The Alabama Crimson Tide is about to kick off against the Tennessee Volunteers in Knoxville in a Third Saturday in October matchup that is one of the best rivalries in all of college football.

Before two years ago when Tennessee was victorious for the first time in 15 years, the game had started to lose a bit of shine when it came to discussions of the best rivalries in the sport given that it had been so lopsided.

But you couldn’t tell the players in the locker rooms of Nick Saban that. According to Saban himself on Saturday morning’s College GameDay, his players always took the rivalry against Tennessee even more seriously than they did the Iron Bowl against Auburn:

Nick Saban says Tennessee game was bigger rivalry game than Auburn

“For our players, this was a bigger rivalry than any other game we played…even bigger than Auburn to our players. It was always difficult for me to get our players up for the Auburn game, it was never difficult… pic.twitter.com/4r2gwgq0Tg

— Trey Wallace (@TreyWallace_) October 19, 2024

“For our players, this was a bigger rivalry than any other game we played…even bigger than Auburn to our players,” Saban said. “It was always difficult for me to get our players up for the Auburn game, it was never difficult for Tennessee.”

Auburn fans may have something to say about Saban’s statement, but by the sounds of it, the Tide and Volunteers hold a hatred for each other that was unable to be matched by any other school. Time will tell if Kalen DeBoer’s teams hold themselves to the same standard and get fired up to go out and earn their cigars on Saturday afternoon in Knoxville.

Michael Brauner is a Senior Sports Analyst and Contributing Writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @MBraunerWNSP and hear him every weekday morning from 6 to 9 a.m. on “The Opening Kickoff” on WNSP-FM 105.5, available free online.