Your Biggest UT rival....and why

Your Biggest UT rival

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    306
#27
#27
It’s a toss up between Alabama and Florida for me.

I leaned Florida because they are also in the East.

I wish I could vote twice.
 
#29
#29
Bama. I grew up a Volunteer in Alabama. The first game I attended was the Bama game in '84 (Tony Robinson led us to a 28-27 victory -- I've still got my "Beat Bama" pin from that game), and the first time I saw Tennessee lose was against Bama in '86 (28-56). The first season I had any meaningful understanding of the game -- '89 -- Bama was the only team to beat us, and I rooted for Auburn in the Iron Bowl (as I have done every year since) to give us a share in the SEC title. My freshman year Manning led us to a 41-14 victory, putting an end to that onerous streak and laying the foundation of a streak of our own.

I was also raised to view Bama as our biggest rival, as they had been our biggest rival when my father was in school in the '60s.
 
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#30
#30
GAVol said:
Sort of… I have history with that game and it’sa little bit of a running joke. But if you go back and look at the scores of those games in the past 20 years, it’s been remarkably competitive.
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Oh I agree it has been competitive but it was also against some terrible UT teams...But yeah some hard fought games over the years.
 
#31
#31
I voted gators bc we need to beat them first. to be where we should or need to be first before we can wax dat Bama ass.
 
#33
#33
Who of these schools would list us as their biggest rival? Vandy and Memphis for sure. Kentucky? Probably should
 
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#34
#34
Alabama ---- Bear Bryant --- Grew up in that Era --- They Cheat
Florida ---- Can't Stand Florida Fans Luckiest team I know.
Georgia ---- Obnoxious Fans Plus they Cheat.
Kentucky --- Nothing ever to get excited about Pretenders
Vanderbilt --- They don't care why should I.
South Carolina --- Meh
Missouri --- They have no clue.
 
#35
#35
Im right here at the alabama border... despise the bandwagon fans... cannot wait to beat them again... they will always be my least favorite team.. unless they are playing georgia
 
#36
#36
Despite the scorecard, the UK rivalry would be more enjoyable if we played a little earlier in the year. Vol fans could go to Lexington and actually enjoy some races. I would probably go to the UK game in Lexington every year if that were to happen.
 
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#37
#37
golfballs said:
Who of these schools would list us as their biggest rival? Vandy and Memphis for sure. Kentucky? Probably should
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I would say that is pretty accurate. Kentucky might say Louisville, but Vandy is the only one for sure. Memphis might say Ole Miss.
 
#38
#38
peaygolf said:
I would say that is pretty accurate. Kentucky might say Louisville, but Vandy is the only one for sure. Memphis might say Ole Miss.
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I’d be curious. I know UK and Louisville hate each other but I think that really got heated w Pitino and basketball. For a football rival would have to think it would still be Tennessee.
 
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#39
#39
This was a tough decision. We have multiple rivalries, each for different reasons, and each has its own flavor. Each also has its own historical setting. For me, as a Vol fan since the early '60s, I would say:

Biggest Rivalry - Georgia now, because they are in-division and it has become a rivalry over the most important recruiting ground. Twenty years ago it would have been Florida for the same reasons.

Best Rivalry - Alabama (for those of us 60 or older, who remember) was always the classy rivalry, beginning in Bear Bryant's days, before hype videos replaced crying towels and poor-mouthing your own team as the ritual of game week. The game itself was a war from kickoff to final gun, but as soon as the game was over, there was mutual respect between warriors, and earnest celebration was saved for the locker room.

Ugliest Rivalry - Florida. The stage was set when Florida upset us in the '69 Gator Bowl and then hired away our head coach Doug Dickey. With SEC Division alignment, games against Spurrier's Florida were never classy the way Alabama's used to be. This was a hate-filled game for almost everyone, and not helped that everything was on the table in usually the second game of the season: recruiting the state with the fastest, largest talent... the SEC division championship... and in those glory years, the National Championship was just as much on the line.

Little (but smarter) Brother Rivalry - Vanderbilt. I never got why this was such an emotional rivalry for Vol fans, until I lived in Knoxville for two years. There really seems to be an anti-education reaction involved, as Knoxville is far more Appalachian in culture than the Chattanooga I grew up in. But for someone age 110, Vandy was a straight-up bare knuckle gridiron rivalry!

Little Sister Rivalry - Memphis is just a different place from the rest of the state. It's similar to the difference between New Orleans and Louisiana north of Lake Pontchartrain. Memphis sports teams could stand on their own accomplishments with deserved pride, but it seems like there's this underlying resentment that they're somehow excluded by their differences, that they'll never just be "one of the boys" around the state-wide Thanksgiving table. They don't want to fit in with the rest of Tennessee, but they do want us to wish they did.
 
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#44
#44
Mccage said:
I live close enough to throw a rock into Alabama and Ga. Have more kin in Ga. So I hate them a tad more.
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If I lived close enough to throw rocks into Alabama and Georgia I would run out of rocks in short order. Have family in Ga that are big bulldog fans but still despise Bama more probably because I’m old.
 
#45
#45
Literally whoever they are playing on a given week.

Bama and FL have always been the biggest roadblocks for TN in my lifetime though. It is a tie for me between those two.
 
#46
#46
MagicT said:
If I lived close enough to throw rocks into Alabama and Georgia I would run out of rocks in short order. Have family in Ga that are big bulldog fans but still despise Bama more probably because I’m old.
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Im 70
 
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