Tennessee and Alabama have one of the longest and tradition-rich football rivalries in the Southeastern Conference and nationally.
Tennessee (4-3, 2-2 SEC) and Alabama (6-1, 3-1) will renew acquaintances on the gridiron Saturday at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa. It will be 103rd meeting between the two teams and the series dates back to 1901.
Kickoff is slated for 7 p.m. EDT and the game will be televised on ESPN.
A handful of coaches and athletic administrators have worked for both schools in the rivalry.
Bill Battle played on Alabama’s 1961 national championship team. He served as Tennessee’s head coach between 1970-76 and never had a losing record with the Vols. In seven seasons, he compiled a 59-22-2 mark as UT’s head coach and went 4-1 in bowl games.
Battle later became athletics director at Alabama from 2013-17.
Dave Hart served as Tennessee’s athletics director between 2011-17. Hart was a basketball player for the Crimson Tide under head coach C.M. Newton.
Current Arkansas State head coach Butch Jones served in the same capacity at Tennessee (2013-17). He compiled a 34-27 record and won three bowl games with the Vols.
Jones worked for Alabama as an offensive analyst and assistant to head coach Nick Saban between 2018-20.
Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin served as the Vols’ head coach in 2009. He guided Tennessee to a 7-6 record, with SEC wins over Georgia, Kentucky, Vanderbilt and South Carolina.
After his tenure as head coach at USC, Kiffin was offensive coordinator for Saban and the Crimson Tide between 2014-16.
Jeremy Pruitt replaced Jones as Tennessee’s head coach in 2018. He coached Tennessee through the 2020 season before being terminated for alleged recruiting violations.
Pruitt compiled a 16-19 record as UT’s head coach and was Alabama’s defensive coordinator for two seasons (2016-17). He was also at Alabama as a graduate assistant (1997), director of player development (2007-09) and defensive backs coach (2010-12).
[vertical-gallery id=31910]