Alabama vs. Tennessee notes

It’s been awhile
Alabama faced Tennessee with the nation’s No. 2 ranking for the first time since 1993.

The Volunteers tied Alabama, 17-all, in Birmingham that season and the Tide fell to No. 4 the following week.

The last time Alabama was ranked No. 2 and played in Knoxville was in 1986, when Bobby Humphrey ran in, over and around the Vols in a 56-28 Crimson Tide victory.

At least one team in this series has been ranked coming into this game every year since 1959 — with the exception of the years 1968, 1984 and 2000.

It’s been even longer
Alabama coach Nick Saban has won a national and SEC championship at LSU in 2003, another SEC title in 2001 and the Mid-America crown in 1990 at Toledo.

Saban is the only current Football Bowl Subdivision coach with at least 10 years experience without a losing season.

However, even he is in new territory. He had never had a team start 8-0. That Toledo team was 6-0 before it lost at Central Michigan. His 1999 Michigan State team started 6-0 before it lost at Purdue, 52-28. Even his national championship team at LSU was 5-0 before falling to Florida, 19-7.

Alabama’s win streak was at eight games coming into the game. Last year’s Independence Bowl victory over Colorado finished out the 2007 season on a winning note.

It is the longest win streak for Alabama since 2005, when it started the season with nine victories in a row.

Coming into the game, the Tide’s eight-game streak was tied for fourth-longest in the nation. Penn State, Utah and Texas Tech all had won nine straight. Alabama, Oklahoma State and Tulsa had won eight in a row.

First-half leads
Alabama’s 13-3 lead at halftime continued the Crimson Tide’s streak of fast starts. Alabama has a cumulative 101-6 advantage after the first quarter and 184-23 lead at halftime against its eight opponents.

Early recognition
Alabama’s injured nose tackle Terrence Cody and starting left tackle Andre Smith earned places on the Sporting News midseason All-America team.

Cody, who missed the first of at least two games with a sprained knee Saturday night, and Smith, a finalist for the Lombardi Award, given to the nation’s best lineman, gave Alabama two slots on the team. Ohio State, Texas and Southern Cal also had two players each. The SEC had seven players on its team, including Tennessee defensive back Eric Berry.

What’s next
As much as anything, this is the stretch that Saban talks about when imploring his team to “finish.”

Alabama has not won a game in November since 2005, when it beat Mississippi State, 17-0. Since that victory, the Tide is 0-9 — and that includes last year’s embarrassing home loss to Louisiana-Monroe, a Sun Belt Conference team.

Saturday, an even better Sun Belt team visits Bryant-Denny Stadium. Arkansas State takes on the Crimson Tide at 2 p.m. It will be Alabama’s homecoming game. The game is a pay-per-view telecast.

Best of the Day
Best body art / Worst outfit: Some things you seek out, like the Great Pyramid or Stonehenge, and some things you bump into. A bald, shirtless man, looking to be in his mid-50s, not in the best of shape, passed the steps outside the stadium. He had a tattoo of a young Joe Namath and a young coach Bear Bryant on his chest, among other scenes. The weird part? He was wearing a kilt — a gray, pleated kilt. Yikes.

Best identity: Alabama gained just 32 yards on the ground in the first half, but ran the ball 31 times for 146 yards in the second half.

Worst of the Day
Worst momentum grab: The Tennessee crowd tried to get into the game when the Vols partially blocked a punt and took over at the 32. Three plays earned just one yard and UT missed a 51-yard field goal.

Worst ball possession: Tennessee ran more plays than Alabama in the first half, 32 to 29. But Alabama dominated the second half and finished with 67 offensive snaps compared to Tennessee’s 49.