It's one of the Southeastern Conference's most legendary rivalries, and when the Alabama Crimson Tide and Tennessee Volunteers clash, there's no shortage of love lost between the two programs. Alabama leads the all-time series 58-37-8, including winning the last 15 matchups against the Volunteers.
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"The Third Saturday in October" will take place once again in 2022, and you can bet that while a mutual respect exist somewhere, there's going to be more than a few harsh words exchanged between fans on game day. After all, there's a reason Tide fans refer to the days preceding this matchup as "Tennessee Hate Week."
There's one Bama fan, however, whose epic rant has stood the test of time and remains an iconic symbol of the deep-rooted hatred between these two college football programs.
Irvin Carney was a sophomore at the University of Alabama when Nick Adam, a campus reporter at the university, approached him during Tennessee week on campus in 2007.
What ensued was an epic viral video rant that, despite how much an Alabama fan might hate University of Tennessee football, you could not put it more eloquently than Carney did that day.
"I Hate Tennessee"
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Pick any reason you want from this fan trashing Tennessee — from the garbage truck workers at Neyland Stadium to the utter despise of former Vols coach Phillip Fulmer — but there might not be a better reason for Carney's hatred than the "throw-up orange" Tennessee colors.
"It's that puke inside of a pumpkin orange, and I don't like pumpkins."
— Irvin Carney
What separates Carney's rant from other epic sports tirades, is the level-headed nature of his argument. Referring to the Vols as "Snitches" is top-notch, but perhaps the best part is when Carney says he "dislikes Auburn" but hates Tennessee. That right there is pure Alabama. The Auburn Tigers? Don't like 'em. The Tennessee Vols? Hatred.
Texas A&M, Florida, LSU, Ohio State, Kentucky, none of them matter to this Alabama football fan. Nope, it's all about hating Tennessee and he can't stress that enough.
And for Tennessee fans, the feeling definitely mutual, especially since Nick Saban is on a decade-plus win streak in the Tennessee game.
Seriously, beyond all of the national championships he's brought back to Tuscaloosa, Bama fans have been yelling "Roll Tide" after victories over the Vols since the iPhone was released. It's been so long that one Twitter user put together a hilarious thread of "Do You Remember?" celebrity pictures from the last time Tennessee won against Alabama.
https://twitter.com/allyewilliams/status/1052326276164460544
https://twitter.com/allyewilliams/status/1052326600463790080
https://twitter.com/allyewilliams/status/1052327239134662656
https://twitter.com/allyewilliams/status/1052429417417457665
We'll see if that deep-rooted hate for Tennessee finally boils over, and they're singing Rocky Top in Knoxville, or if the nightmare will continue, and they'll be singing Sweet Home Alabama all night long once again on The Third Saturday in October.
This post was originally published October 18, 2018.
