Tennessee has no Rival

[WoodsmanVol]

Ah tink wee shud git bak tuh playen dem You Sealay Bruns.

 

[Volnanza]

We are LSU in that regard. Only team in state.

Vandy says "Hi".

 

[SpaceCoastVol]

After last season, I think the Vols are back on Bama's radar.

That's a little premature. I'll bet that Gata is a little more than worried though.

 

[SpaceCoastVol]

We have teams that share dislike for each other, but if you ask Alabama they will say Auburn, Florida will say Florida State. Wonder if we will ever start a series with someone who could become our rivals one day and play that game for a trophy or something. Who are your ideas for the team that would spark a rivalry with UT?

Bring back the barrel in the UT/UK game.

 

[vol1981]

Losing to a team because we are "bad" doesn't build a rivalry. If Vanderbilt was winning 8-9 games and beating Tennessee regularly during that period when Tennessee was decent, it would be considered more of a rivalry. The fact that it is just an embarrassment that we lost to them shows it isn't that big of a rivalry.

Also Tennessee hasn't lost to Vanderbilt since 2018. That is 4 straight wins.

Spin it............I say spin it!!

 

[Volnanza]

We may not the the #1 rival for any other school in the SEC but, when we were good, we were a major headache for all of them. Many young Vol fans do not realize that playing Tennessee in the past was almost dreaded by all other schools. No matter which team, if they played Tennessee, that game was circled on the calendar before the season began. We were a major obstacle for all. Tennessee was just plain tough. I hope those days are returning. If they do, oh boooy, this is gonna be fun!

 

[Nationdom]

Alabama is our biggest rival.

Period.

Yeah they have the iron bowl, but the third saturday in october isn't very far behind and has been more relevant in several if not more seasons.

TSIO takes a back seat to NO rivalry in College football and Top 5 in all of sports

 

[Volfaninfl2]

Alabama has been the long time rival, but for me, and I think the more big rival in the last decade or two, which game has been so important every year, is Florida.

 

[OrangeBeachVol]

Rivalries were changed when SEC went to the divisions, FL-TN developed out of that. Accept for the instate SEC ones like AL-AU, Miss- MState I think they change again when SEC does away with the divisions. A&M-TX, Arky-TX were big before they were SEC. Going to be some different ones develope. KY-Vandy will always have TN as their biggest rival but they are not necessarily TN's.

 

[Vol8188]

We have teams that share dislike for each other, but if you ask Alabama they will say Auburn, Florida will say Florida State. Wonder if we will ever start a series with someone who could become our rivals one day and play that game for a trophy or something. Who are your ideas for the team that would spark a rivalry with UT?

Sounds like you’ve never asked Alabama fans

 

[OrangeBeachVol]

Sounds like you’ve never asked Alabama fans

Living in Tide Land it depends on who you ask. Another poster said on page 1. Older AL fans will say TN. Younger fans of the last 15 yrs or so will say Auburn. But make no mistake about it, AL fans still love beating TN every yr. They relished our program being a cupcake game for the last 10-12 yrs. Hopefully the wormed has turned now.

 

[BubbaDoc]

Perhaps we can play someone for a beer barrel...Ya! That's the ticket.

 

[Unconditional Surrender]

Tennessee has more rivals than just about anyone.

 

[Through_The_T]

Bama, Kentucky and Vandy are our most historical rivals and I bet are the permanent carry-overs when the conference expands.

 

[Unconditional Surrender]

Bama, Kentucky and Vandy are our most historical rivals and I bet are the permanent carry-overs when the conference expands.

If they do the 3 permanent rivals, and play everyone else twice every four years route then you are correct.

 

[Preyed_On]

We have teams that share dislike for each other, but if you ask Alabama they will say Auburn, Florida will say Florida State. Wonder if we will ever start a series with someone who could become our rivals one day and play that game for a trophy or something. Who are your ideas for the team that would spark a rivalry with UT?

Go ask some of those old Bammers up north at the border who their main rival is, they’re gonna say Tennessee, because that’s how Bear wanted it.

Current generation and millennials will say AU. Gen X and back remembers those Manning years. They remember 51-43.

 

[wmcovol]

They may have reignited some hate for us but it will never be close to the Iron Bowl.

Oh it was hotter than the Iron bowl when Fulmer was whippin that a$$.

 

[WilcoVolsFan]

Tennessee is Vandy's rival, but it's a mutually exclusive rivalry.

 

[cherokeeeVOL]

Bama, Florida and Georgia, in that order.

 

[Orange931]

Go ask some of those old Bammers up north at the border who their main rival is, they’re gonna say Tennessee, because that’s how Bear wanted it.

Current generation and millennials will say AU. Gen X and back remembers those Manning years. They remember 51-43.

My sister in law is a millennial (born in ‘92 in Alabama and Gump fan) and she considers the UT game bigger.

 

[tennrich1]

Despite only having one win over Tennessee in their history, I really hate Memphis State University.

I have a very neutral attitude towards them. I actually forget they even exist from time to time. Now if you ask a real dye in the wool Tiger fan (granted they are very limited) there’s probably not a team on earth they’d rather beat than Tennessee. (My daughter was actually on Coach McNelis staff at Memphis for 4 years and she is an awesome lady). But I think most Vol fans don’t have Memphis on their radar. JMO

 

[JBVolunteer]

Honestly, I’d love to see a yearly out of conference rivalry with Clemson. Too much bad blood over the years especially involving recruiting. Add Dabo and the wrong color of orange; Clemson is a team I love to hate.

 

[VFL-82-JP]

We have teams that share dislike for each other, but if you ask Alabama they will say Auburn, Florida will say Florida State. Wonder if we will ever start a series with someone who could become our rivals one day and play that game for a trophy or something. Who are your ideas for the team that would spark a rivalry with UT?

Bama fans are split. Plenty of them, especially those beyond a certain age, point at Tennessee and the Third Saturday in October. Others, who tend to be a bit younger, look first to the Iron Bowl and Auburn.

There was a time when Vandy was our #1 rival. They were every bit as good as us back then (talking the first 20-30 years we played football). General Neyland flipped the script and we started beating them regularly, and it became too unbalanced to remain much of a rivalry. But it was there at one point. I'm pleased as punch we ruined it by beating them by winning most years.

Kentucky was a hot rivalry for a while, too. We had a trophy and everything (the beer barrel...though for the life of me, I don't understand why smart folks never switched it to a whiskey-bourbon barrel). But then that became too lopsided as well, the rivalry cooled down, and the trophy was retired after a couple of students died in an alcohol-related car accident.

Florida and Georgia are new things. Just since the early 90s have we played them annually. They are, to an extent, manufactured rivalries that will die back down once the SEC does away with divisions (just a couple of years from now).

North Carolina would be a natural rival, and a good one. But they have enough in-state rivals (NC State in football, Duke in basketball), plus being in different conferences it wouldn't easily work.

Virginia Tech would be a decent cross-border rival, as well. But same problems as for North Carolina.

Funny, we're one of only two states in the country that borders 8 other states, plus we have a fellow in-state Power 5 program (even if just barely), and all our rivalries tend to come with an asterisk. Which is why you started this thread.

But I'm perfectly fine with having a lot of rivalries that aren't extreme, rather than one or two that are red hot.

I like where we are, and our history.

Go Vols!

 

[apevol]

some dude with a Pikachu pfp trying to tell everyone SEC tradition

 

[volsfan24017]

Georgia......coming soon!