'm sure some Cuban probably rolled that thing for him.
00:36:58
Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:37:00
Speaker 1: No doubt.
00:37:01
Speaker 3: I mean, at that point, yeah.
00:37:01
Speaker 1: I'm going to say what this man is as a Tennessee grad. Everybody can look it up.
00:37:06
Speaker 2: This man's a charlatan. That's who that man is. I do not respect him. I do like the tradition of the cigars, but Mr.
00:37:13
Speaker 1: Goostery, zero respect for you as a Tennessee grad to start the tradition on behalf of Alabama. I love it.
00:37:20
Speaker 3: But, hey, it'll be really nice if Tennessee gets to smoke them tomorrow.
00:37:23
Speaker 1: It's a good tradition.
00:37:24
Speaker 3: We can always say, yeah, we had them first. Who's a Tennessee grad?
00:37:27
Speaker 2: Yes.
00:37:27
Speaker 5: Like, that's all that matters. At the end of the day, his degree came from the University of Tennessee. He learned what he learned to help that Alabama program.
00:37:35
Speaker 1: Check out the Sports Day Socials tomorrow for all of LMA's content. It'll be great. And maybe we see the cigar tutorial.
00:37:40
Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:37:40
Speaker 1: Could be. Yeah, that's right. Good to see you.
00:37:42
Speaker 3: Thank you.
00:37:43
Speaker 1: Chad, coming up, we can hear your picks. And we need to check on some scores, too, with your hardware block. I'm looking at Tulane running a touchdown right now. Oh, wait, really? Oh, I didn't look. Don't you trash talk my green wave just yet. We're not dead yet, baby.
00:37:57
Speaker 3: Memphis looks good this year.
00:37:58
Speaker 1: Look at this.
00:37:58
Speaker 3: They looked great.
00:37:59
Speaker 2: We got a score of interest, green wave 13, Memphis 10.
00:38:04
Speaker 1: Four minutes left in the first half. No, it's too late either. Here we go. You're getting six and a half as well. Here we go. Hard Rock, the man knows. He's 14-1 on Friday nights. About to be 15-1. Yeah, let's go. Dixieland Delight Friday night rolls. Dixieland Delight Friday night presented by Hard Rock Bet. Sportingstate.com. Thanks for tuning in tonight. We're getting ready for coverage tomorrow from Sporting State from Tennessee, Alabama. We are in Knoxville, Tennessee, and it's a big game. We're going to the big game. Huge game. Each and every Friday night, giving you the vibe. We're at Wagon Wheel. They open just whenever we start the show. And things are about to crank up.
00:38:43
Speaker 2: It's filling up already. We've got a good crowd behind us. Great spot if you're coming in town for a Tennessee game in the Old City.
00:38:50
Speaker 1: Yep.
00:38:51
Speaker 2: Lute's got to experience the Old City for the Texas game for the first time. Very unique spot. Feels at times like you're almost in New Orleans.
00:38:58
Speaker 1: Yes. When you walk around the streets. I agree. It's very old. It's shocking. Old.
00:39:05
Speaker 2: Old buildings in the old city. Great spot to come hang out before a Tennessee game. We're excited to be here, Hutton, and we're getting pumped up for tomorrow.
00:39:12
Speaker 3: Absolutely.
00:39:13
Speaker 1: Absolutely. So right now at Hard Rock Bet, you can go to hardrock.bet.com. You've got the opportunity to take advantage. $ 5 gets you up to $ 500 in no sweat bets. By signing up right now. at hardrock.bet slash clay. That's hardrock.bet slash clay. these guys. They're ready to go.
00:39:32
Speaker 2: They know the drill. Get here a little bit later to start. You know, later start tomorrow, they're.
00:39:35
Speaker 1: Good to go. If you've got a play on Coastal Carolina and Appy State right now, game just tied second quarter, early second quarter, 14 all there. And Chad, his hard rock lock of the week. It's going to come through. It always does on Friday nights. Ooh, throwing across the body. What just happened, Chad? He's up 13-10. You normally don't want to do that.
00:39:53
Speaker 2: I think we're going to get hit with a holding call on Tulane, but about a 20-yard pickup. Tulane driving up 13-10. Two-minute timeout in the first half, but I think this.
00:40:04
Speaker 1: One's going to be coming back. Keep in mind he's getting six and a half points on this as well. I don't like the carelessness of the quarterback, though, throwing across the body. He's feeling it.
00:40:11
Speaker 2: That one should have been picked by Memphis. We're now in the mode of, oh, we got defensive holding.
00:40:18
Speaker 1: Declined. Tulane Greenwave on the move, baby. Here we go. Josh Heifel's not making that play call. You know what's going to be great?
00:40:24
Speaker 2: I hope a lot of people are watching this on Saturday morning when they wake up to go ready for games. People who see their YouTube alerts, you know, over the thousands of people who follow us on YouTube get the alert.
00:40:36
Speaker 1: They go watch it.
00:40:37
Speaker 2: And they just sit and mock me for how excited I am right now. Look at Whitrow so excited about Tulane, a team who eventually lost by 28 when it happens.
00:40:46
Speaker 1: And I'm like, look how giddy he is over this. And then you say, I was 14-1 on Friday night. Yeah. Sorry, guys, I'm 14-2. Earlier this morning I told LT, we're going through the guys from Dexter Out Live, I told LT that Ryan Brown, I'm like, he's going, his lock of the week, by the way, guys, is Tulane plus six and a half. And LT was like, oh, it's like, what? He's like, I don't know. It's like coming out of his skin. Yeah, he's like, I think I'll go the other way. I said, well, he's, and I said 17-1. I said, 14-1 on Friday night. He goes, oh, I guess I'm going to flip it and just probably chat. Yeah, it's a heat check.
00:41:18
Speaker 2: This is me stepping a foot back, guy in my face, and I'm going to shoot another three to see if it's my night. This might be my season on Friday night, Sutton. It looks that way so far.
00:41:28
Speaker 1: Chad, my vibe, and Alan Bean's not going to like this tomorrow when I tell him because I was going into the game in 2022, last time I saw him here at Neyland Stadium. I said, Tennessee's going to win the game. And I was adamant about it. You felt really good about it. I did. I don't feel it this year. I don't. There's not the confidence level from the fans. There's not the vibe. There are guys that we know that are talking about us being here, but they're not here. They chose to drive back to Birmingham or they chose to stay in Nashville. And I'm thinking, oh, that's not a good sign because they'd rather– watch alone in their room like Chad does. In these games, you would normally want to watch this alone, true or false. Oh, yeah, for sure. Like tomorrow, yeah. I may at some point tomorrow, too. The day is young. Well, that's fair. Yeah. But I'm thinking, like, we will be in a great spot tomorrow, but the vibe is, hey, I need to watch this alone so I don't get angry at anybody. You know what I mean? I mean, the vibe going into.
00:42:18
Speaker 2: This game is, and I think Josh Heupel's done a great job at Tennessee, but the vibe to me is Josh Heupel has lost his edge. He doesn't go for it when he should anymore. He's lost his aggression. And we're coming off a game where Kalen DeBoer is being worshipped by Alabama fans for what? Going full Nick Saban on a player and saying, your dumb ass lost the game for us. They loved it. They loved it. They're saying, we got our Saban back.
00:42:46
Speaker 1: You know what?
00:42:47
Speaker 2: This is our guy. He is embarrassing this guy on national TV. He's embarrassing a player. He's our dude. We love him. They wanted to see that fire. They got that fire.
00:42:58
Speaker 1: Saban would have won the game. He coached his balls off in that game. He did.
00:43:02
Speaker 2: I mean, look, I think it's just a very different vibe with head coaches. So, again, Hutton, what I will present is this. I want to see a pop pass from Faison Brandon to Luka Wolfe. I want to see Tennessee go for and get a couple big fourth downs in this game. I want to see some signs of the old Heupel. I don't want to go back to not playing defense like Heupel had in the first year or two, right? I want the defense to remain. I want you to trust your defense. I want you to show that you can not play with speed and tempo and give your defense a better chance. But let's bring back some of that old aggression that you saw with Kalen DeBoer last week.
00:43:40
Speaker 1: The aggression is the word because Jason Swain came on the show today. And I said, hey, are you nervous as a former player? Do you get, like, the good nerves? Do you still get them going into the analyst room for Vols Radio Network? And he said, no, I'm pissed off. Because I hate this team that's coming in here. I'm from Huntsville, Alabama. Just like Joey Kent. And he's like, this means something. They look me over, and I'm still pissed off. I want to see the players have a little bit. When you come in with an edge, that gives you the edge at home. Because the fans are coming in with that same edge. That's the home field advantage. Can Tennessee find those guys? I don't know on offense if they have those guys. You do in the run game, but Texas shut it down. They need to find that against a good Alabama defense against the run. And if they do that, They have a chance to keep this close. And then it comes down to the quarterback and the kicker in the fourth quarter.
00:44:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, and we heard going into the year this could be the best offensive line group Josh Heupel's had. They've not lived up to that hype yet. They need to deliver in this game. They're going to have to do that in this game if Tennessee's going to have a chance. George McIntyre, I think, is seeing the game well. Have one less turnover.
00:44:42
Speaker 1: You know, you're going to turn the ball over at some point.
00:44:44
Speaker 2: Don't have three. I would prefer none, but, you know, two you might be able to win. One you might win. Three you're not going to win. Don't have the one in the fourth quarter.
00:44:54
Speaker 1: No. If you just have one. Not in a big moment. You're right. I'm taking Bama, but right now I'm feeling like it's a very close game to where they cover. I think Tennessee covers in this. I just think it's Bama because of the quarterback in the fourth. I think they win by four.
00:45:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've moved throughout the week. I think Tennessee covers. I do think Bama wins the game. I just think their offense is quite a bit ahead of Tennessee right now. But, again, if Josh Heupel returns to form, I believe Tennessee can win this game at home.
00:45:25
Speaker 1: And the clock management is key. That's huge. He needs to win that battle against Kalen DeBoer if he can. He hasn't been able to do that in recent matchups. Not just here, but just across the board. It's not been his strong suit. Chad, good to have you back from Florida. It's good to have you back. You have a nice tan. Thank you. Appreciate it.
00:45:43
Speaker 2: I worked hard on this tan, you know. Spent a lot of hours out on the beach this week saying I just want to be tan for that Friday night.
00:45:49
Speaker 1: You earned it. Dixieland Delight Friday night tour, you know. What just happened back here?
00:45:54
Speaker 2: I was third and seven. Now it's fourth and seven. We got Tulane kicking a field goal to go up six.
00:45:59
Speaker 1: I love this.
00:46:00
Speaker 2: Every point counts when you're 14 to one on Friday night and you're trying to cover six and a hook and you're taking a six point lead before the half. Every point counts. I need this kicker for Tulane to come in and knock this thing right through the upright.
00:46:15
Speaker 1: Okay. This guy, is it a high number, Chad? 29 yards. It's a little close for my liking. I don't like it when it's this close. He's wearing 35. I don't like it when it's this close. Come on. It's a little too close. Oh, my God. Oh. We're good. We're in. It's his night, ladies and gentlemen. A minute left.
00:46:35
Speaker 2: We've got to play some defense. Green Wave has got to play a little D this final minute. I can't wait until I get lit up by people that are telling me after they lose by 35 in the second.
00:46:44
Speaker 1: Half how excited I was. Some guy's going to bet the second half right now.
00:46:48
Speaker 3: On Hard Rock.
00:46:48
Speaker 2: Oh, how about that six-point lead you had at halftime, huh? As you lost by 25.
00:46:52
Speaker 1: Hey, Dixieland Delight Friday night. Hardrock.bet slash clay is where you can go right now.
00:46:59
Speaker 2: Hey, Wagon Wheel, too. Big thanks to them for hosting us. Mark Jernigan. Big thanks to Jacob Lutz for delivering it. He's a one-man band back here.
00:47:06
Speaker 1: Yes. Ellie Mae Williamson was great. Fantastic.
00:47:08
Speaker 2: A terrific crowd on hand back here. My guy's got an old-school Duckhead hat on. Haven't seen that in a while. I used to wear Duckhead. I like the Duckhead hat. I love the Duckhead hat.
00:47:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's good. It's great. Throwback. Very nice. He probably thinks it's a Riley Green hat. I don't think so. That's Duckhead, right? No, it is. He doesn't even know. He's not old enough to know. He can't hear me. He's not old enough to know. I don't know. Riley Green, by the way, is in Knoxville. We were at one of his bars today. Yeah, he's going to be on SEC Nation in the morning. I say one of his bars. Yeah, we– Shout-out to Wagon Wheel, yes. Let's go find some dinner. Let's have a night. Let's have a day, shall we? Yes. It is a great– we circled October 17th when the schedule came out across college football. Enjoy it. Full coverage at sportandstate.com. We are back on Monday with full reaction to the football weekend, both college and NFL. Join us 8 o'clock Eastern each morning at Sport and State and across social media. You can follow us and share the channel at Hunt and Withrow on YouTube. Have a great night. Dixieland Delight Friday night.
Speaker 1: Let's go, man. We're back in Chad Withrow's second home. Yes. Hutton here, Withrow here. Hutton and Withrow mornings and Dixieland Delight Friday night. Let's go, man. We've got Alabama, Tennessee. We are in Knoxville. Wagon Wheel is our location. Also a second home for us. Yes. We're in Knoxville, spelled K-N-O-C-K-S-ville. Yes. Yes, apparently. Hey, this is a beautiful spot. We are here.
00:00:26
Speaker 2: We're going to get you a scene setter for the weekend here, Tennessee and Alabama. Incredible spot in the old city, Hutton. And every time I come back, I feel like the winds of East Tennessee call me a little bit more and more each time.
00:00:39
Speaker 1: They're back. And this time it was a little warm for the Texas game, right?
00:00:44
Speaker 2: It was a much more lively crowd early for Texas because the game was early. Tennessee fans understand that this is a marathon, not a sprint. You pace yourself, right? There are people trickling in here right now. They know we're not going to go out until a little bit later than we would have before an 11 a.m.
00:01:02
Speaker 1: Or noon kickoff, right?
00:01:04
Speaker 2: And then you get yourself prepped the way you should. As Josh Heupel said, if you want to get there early, take advantage of the happy hour inside the stadium with half-priced beverages. Then you do that. But we're going to have a blast here tonight. Good to have you here with us, Hutton.
00:01:16
Speaker 1: Good to be back, man. You were here for the Texas game.
00:01:18
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah.
00:01:18
Speaker 1: So it's good to be here. This is going to be a blast. We're presented by Hard Rock Bet right now. At Hard Rock Bet, you can download the app. You can roll with us at hardrock.bet.com. The line currently Alabama favored on the road by 7.5. They come in with a 15.5 points over under total points scored. And I get the feeling you're okay with this. Not okay with it. But you think it's fair?
00:01:43
Speaker 2: Yeah, a lot of the predictions I've seen, people talking about this game, 27-24 is a popular pick.
00:01:49
Speaker 1: Okay.
00:01:50
Speaker 2: One way or the other for Tennessee or Alabama. So that 50-and-a-half point line would make a lot of sense with that one.
00:01:55
Speaker 1: Yep.
00:01:56
Speaker 2: Being a 51-point total. Look, I think that we're going to talk about this game a lot, but Alabama's offense is so much further along than Tennessee's offense. On the flip side, Tennessee's defense is better than Alabama's defense.
00:02:11
Speaker 4: It is.
00:02:12
Speaker 2: Tennessee's defense is going to go up against a starting center who's never really played for Alabama, possibly in this game.
00:02:20
Speaker 1: With Gilliam on the other side, let's go.
00:02:21
Speaker 2: Xavier Gilliam might be, as Cole Kubrick said, the best defensive player in America. There's a lot of things to like about Tennessee in this game, Hudden. I just keep going back to Keelan Russell has a QBR of 90, third best QBR in America this year. Their quarterback play has been so much better. And the story with Tennessee, obviously, George McIntyre, the backup, now the starting quarterback for the Vols.
00:02:44
Speaker 1: Yep. I mean, coming off the Arkansas game, it wasn't like you absolutely sucked. There's got to be more with the conservative play calling that we saw from Josh Heupel. And I think there are ways to do that in this game that take advantage of the Alabama defense's the way they could have against Auburn or Arkansas. We'll get to that in a moment. But I look at this, I think there's an absolute great chance that Tennessee keeps this close for a game. And with that in mind, I'm thinking 7.5 makes me want to take Tennessee. With a field goal kick, whatever it might be, both special teams very efficient this season. Neither field goal kicker has made a kick beyond 50 yards. So you've got to get around the 32-yard line or so. That's your That's your spot. I think it's a close game tomorrow. I do. And I'm about ready to take Tennessee plus the 7.5. I do think the under hits.
00:03:38
Speaker 2: Josh Heifel, 2022-2024, wins this game in Knoxville. He's 2-0 against Alabama at Neyland Stadium. When you look at what they were able to do in those two games, in 2022, Hutton, we were there. It was a laser show. It was Hendon Hooker hitting Jalen Hyatt. It was five touchdowns. It was every time Nick Saban in Alabama at the time.
00:04:01
Speaker 1: Not in a certain defense.
00:04:03
Speaker 2: Josh Heupel had the right call dialed up, and it was bombs away.
00:04:07
Speaker 1: It was a big run.
00:04:09
Speaker 2: It was a huge scramble by Hendon Hooker. Every answer they had. Tennessee's defense got shredded in that game by Bryce Young also. It was a true shootout in that one, right?
00:04:18
Speaker 1: It was the best single performance at quarterback that Alabama's seen. Yep.
00:04:23
Speaker 2: It was unbelievable to watch. It was a magic show. 2024, Josh Heupel had a really good defense. He had Dylan Sampson who could run, played conservatively. They win the game 24-17. Nico made some big throws. Made a huge throw to Chris Brazel for the touchdown. The go-ahead touchdown eventually won the game, right? I feel like this game is kind of a balance between the two. where Tennessee's got to find something through the air. They've got to get George McIntyre going. They've got to get Mike Matthews the football. They've got to get Braylon Staley playing better. But also, Tennessee's got a great defense in this game too. So can Josh Heupel go 3-0 against Alabama? I mean, college football fans, I don't think for the vast majority understand the historical significance of Tennessee and Alabama in the SEC race for years and years. For a Tennessee coach, given what they just went through, from Blaine Kiffin to Derek Dooley to Butch Jones to Jeremy Pruitt, to have a volunteer coach go 3-0 against Bama at Neyland, that would be gigantic for Josh Heifel.
00:05:30
Speaker 1: It's been since Jeremy Pruitt wore the COVID sheath. Yeah, over his face, his entire face. The babushka. Yes, it's been since then that Alabama won in Knoxville. Chad, I think, believe it or not, I think George McIntyre's going to run it. The boot is wide open. It is wide open, and on the RPO, he's going to do it one time. He's going to go, he's going to boot out and actually have the threat of running it. I think he gets a big yardage off of this. He makes the defense run. actually have to defend this. Because right now, I mean, it's been there. He just hasn't done it. I realize why. But it makes me think of the Peyton Manning running in with the ball in his hand. That is wide open. And if we see Faison Brandon in this game in certain spots, it's a run. That's the way I'm going to view it. And if we see McIntyre, it's a pass. I don't want to see, or it's a handoff. I don't want to see that the entire game because it's so obvious. If he just does it one time, it's a 20-yard gain. It's just that obvious, Chad. Can he do it? He's got to be the one to pull it and go.
00:06:33
Speaker 2: If Highpool and Faison Brandon can hit a pop pass in this game, I want to see the old Tim Tebow offense in 2006 where Urban Meyer would put Tim Tebow in and run situations.
00:06:42
Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:06:43
Speaker 1: But occasionally he would roll out and throw it. And every time Tim.
00:06:46
Speaker 2: Tebow threw it, it was a huge play. I want to see the fake quarterback draw where they're telegraphing. They got three tight ends in. All this is going on. Hit Luka Wolf, the freshman from Austria, at tight end. Something no one is predicting at all, right? If you're going to this game, I say that. I'm not joking. Josh Heupel needs three to four scheme plays like that. where you're going to have a situation where the defense is coming up, you're going to go up to it, fake run, throw it to somebody. In order to beat Alabama and keep your offense on the field, it's going to take some of that for Tennessee. I feel like the Texas game, I was saying the same thing. It's going to take some turnovers. It's going to take a special teams touchdown.
00:07:28
Speaker 1: Guess what?
00:07:29
Speaker 2: Tennessee got a special teams touchdown in that game. The punt return from Quay Moss. They got the onside kick in that game. They still couldn't win it in the end. When you go into a.
00:07:38
Speaker 1: Game feeling that way, it's a tough spot to be in.
00:07:41
Speaker 2: But this Tennessee team and Josh Hypel and Joey Halsley in particular, they're capable of drawing something up like that.
00:07:48
Speaker 1: And they have to be excellent in the red zone. Yep. Um, you know, it was, uh, Womack, Kane Womack, who got, um, Aguilar in the red zone last year. And that totally changed the game to give it a lot of different looks in the red zone. They, they have to be able to overcome that with McIntyre. And if they do, if they're able to be excellent, the red zone score touchdowns there, they can win the game. Um, Everyone's saying don't turn the football over. No one wants to. You just have to win the turnover battle and be able to go and score and capitalize. You have great field position. You know, you can't bounce the ball off your running back's shoulder pad. No. Ten to half. No.
00:08:24
Speaker 2: I mean, by the way, speaking of the play last year, talking about with Joey Aguilar before half, flashbacks to that with the Arkansas game. As the clock is ticking down to three seconds, and he's running down the field, I'm thinking, please, God, somebody tackle this dude. Thank God for Darius Jackson, rah-rah, as his teammates call him, for hustling. He was running a route down the field and caught the defensive line behind. And George McIntyre tripped him up initially, was right behind him, running him.
00:08:49
Speaker 1: Down as a quarterback. Can't have that.
00:08:52
Speaker 2: Can't have stupid things like that. Look, Tennessee opened the second half against Arkansas with a five-yard false start. You cannot do things like that. When you're set and ready, get on the field and get ready to get a drive going. You can't have stupid mistakes like that to start drives if Tennessee's going to win. But when I look at both rosters, Alabama's very good. They're better than Tennessee on offense right now. These rosters are very similar from a talent standpoint. And this game is at home. And you are a big underdog. For a game like this over a touchdown underdog, Vegas is saying they do not believe.
00:09:26
Speaker 1: They believe.
00:09:28
Speaker 2: Alabama loses to Georgia. They're going to bounce back. This is the week they come back. In the boomerang effect, they're going to win. Tennessee squeaks by Arkansas. They feel like they're going to let down.
00:09:38
Speaker 1: Prove them wrong. Prove them wrong if you're the Vols. They believe that Keelan Russell is going to go on the road in a huge road test. And with a huge home field advantage. We saw that against Auburn. That factored in. They believe Keelan Russell is going to handle it. He's handled everything very well. But keep this in mind. It was Keelan Russell initially. They wanted George McIntyre. in the recruitment. That's also a storyline with all of this is they landed McIntyre. I mean, I think George McIntyre's final choices were, yeah, Tennessee, Bama, and LSU were the last three. And it was McIntyre that went to Tennessee.
00:10:14
Speaker 2: Nothing about the quarterback situation from Tennessee makes sense.
00:10:17
Speaker 1: Let me address this also, okay?
00:10:19
Speaker 2: And I think if you look at Tennessee, right now they're 10th in the SEC in recruiting out of high school. I believe that they have shifted their focus away from spending so much money on freshmen in college and high school players to they're going to hit the portal hard every single year. and they feel like that's a better route to go. But at quarterback especially, you cannot go back-to-back years with George McIntyre, borderline five-star, over-a-million-dollar-a-year guy, to an over-two-million-dollar-a-year guy in Faison Brandon. This is not the way. All the Star Wars quotes and everything out there, this is not the way. Like the way they've done it. You can do it and sprinkle in one guy to develop, and then you wait a couple years, you get the guy that can transfer in and contribute immediately. Tennessee doesn't have that, though.
00:11:07
Speaker 1: They've got two guys one year apart. Maybe the strategy has just been the rules aren't in place to actually protect the contract, like the way Nico bolted, right? Like he's got his money, he played, and he's gone. the return in investment doesn't meet the actual up front, even though he played. So maybe it is just a one-year plan until you have rules and structure in place. I mean, it may not even matter who you recruit for a year.
00:11:32
Speaker 2: Look, if it works out, Jared Curtis at Vanderbilt the same way. Bryce Underwood is not working out at Michigan. And this is another example of that. Huge investment out of high school. You're our three-year guy. You're going to start right away. Faison Brandon, next example. was rough against Texas. Granted, he was hurt, was rough against Auburn. He gets taken out. Jared Curtis, Vandy is not good this year. They're battling Arkansas tomorrow to see who's going to be last place in the SEC. I'm very confident in saying that. That is going to be their one win, I feel like, right now for one of those teams in this game.
00:12:05
Speaker 1: I'm taking you over.
00:12:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, in their game. But again, like, Can you keep Jared Curtis three years? Are you going to keep Faison Brandon three years? Look, if Faison Brandon comes back next year as a starter, and Tennessee's a playoff team, which we'll get to, could be different with 24 teams in the playoffs.
00:12:19
Speaker 1: It could be.
00:12:20
Speaker 2: But if they're competing at the top of the sport for the next two years, you win. It's a win for you. If George McIntyre is truly the guy, it's a waste. Well, it's a waste of resources, and it's not the route to go in today's college football.
00:12:35
Speaker 1: It only works if your coaches are coming back. We didn't see that at Michigan because of other rare reasons. Yep. And you've got to have both sides come back and invest. Chad, let's not even go to the 2014. If Tennessee wins this game tomorrow, they are jumping into the college football playoff. Oh, yeah. It is realistic at that point. You're in it. And you give Bama another loss. LSU's already got their two losses. They're in a great spot. I mean, you got the win over Bama with their 7.5 points. That won't be remembered, though, the 7.5-point favorites by Bama. No. Because they lost to Georgia, that back-to-back loss. It looks good right now.
00:13:11
Speaker 2: If you're a Tennessee and Alabama fan, I mean, Alabama, obviously, you were very close to beating Georgia at home.
00:13:16
Speaker 1: You're upset about that. 5-1 versus 5-1. This is what we wanted. Here we are. We're in Knoxville. We are at Wagon Wheel in the old city.
00:13:25
Speaker 2: We wanted 5-1 versus 5-1 with playoff hopes on the line. Now, look, if you're Tennessee, realistically, you've got to split these next two games. You can't lose both.
00:13:36
Speaker 1: You're out.
00:13:37
Speaker 2: You've got to beat Bama or you've got to beat South Carolina. You beat both, Hutton. You're sitting really pretty. Going into November, right? If you win one of the two, you're alive in November. You get a bye week on Halloween day. So you're still in a good spot going into November with Kentucky coming into Knoxville to start the month. And then you've got that trip to A & M.
00:13:58
Speaker 1: Yes.
00:13:58
Speaker 2: But outside that, you've got LSU coming in. All the top opponents for Tennessee right now, if you look at it. Kentucky, and as good as they've looked. Bama tomorrow.
00:14:08
Speaker 1: LSU. They're in Neyland Stadium. They're all here.
00:14:11
Speaker 2: And Tennessee has not won enough big games at Neyland in the last year and a half. Texas was a continuation of that in this game. Go win a big game at Neyland. Go win two of the three big games that Neyland left. You don't have to win all of them. Win two of the next three. You're going to put yourself in a position to play for.
00:14:30
Speaker 1: That national title. They've been able to overcome some high pool problems. Lutz liked hearing about Kentucky being good, by the way. Yeah, he is. He's like, damn it. Finally, Kentucky's a challenge to Tennessee. He's also happy. They are, by the way. They're very good. Yeah. I mean, he's also very happy that the weather is much better this weekend than it was in Lexington last week.
00:14:48
Speaker 2: Something we found out is Lutz is not a fan of cold weather. But I'm like, I mean, this is like 60s, 50s.
00:14:52
Speaker 1: This is perfect. It's like 60s right now. Actually, it feels like 50. It's probably 70 degrees outside. Well, the wind is blowing. Because it just dropped so fast. I sound like a Jim Cantore over here.
00:15:04
Speaker 2: The wind is blowing slightly northwest to southeast. It's a little bit breezy. Feels more like 62, Hutton, but what we know is it's going to be perfect weather this weekend for Tennessee and Alabama.
00:15:15
Speaker 1: I cannot wait. We're going to be in the stadium tomorrow, and it's going to be awesome. We have a fight in one of these games behind you. I thought you said there was going to be a fight behind us right now. I'm watching one of the games. I was like, am I going to have to throw hands? Army and Coastal Carolina just got into a brawl. Um, they were showing, they were showing up one for last season. They ran up the game. Okay. And Chad, your hard rock lock of the week right now, uh, 10, three, not good to lane down by seven. The spread six and a half plus six and a half. We need the green way to get going right here. Hutton. They're down seven right now, but are you 17? And what, what was the record? 14 to one, 14 to one. He's going to be 17 to one soon. Um, And this was the definition of the heat check.
00:15:54
Speaker 2: I did no research. I do nothing but I just looked at it and said, what's my gut reaction?
00:15:58
Speaker 1: Tulane will cover. They will. Need to stop. Need to stop right here, Hunt. We need to stop. Hardrock.bet slash play. My lock of the week. We'll find out tomorrow. Ohio State, Indiana taking the under 51.5. It's dropped to 50. So I would get it up. Take the 51.5. I think it's going to matter just based on what we're seeing with the drop. We're going to go through some games coming up. We also have The last time you and I were here for the Bama-Tennessee together was our night with Alan Bean, Clay Travis. Yes. And that was when all the demons were exercised. Yes. It was cathartic. It was genuine, emotional. And when I say emotional, we mean it in terms of what we saw from Clay. Yeah. In the back of a pickup truck. He's flying private jets now. Yes. Then we were taking an Uber in the back of a pickup truck.
00:16:48
Speaker 2: I mean, he paid about as much as you would for a private jet to that pickup truck owner.
00:16:53
Speaker 1: But, yes, it was in the back of a pickup truck. It's a classic moment. We're going to play that because we have it on video where we were able to get out of Neyland Stadium somehow. We walked about a mile and a half, two miles, to get up Neyland Drive and close to Kingston Pike.
00:17:10
Speaker 2: I can tell you exactly where we were. We were pulled over in an agricultural building. And then finally someone stopped.
00:17:16
Speaker 1: I forgot about the eye builder. You're right.
00:17:18
Speaker 2: They were getting turned around, and we stopped them. And Clay said, I think I'll pay you $ 500.
00:17:23
Speaker 1: To drive us back to our condo. He was pulling a Yui. He said, come on. Because he couldn't get through. Yeah. And he's having to turn around. And Clay was just like, I'll just give you cash. I've got a few hundred.
00:17:31
Speaker 2: I remember Clay walking up to his room at the Airbnb to get the cash to bring back to the guy.
00:17:35
Speaker 1: Yeah. And we're back there with, like, their newlyweds, right? Like, there were, like, it was, like, two newlyweds. Probably in their 20s that drove us. He had to, he took the, this is not in the video at all. He took the bed of the cover, the bed cover. He rolled that back, took all of that stuff that he had there, put it in the cab. He had one other guy with him, I feel like. That guy was probably sitting on all that. There was a lot of.
00:18:00
Speaker 2: Trust in Knoxville that night because I feel like we could have been the Manson family taking him back to a house.
00:18:06
Speaker 1: They could have been murderers also. Didn't care.
00:18:09
Speaker 2: We were all in orange, and we said, you know what? We're going to figure this out. We trust you. We're going to ride back. We're going to pay you the $ 500. We're going to trust you with our women and put them in the back of the truck, too, if we need to. Everything was fine.
00:18:23
Speaker 1: You're right. And guess what happened? Nothing bad happened.
00:18:25
Speaker 2: It's amazing, America, when we come together in moments like that and everyone feels the glee of a big win on a college football Saturday.
00:18:34
Speaker 1: Incredible. They didn't make a big mistake that night. No mistakes were made. I'll never forget it.
00:18:39
Speaker 2: That guy got $ 500 richer for driving 15 minutes.
00:18:42
Speaker 1: And for a moment that we have in the history books, it's legendary because it's college football. It's the fabric of why we love sports because of the impact it has on the past, present, and future. Here's Clay Travis in the bed of the pickup truck as we're about halfway back to the Airbnb, and we start saying that we just beat Bama to me. Clay, you were tearing up at the end.
00:19:08
Speaker 4: I cried.
00:19:09
Speaker 1: I mean, that's how much it meant to me.
00:19:10
Speaker 4: It's embarrassing to be 43 years old and cry at the result of a football game, but I'll tell you this. When Tennessee in 1990 lost to Alabama, I was thinking about this when I was watching. I was with my grandpa who played for General Nealon in the 1930s. He's going to cry again.
00:19:25
Speaker 1: Cry. Cry. I was watching the game with him. Cry. I was watching the game with him.
00:19:31
Speaker 4: Tennessee was supposed to beat Alabama.
00:19:32
Speaker 1: They didn't ever beat Alabama when I was a kid.
00:19:34
Speaker 4: And 1990... Tennessee was trying to field goal.
00:19:39
Speaker 1: It got blocked.
00:19:41
Speaker 4: Alabama recovered and made a field goal to win 9-6. And I cried after that game. And I was at my grandpa's house. in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Red Bank, to be specific. And he was so disappointed in me that I cried about a team, about Tennessee losing. And he said, you know, you don't cry about losing football games. But I'm probably going to cry here. When Tennessee, when that kick was not good, and then Tennessee made the kick to win, I thought back to being 11 years old. And I felt like it was almost like cosmic and karmic justice that Tennessee made that kick after Alabama missed it. It took me back to being 11 years old in my grandpa's house in Red Bank, Tennessee, who played for General Neal in the 1930s.
00:20:33
Speaker 1: What a fucking win. Unbelievable. Cigars are next. Yes, definitely. Clay, you were– how about that? Oh, the emotions. The emotions. Wow. I mean, Clay's got three sons. Yeah. I think he may have traded one of them in for that win. I'm kidding.
00:20:53
Speaker 2: He loves his sons. Of course we know Clay. Clay, we know you love your sons more than the win over Alabama. But I will say, in moments like that, if you're a fan of a school, and I was right there with him that night, there is an emotional crossover there. Of euphoria. That's very rare. Alan Bean, who was there that night, we're probably going to go see him tomorrow at tailgating. We're going to go see him inside the stadium.
00:21:17
Speaker 1: Absolutely will.
00:21:18
Speaker 2: He, in fact, has said, bring me Hutton because I want to recreate 2022.
00:21:23
Speaker 1: Bring it on.
00:21:24
Speaker 2: And Lutz reminds us, one of his sons is an Alabama fan. That's the son who would have been traded for that win had Clay wanted to trade a son, no doubt.
00:21:31
Speaker 1: Yep.
00:21:33
Speaker 2: Alan Bean wants to run it back with 2022 with you. But there was a game even in 2015 where Tennessee comes from behind against Georgia and beat Georgia and Mark Richt. And I remember me and Alan Bean leaving the stadium.
00:21:45
Speaker 1: Because it was so euphoric. They were dead. They were gone.
00:21:48
Speaker 2: They were down 21-3 or 24-3 or whatever it was. They come back and win. It's moments like that you'll always remember.
00:21:54
Speaker 1: See, I got the vibe that year that Tennessee was going to win the game because everybody was saying, is this the year? We've got the team. You've got Hooker. He's on a run. He's playing great. You've got the receiving core that's able to– you have some alphas in the receiving core. You have some speed in the receiving core. You have an offensive line that's protecting the quarterback. There were things that you saw that you were like, they can keep up and attract me. They really can. Can the defense hold them? The answer was no, but Alabama's defense couldn't stop them either. It was a classic. I don't get the sense there's that same belief this year. Going into the game, I don't hear a lot of sense. We got a chance to be a college football playoff legit. Not just a contender, but we'll be in it after this game on Sunday. I don't hear that. So I'm not feeling the buzz like I was in 2022. I want to. I just don't think it's not comparable. That's why Allenby probably doesn't want me to come break the streak. Well, and look, I'll say it in this way, and this is why you're not hearing that. Tennessee has lost their identity under Josh Hyde. Let's be real about it.
00:22:53
Speaker 2: 21-22, Tennessee fans felt confident because they said, a year ago, we scored with everyone. And we exceeded expectations. Coming off NCAA sanctions left by Jeremy Pruitt.
00:23:06
Speaker 1: Right. Everything else.
00:23:07
Speaker 2: But they were going to score points. They were going to go for it on fourth down. 2022 was the perfect mix of everything. Opportunistic defense. And they had an offense that was going to go for it. They were going to step on your throat.
00:23:18
Speaker 1: You're right.
00:23:18
Speaker 2: They were going to go deep. And then what happens? 23, they're sort of mid everywhere. They're a good team, but not great. 24, they got a great defense. They got a pedestrian offense. 25, they got a great offense and a terrible defense. It's a seesaw effect. What do we have in 2026? Pedestrian offense.
00:23:37
Speaker 1: Another quarterback, yeah, you're right.
00:23:39
Speaker 2: We got Josh Heupel kicking a 51-yard field goal on 4th and 1 against Arkansas.
00:23:45
Speaker 1: And hooking it, right? Yeah.
00:23:47
Speaker 2: You've got all these different things where it's Josh Heupel that smoked that damn cigar when they beat Alabama. And was so happy in that game. That's the Josh Heifel Tennessee needs tomorrow.
00:24:00
Speaker 1: If they're going to win.
00:24:01
Speaker 2: He's got to bring back that we're playing with house money. We're going for it. We're not afraid. We got the horses. We've got the offense. That mentality needs to return at some point for Tennessee to win a big football game like this.
00:24:15
Speaker 1: I think that needs to return in spots. In spots though. Have those ready. But don't feel like you have to pull it out. You don't have to because you're a defense. You're right. That's right. You don't. Have it ready, though. He's got to be willing to pull the trigger, and so does George McIntyre. But on fourth and two, don't kick a 51-yard field goal. I totally agree with that. I don't care if you run it. Figure out a way to get the first down and go for it. Do you think we see Faison Brandon tomorrow? Yes. That's another part of this. I do. Is how do you use him? The way this news story has gone out all week with, oh, Brent Hubbs had the report on purpose. You know, you've got the report where Hubbs is like, I'm hearing that he's much more involved in practice. After being an emergency quarterback last week, that's a huge jump. I think he's not going to start, but he's going to play. I think three players will take snaps for Tennessee tomorrow. Okay. Okay. George McIntyre. Yeah.
00:25:06
Speaker 2: Faison Brandon and Mike Matthews. I think all three. I think Mike Matthews, they showed them that look against Arkansas late, right before they scored the go-ahead touchdown, where they went direct snap to Mike Matthews. I think at least three. I think you could see a fourth player take a snap tomorrow.
00:25:22
Speaker 1: It's that type of game. It's a big football game.
00:25:25
Speaker 2: You don't have to play outside yourself and play like you're crazy, but you need to play like you're confident and you're.
00:25:31
Speaker 1: Going to go score points. And maybe the conservative aspect has been setting this up a bit. Yep. You know, with the play call and the sheet.
00:25:37
Speaker 2: What we say in 2022 is like holding serve. A touchdown was just, oh, well, they held serve. Oh, Bryce Young just hit another pass. Alabama held serve. It was so back and forth, you felt like a stop or two was going to win it. Because everyone was scoring back and forth.
00:25:52
Speaker 1: And it came down to a kick. So, yep, one stop could have done it. Chad, coming up, Ellie Mae Williams is going to join us from Sporting State. And we get a vibe. She's a Tennessee grad. We'll get a Tennessee check. She knows the rivalry.
00:26:03
Speaker 2: She understands it. She's the daughter of a football coach. We're going to talk about some of the history between these two teams.
00:26:09
Speaker 1: She's going to know this. I want to know the football player that's most popular on campus. She's not on campus anymore. I know, but she would know. Okay. She would know. And I don't think it's the freshman. It's not the highly recruited one. I don't know who it would be. I have a guess. We'll save it. Let's do it. We'll save it. Hey, this is Dixieland Delight Friday Night Chat. Wagon Wheel, we're in your second city. Yeah, yeah. This is our second home. Wagon Wheel is amazing. Old City.
00:26:36
Speaker 2: Mark Jernigan, the owner, has been very kind to us over the years. We love this spot. Great country bar in the Old City. They're playing country music behind us. It's Tennessee, Alabama. The leaves reflect the colors on the field. We got both home uniforms being worn tomorrow. We're listening to country music.
00:26:52
Speaker 1: Oh, that's right. We're talking ball tonight. Doesn't get any better than this. Dixieland Delight to continue the ride on this. Stay tuned. We're back. It is Dixieland Delight Friday night here on Sport and State at sportandstate.com. YouTube channel at Hutton and Withrow. Glad you're with us. Football season is here. Third Saturday in October coming up. The eve has arrived. Ellie Mae Williamson with us as well here just off campus at Wagon Wheel. Good to see you.
00:27:18
Speaker 3: Thanks. Thanks for having me, y'all.
00:27:20
Speaker 1: I'm excited to be here. So I was asking a question to Chad. He's got to guess the most popular football player on campus. Normally it's the quarterback. It's not that right now. It's... There's not an obvious answer, I don't think. You would know this just based on the fact that you know the team, you know the friends that are on campus right now.
00:27:39
Speaker 5: I would have to go with either Deshaun Bishop or Arion Carter. And a hot take, Xavier Gillum.
00:27:45
Speaker 1: Oh, okay. He's the best player on the team.
00:27:47
Speaker 3: I would say so.
00:27:48
Speaker 5: And the funny thing about him is he actually didn't start playing football until his junior year of high school. So for him to come onto a college campus without much of a recruiting experience or fans getting to know.
00:27:57
Speaker 3: Who he was.
00:27:59
Speaker 1: I don't know.
00:28:00
Speaker 3: He's exploded.
00:28:01
Speaker 2: It's pretty amazing when you see L.A. made the amount of transfers to Tennessee that have hit immediately. Xavier Gilliam, Quay Moss. It would be weird to say the big man on campus is the guy who's been here for five months or however long they've been here, six months. But those two guys have been big-time contributors. Deshaun Bishop's good answer. Arion Carter with what he's doing for cancer research also.
00:28:24
Speaker 1: They've covered that.
00:28:25
Speaker 3: That's what I would say.
00:28:26
Speaker 1: Pretty popular guys, right?
00:28:27
Speaker 3: For sure.
00:28:28
Speaker 5: I think those are the top three, though. Xavier, honestly, McIntyre, though, too. I mean, you can't say a quarterback.
00:28:34
Speaker 1: After tomorrow, he could be.
00:28:35
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, you've got to look at your quarterback as somebody that's going to be leading your offense. So I would say George, even though he really hasn't much, many snaps and much time, I still want to.
00:28:44
Speaker 3: Go with the quarterback answer.
00:28:46
Speaker 1: Chad, do you think you'll go with McIntyre? I would not yet.
00:28:51
Speaker 2: I will say if George McIntyre wins this game tomorrow, I will run on the field and kiss him on the mouth.
00:28:57
Speaker 1: So then he would definitely be the most popular guy.
00:29:00
Speaker 2: This is, and you wrote about this, I know also, the rivalry between these two teams. I was watching Dave Portnoy at Barstool. questioning Casey Smith about Tennessee and Alabama.
00:29:10
Speaker 1: People hate each other. I didn't even know that. He didn't even realize it was a big rival.
00:29:14
Speaker 2: But the history between the two teams, third Saturday in October, Ellie Mae, you've written about it.
00:29:20
Speaker 1: It's a pretty cool experience.
00:29:21
Speaker 5: Yeah, and this is a story too that not many people know about. The cigars are something that you have to do. Winner has to do it. It doesn't matter what it is. You've got to smoke the cigar afterwards. I actually had the opportunity to work with Legends of Tennessee, which is Jabari Davis and a lot of other VFLs who have gone together and they started a VFL cigar that was smoked on the 2022 year after Tennessee had that 15.
00:29:47
Speaker 3: Winless streak that they had. And so.
00:29:51
Speaker 5: I was very familiar with that story.
00:29:53
Speaker 3: Trust me.
00:29:53
Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:29:53
Speaker 5: I mean, the stadium looked like it was on fire just from the cigar smoke. So it's one of those like Southern delicacies and traditions that has been carried on through many generations. And the story of it all. So I was always familiar with cigars and, you know, smoking them after when, whatever, but the story of it, I was like, there's gotta be an origin.
00:30:10
Speaker 3: There's gotta be something.
00:30:11
Speaker 5: And after a few research, I found something on ESPN about an Alabama trainer. And so I was like, okay, I'm going to dig deeper here. I couldn't, Sadly, the man passed away, Jim Bustry. But I was like, I am going to find a son. I'm going to reach out. We were playing phone tag back and forth all this week and reached out to him. We had a long conversation just about where it all started and what he remembers from it.
00:30:37
Speaker 3: So here we go. History lesson here. trainer actually graduated from Tennessee. So he's a Tennessee graduate.
00:30:46
Speaker 5: He was the trainer under Mickey O'Brien and General Neeland way, way back in the day. And he was also a Letterman golfer. So he was a student athlete at Tennessee. Left after that final year with General Neeland and moved to Clarksville, started high school athletics and started raising a family. And then sure enough, the athletic director at Alabama called up O'Brien and was like.
00:31:08
Speaker 3: Hey, I need somebody to come and play.
00:31:10
Speaker 1: As Rocky Top plays.
00:31:11
Speaker 3: As Rocky Top plays.
00:31:12
Speaker 1: Perfect serenade for the story.
00:31:13
Speaker 5: And I would just like to say, this is a song about just for Tennessee. Now, let's get into that later. Dixieland lies is a song about Tennessee.
00:31:20
Speaker 1: Must discuss.
00:31:23
Speaker 5: I will die on that hill. If there's one hill I will die on, I will die on that hill. Rocky Top's great, but Dixieland Delight is our song. So anyways, yeah, Mickey O'Brien calls, gets a call from the athletic director of Alabama and is like, we need somebody to come and we need a trainer here. Who do you recommend? And of course, Gushere gets the call. So he picks up his entire family, his family of three and his son I talked to on the phone. He told me, you know, we moved in 1957, and we were there. So he was there for Earsworth. Last year of Earsworth, I think that's– I think it was either Earlworth, Earsworth.
00:32:00
Speaker 3: Something like that.
00:32:00
Speaker 5: But, yeah, was there for his last year, and those were tough times for Alabama.
00:32:05
Speaker 3: Really tough times.
00:32:06
Speaker 5: We thought it was bad, like, going into 22, losing as much, but, like, that was Bama back during that time. This is right before the legendary Bear Bryant comes in and saves Alabama.
00:32:15
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:32:16
Speaker 3: You're over here like you're right.
00:32:19
Speaker 1: No, I don't know. It's what you live through, right? If you don't beat Bama, you don't remember ever seeing him.
00:32:25
Speaker 2: Well, and it's also, it's so different now, I think, for this generation. Because, you know, even growing up, it was like you had these heroes that were from the states they represented. You know, the great Tennesseans. Phillip Fulmer played at Tennessee and coached Tennessee. He turned down an offer from Bear Bryant to go to Knoxville, which is a big deal. He was on the state line at Winchester in Franklin County where he was from. You had so many stories like that of interconnected players that ended up going to their state school.
00:32:57
Speaker 1: Now it's much more mercenary-like. Right?
00:33:00
Speaker 2: Like, hey, we got guys from Penn State that have no connection to Tennessee until they got here that are balling out for the Vols.
00:33:06
Speaker 1: And that's fine, too. It's just different. So I do think the educational aspect of it is important. Yeah. So make sure these folks know about what they're getting into. Because Florida was the big rival.
00:33:17
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah.
00:33:18
Speaker 1: Because Saban wasn't in Bama.
00:33:19
Speaker 3: Yes.
00:33:20
Speaker 1: You know, and then Saban got there in 2007 and changed that. Yeah. And then it became Bama again. Yeah. And I think if you ask The generation behind us, they would say Bama as the biggest rival. Yeah, for sure. The players, though, always say Bama. Yeah. Oh, for sure.
00:33:34
Speaker 2: For me, it's Bama. I mean, and I'm not that old yet, knock on wood. There's wood over here.
00:33:40
Speaker 3: Well, Ryan McGee even said it today.
00:33:42
Speaker 5: We had a media opportunity with him during SEC Nation while they're here tomorrow. And he had just said, like, in this day and age of college football, you try and create so many different rivalries just based off of, like, who went and got my head coach. If you look at Ole Miss and LSU, like, no one would have ever thought those two schools would become rivalries. And that game would have so much built-up hate. going into it. But, like, that's just where we are in college football right now. You look at the transfer portal, like you mentioned, like, these guys don't really know the history behind these traditions. And so, like, with the Legends of Tennessee, with programs and DFLs and the guys that are pouring back into these schools after they leave, I think that's super important to keep those traditions alive, to keep the game more human, more pure.
00:34:23
Speaker 3: I don't... It's one thing to watch a college football game, but it's another thing to.
00:34:26
Speaker 5: Watch it against your rival and to know the history and the story behind it.
00:34:31
Speaker 3: It's completely different.
00:34:33
Speaker 2: So great job at Texas OU last week. What do you have planned for sport and state tomorrow getting ready for the game?
00:34:39
Speaker 5: Yeah, so tomorrow we're going to SEC Nation. I'll be there bright and early, so I'll be around. I'll be looking for fans. I'll be grabbing different stuff, different types of content ideas. We're going to be doing some fun interviews. I think they're really going to enjoy some of these questions. I'm not going to give it.
00:34:53
Speaker 3: Away on the live.
00:34:54
Speaker 1: No, no, no, don't do that.
00:34:55
Speaker 5: I want these unique live reactions when I meet these people. But, yeah, just kind of getting some stories behind who they think in college football is thriving, their different rivalry stories, stuff like that, some pure old-fashioned hate.
00:35:08
Speaker 1: Have you smoked a cigar before?
00:35:09
Speaker 3: I have never smoked a cigar.
00:35:11
Speaker 1: That's a good video.
00:35:11
Speaker 3: I have never smoked a cigar. And honestly, I don't know if I.
00:35:16
Speaker 1: You coughing on a cigar would be good. You have to do that tomorrow if they win. Yeah, you're a UT grad. You got to do it.
00:35:21
Speaker 3: I honestly should. I should have done it in 22.
00:35:23
Speaker 1: I just.
00:35:23
Speaker 3: I didn't want to cough in front of everyone. I was like, maybe I'll practice tonight. I don't know. Like, I'll do a practice run.
00:35:30
Speaker 1: There are so many people who have it. I mean, the players have it either, by the way.
00:35:33
Speaker 3: That is true.
00:35:34
Speaker 5: That is very true. Well, so back to the cigar story, though. Where it all came from.
00:35:38
Speaker 1: So.
00:35:39
Speaker 5: Fourth year of Paul Bear Bryant being the head coach, he comes into Tennessee.
00:35:44
Speaker 3: And as a college trainer, your job is to be.
00:35:48
Speaker 5: That hype man at 6 in the morning on a road game, whatever it is. But he comes in. It's been 13 years since Alabama has won against Tennessee.
00:36:00
Speaker 3: And so.
00:36:01
Speaker 5: He comes in there to the locker room right before he leaves, and he's like, guys, before we get on this bus, I just want to let you all know, if y'all beat Tennessee, I will dance.
00:36:09
Speaker 3: Around this locker room naked, butt naked, nothing on.
00:36:13
Speaker 5: And these guys are like, oh, yeah. I don't know how that hypes up, a group of guys, but it is what it is. He was really putting himself out there for the team.
00:36:21
Speaker 1: Really, literally. And then they did, and then they decided– We're going to smoke cigars.
00:36:27
Speaker 5: Well, his son was like, I remember my dad, you know, That's why I told Coach Bryant, just like, if we win, like, I'll get cigars and we'll pass them out.
00:36:38
Speaker 3: So he went to a convenience store right before they got on the bus, went to a convenience store, went back to the hotel.
00:36:43
Speaker 5: And his son was telling me, like, I remember watching my dad pack those cigars in his bag before he left.
00:36:48
Speaker 3: These, like, convenience store, old school, they're probably really good. Just from, like, day and age that they were.
00:36:54
Speaker 1: In, 1961. I mean. I'm sure some Cuban probably rolled that thing for him.
00:36:58
Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:37:00
Speaker 1: No doubt.
00:37:01
Speaker 3: I mean, at that point, yeah.
00:37:01
Speaker 1: I'm going to say what this man is as a Tennessee grad. Everybody can look it up.
00:37:06
Speaker 2: This man's a charlatan. That's who that man is. I do not respect him. I do like the tradition of the cigars, but Mr.
00:37:13
Speaker 1: Goostery, zero respect for you as a Tennessee grad to start the tradition on behalf of Alabama. I love it.
00:37:20
Speaker 3: But, hey, it'll be really nice if Tennessee gets to smoke them tomorrow.
00:37:23
Speaker 1: It's a good tradition.
00:37:24
Speaker 3: We can always say, yeah, we had them first. Who's a Tennessee grad?
00:37:27
Speaker 2: Yes.
00:37:27
Speaker 5: Like, that's all that matters. At the end of the day, his degree came from the University of Tennessee. He learned what he learned to help that Alabama program.
00:37:35
Speaker 1: Check out the Sports Day Socials tomorrow for all of LMA's content. It'll be great. And maybe we see the cigar tutorial.
00:37:40
Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:37:40
Speaker 1: Could be. Yeah, that's right. Good to see you.
00:37:42
Speaker 3: Thank you.
00:37:43
Speaker 1: Chad, coming up, we can hear your picks. And we need to check on some scores, too, with your hardware block. I'm looking at Tulane running a touchdown right now. Oh, wait, really? Oh, I didn't look. Don't you trash talk my green wave just yet. We're not dead yet, baby.
00:37:57
Speaker 3: Memphis looks good this year.
00:37:58
Speaker 1: Look at this.
00:37:58
Speaker 3: They looked great.
00:37:59
Speaker 2: We got a score of interest, green wave 13, Memphis 10.
00:38:04
Speaker 1: Four minutes left in the first half. No, it's too late either. Here we go. You're getting six and a half as well. Here we go. Hard Rock, the man knows. He's 14-1 on Friday nights. About to be 15-1. Yeah, let's go. Dixieland Delight Friday night rolls. Dixieland Delight Friday night presented by Hard Rock Bet. Sportingstate.com. Thanks for tuning in tonight. We're getting ready for coverage tomorrow from Sporting State from Tennessee, Alabama. We are in Knoxville, Tennessee, and it's a big game. We're going to the big game. Huge game. Each and every Friday night, giving you the vibe. We're at Wagon Wheel. They open just whenever we start the show. And things are about to crank up.
00:38:43
Speaker 2: It's filling up already. We've got a good crowd behind us. Great spot if you're coming in town for a Tennessee game in the Old City.
00:38:50
Speaker 1: Yep.
00:38:51
Speaker 2: Lute's got to experience the Old City for the Texas game for the first time. Very unique spot. Feels at times like you're almost in New Orleans.
00:38:58
Speaker 1: Yes. When you walk around the streets. I agree. It's very old. It's shocking. Old.
00:39:05
Speaker 2: Old buildings in the old city. Great spot to come hang out before a Tennessee game. We're excited to be here, Hutton, and we're getting pumped up for tomorrow.
00:39:12
Speaker 3: Absolutely.
00:39:13
Speaker 1: Absolutely. So right now at Hard Rock Bet, you can go to hardrock.bet.com. You've got the opportunity to take advantage. $ 5 gets you up to $ 500 in no sweat bets. By signing up right now. at hardrock.bet slash clay. That's hardrock.bet slash clay. these guys. They're ready to go.
00:39:32
Speaker 2: They know the drill. Get here a little bit later to start. You know, later start tomorrow, they're.
00:39:35
Speaker 1: Good to go. If you've got a play on Coastal Carolina and Appy State right now, game just tied second quarter, early second quarter, 14 all there. And Chad, his hard rock lock of the week. It's going to come through. It always does on Friday nights. Ooh, throwing across the body. What just happened, Chad? He's up 13-10. You normally don't want to do that.
00:39:53
Speaker 2: I think we're going to get hit with a holding call on Tulane, but about a 20-yard pickup. Tulane driving up 13-10. Two-minute timeout in the first half, but I think this.
00:40:04
Speaker 1: One's going to be coming back. Keep in mind he's getting six and a half points on this as well. I don't like the carelessness of the quarterback, though, throwing across the body. He's feeling it.
00:40:11
Speaker 2: That one should have been picked by Memphis. We're now in the mode of, oh, we got defensive holding.
00:40:18
Speaker 1: Declined. Tulane Greenwave on the move, baby. Here we go. Josh Heifel's not making that play call. You know what's going to be great?
00:40:24
Speaker 2: I hope a lot of people are watching this on Saturday morning when they wake up to go ready for games. People who see their YouTube alerts, you know, over the thousands of people who follow us on YouTube get the alert.
00:40:36
Speaker 1: They go watch it.
00:40:37
Speaker 2: And they just sit and mock me for how excited I am right now. Look at Whitrow so excited about Tulane, a team who eventually lost by 28 when it happens.
00:40:46
Speaker 1: And I'm like, look how giddy he is over this. And then you say, I was 14-1 on Friday night. Yeah. Sorry, guys, I'm 14-2. Earlier this morning I told LT, we're going through the guys from Dexter Out Live, I told LT that Ryan Brown, I'm like, he's going, his lock of the week, by the way, guys, is Tulane plus six and a half. And LT was like, oh, it's like, what? He's like, I don't know. It's like coming out of his skin. Yeah, he's like, I think I'll go the other way. I said, well, he's, and I said 17-1. I said, 14-1 on Friday night. He goes, oh, I guess I'm going to flip it and just probably chat. Yeah, it's a heat check.
00:41:18
Speaker 2: This is me stepping a foot back, guy in my face, and I'm going to shoot another three to see if it's my night. This might be my season on Friday night, Sutton. It looks that way so far.
00:41:28
Speaker 1: Chad, my vibe, and Alan Bean's not going to like this tomorrow when I tell him because I was going into the game in 2022, last time I saw him here at Neyland Stadium. I said, Tennessee's going to win the game. And I was adamant about it. You felt really good about it. I did. I don't feel it this year. I don't. There's not the confidence level from the fans. There's not the vibe. There are guys that we know that are talking about us being here, but they're not here. They chose to drive back to Birmingham or they chose to stay in Nashville. And I'm thinking, oh, that's not a good sign because they'd rather– watch alone in their room like Chad does. In these games, you would normally want to watch this alone, true or false. Oh, yeah, for sure. Like tomorrow, yeah. I may at some point tomorrow, too. The day is young. Well, that's fair. Yeah. But I'm thinking, like, we will be in a great spot tomorrow, but the vibe is, hey, I need to watch this alone so I don't get angry at anybody. You know what I mean? I mean, the vibe going into.
00:42:18
Speaker 2: This game is, and I think Josh Heupel's done a great job at Tennessee, but the vibe to me is Josh Heupel has lost his edge. He doesn't go for it when he should anymore. He's lost his aggression. And we're coming off a game where Kalen DeBoer is being worshipped by Alabama fans for what? Going full Nick Saban on a player and saying, your dumb ass lost the game for us. They loved it. They loved it. They're saying, we got our Saban back.
00:42:46
Speaker 1: You know what?
00:42:47
Speaker 2: This is our guy. He is embarrassing this guy on national TV. He's embarrassing a player. He's our dude. We love him. They wanted to see that fire. They got that fire.
00:42:58
Speaker 1: Saban would have won the game. He coached his balls off in that game. He did.
00:43:02
Speaker 2: I mean, look, I think it's just a very different vibe with head coaches. So, again, Hutton, what I will present is this. I want to see a pop pass from Faison Brandon to Luka Wolfe. I want to see Tennessee go for and get a couple big fourth downs in this game. I want to see some signs of the old Heupel. I don't want to go back to not playing defense like Heupel had in the first year or two, right? I want the defense to remain. I want you to trust your defense. I want you to show that you can not play with speed and tempo and give your defense a better chance. But let's bring back some of that old aggression that you saw with Kalen DeBoer last week.
00:43:40
Speaker 1: The aggression is the word because Jason Swain came on the show today. And I said, hey, are you nervous as a former player? Do you get, like, the good nerves? Do you still get them going into the analyst room for Vols Radio Network? And he said, no, I'm pissed off. Because I hate this team that's coming in here. I'm from Huntsville, Alabama. Just like Joey Kent. And he's like, this means something. They look me over, and I'm still pissed off. I want to see the players have a little bit. When you come in with an edge, that gives you the edge at home. Because the fans are coming in with that same edge. That's the home field advantage. Can Tennessee find those guys? I don't know on offense if they have those guys. You do in the run game, but Texas shut it down. They need to find that against a good Alabama defense against the run. And if they do that, They have a chance to keep this close. And then it comes down to the quarterback and the kicker in the fourth quarter.
00:44:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, and we heard going into the year this could be the best offensive line group Josh Heupel's had. They've not lived up to that hype yet. They need to deliver in this game. They're going to have to do that in this game if Tennessee's going to have a chance. George McIntyre, I think, is seeing the game well. Have one less turnover.
00:44:42
Speaker 1: You know, you're going to turn the ball over at some point.
00:44:44
Speaker 2: Don't have three. I would prefer none, but, you know, two you might be able to win. One you might win. Three you're not going to win. Don't have the one in the fourth quarter.
00:44:54
Speaker 1: No. If you just have one. Not in a big moment. You're right. I'm taking Bama, but right now I'm feeling like it's a very close game to where they cover. I think Tennessee covers in this. I just think it's Bama because of the quarterback in the fourth. I think they win by four.
00:45:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've moved throughout the week. I think Tennessee covers. I do think Bama wins the game. I just think their offense is quite a bit ahead of Tennessee right now. But, again, if Josh Heupel returns to form, I believe Tennessee can win this game at home.
00:45:25
Speaker 1: And the clock management is key. That's huge. He needs to win that battle against Kalen DeBoer if he can. He hasn't been able to do that in recent matchups. Not just here, but just across the board. It's not been his strong suit. Chad, good to have you back from Florida. It's good to have you back. You have a nice tan. Thank you. Appreciate it.
00:45:43
Speaker 2: I worked hard on this tan, you know. Spent a lot of hours out on the beach this week saying I just want to be tan for that Friday night.
00:45:49
Speaker 1: You earned it. Dixieland Delight Friday night tour, you know. What just happened back here?
00:45:54
Speaker 2: I was third and seven. Now it's fourth and seven. We got Tulane kicking a field goal to go up six.
00:45:59
Speaker 1: I love this.
00:46:00
Speaker 2: Every point counts when you're 14 to one on Friday night and you're trying to cover six and a hook and you're taking a six point lead before the half. Every point counts. I need this kicker for Tulane to come in and knock this thing right through the upright.
00:46:15
Speaker 1: Okay. This guy, is it a high number, Chad? 29 yards. It's a little close for my liking. I don't like it when it's this close. He's wearing 35. I don't like it when it's this close. Come on. It's a little too close. Oh, my God. Oh. We're good. We're in. It's his night, ladies and gentlemen. A minute left.
00:46:35
Speaker 2: We've got to play some defense. Green Wave has got to play a little D this final minute. I can't wait until I get lit up by people that are telling me after they lose by 35 in the second.
00:46:44
Speaker 1: Half how excited I was. Some guy's going to bet the second half right now.
00:46:48
Speaker 3: On Hard Rock.
00:46:48
Speaker 2: Oh, how about that six-point lead you had at halftime, huh? As you lost by 25.
00:46:52
Speaker 1: Hey, Dixieland Delight Friday night. Hardrock.bet slash clay is where you can go right now.
00:46:59
Speaker 2: Hey, Wagon Wheel, too. Big thanks to them for hosting us. Mark Jernigan. Big thanks to Jacob Lutz for delivering it. He's a one-man band back here.
00:47:06
Speaker 1: Yes. Ellie Mae Williamson was great. Fantastic.
00:47:08
Speaker 2: A terrific crowd on hand back here. My guy's got an old-school Duckhead hat on. Haven't seen that in a while. I used to wear Duckhead. I like the Duckhead hat. I love the Duckhead hat.
00:47:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's good. It's great. Throwback. Very nice. He probably thinks it's a Riley Green hat. I don't think so. That's Duckhead, right? No, it is. He doesn't even know. He's not old enough to know. He can't hear me. He's not old enough to know. I don't know. Riley Green, by the way, is in Knoxville. We were at one of his bars today. Yeah, he's going to be on SEC Nation in the morning. I say one of his bars. Yeah, we– Shout-out to Wagon Wheel, yes. Let's go find some dinner. Let's have a night. Let's have a day, shall we? Yes. It is a great– we circled October 17th when the schedule came out across college football. Enjoy it. Full coverage at sportandstate.com. We are back on Monday with full reaction to the football weekend, both college and NFL. Join us 8 o'clock Eastern each morning at Sport and State and across social media. You can follow us and share the channel at Hunt and Withrow on YouTube. Have a great night. Dixieland Delight Friday night.
