Alabama football fell behind early and never recovered against the Tennessee Volunteers in the annual Third Saturday in October rivalry Saturday at Neyland Stadium.
DeSean Bishop rushed 32 times for 159 yards and two touchdowns while the Volunteers' defense suffocated Alabama in a 26-10 win over the Crimson Tide in a top-15 showdown.
Alabama (5-2, 3-2) has lost back-to-back games in the regular season for the first time since 2007. The Crimson Tide have also dropped their last three games at Neyland Stadium after winning seven straight there during Alabama's series record 15-game winning streak against the Vols (6-1, 3-1) from 2007-21.
How suffocating was Tennessee's defense in this year's Third Saturday matchup? Alabama quarterback Keelon Russell
entered the fourth quarter with fewer than 100 passing yards. The Crimson Tide had 13 full drives in the game. Eight of those ended with three-and-out possessions.
Russell, who had a 19-yard scramble for Alabama's only touchdown of the afternoon, was sacked five times. The offensive line allowed 10 tackles for loss with Tennessee's Tyree Weathersby and Jeremiah Telander leading the way.
The Tide started in a hole thanks to consecutive turnovers on their first two possessions. The defense held Tennessee to field goals both times, but the offense never got into a rhythm. Of Alabama's 13 series, the longest was a 10-play drive that went 35 yards and went bust when Daniel Hill was stuffed on a fourth-and-1 handoff.
It was an all-around dominating performance by Tennessee, which never trailed in the game and held Alabama to a mere 201 yards of total offense. The Vols used a late 15-play, 72-yard touchdown drive that took 9:32 off the clock to put the game completely out of reach in the fourth quarter.
After the game, Tennessee coach Josh Heupel met with reporters to discuss his team's victory over the Crimson Tide. Here's what the Volunteers' coach said:
Josh Heupel reflects on Tennessee's 'suffocating' win over Alabama football
"Defense, suffocating. Elite performance. Really proud of those guys. They handled adversity and sudden change extremely well. Great performance by them and as a team, found a way to win against a good football team. Really proud of our guys."
Josh Heupel explains how Vols crushed Alabama in time of possession battle
Tennessee dominated in time of possession, 35:44 to 24:16. That included the 15-play, 72-yard drive that took over nine minutes off the clock and ended with DeSean Bishop's second touchdown run of the day with only 3:17 to play.
How were the Vols able to do smother Alabama in the possession battle against one of the nation's top scoring offense entering Week 7? Heupel said:
"Run game, situationally, us playing smart and finding the right way to try to go win a football game. Operating out of the huddle offensively. There's a lot of pieces to it: the run game, certainly. You look at the way we were able to finish the football game with, I don't know how many plays it was, but a lot of big plays in the run game. A couple of key conversions throwing the football, too. Really proud of the effort.
"We're talking about the offense right now, but we talked about this being a line of scrimmage game and a boxing match mentality and having to win it with physicality for four quarters, and I thought we did that. Proud of our football team."
Tennessee delivered knockout punch of Alabama football with 15-play drive in fourth quarter
Heupel said of the drive:
"We take a ton of pride in playing winning football at that point in the game and being able to function and operate. George (MacIntyre) did a really good job of being able to drain the clock when we were asking him to do that. Then running the football the way that you need to sustain a drive and then go finish that drive. Bishop was elite. At halftime, just said, 'It's going to be a big second half' to him, and he had a big smile on his face and a gleam in his eye. He certainly did that tonight."
Josh Heupel explains how Tennessee's defense smothered Keelon Russell, Alabama
Russell finished the game 19 of 29 for a season-low 147 passing yards with two interceptions, plus a fumble on Alabama's first series.
"Through the course of this season, our defensive line had continued to get better every week. (Defensive tackle) Xavier Gilliam has been elite, right? But there's a lot of them that have been playing at a really high level, and our edges were able to get to the quarterback tonight to affect him.
"(Russell) escaped on a couple of plays, but I think the key is our front is playing well off of each other. That's in our twist game, our run stunts, our executing and performing together. It takes a level of unselfishness to do that, too, and that's a big part of that group right now."
What did Tennessee QB George MacIntyre do best against Alabama?
MacIntyre, making only his second career start after an injury to five-star freshman quarterback Faizon Brandon, completed 21 of his 31 passes for 197 yards. He turned the ball over once off a tipped pass that Alabama's Ivan Taylor intercepted in the second quarter.
Heupel said of MacIntyre:
"He played winning football. The ups and downs in a game like this, I thought he was decisive in going to the right spots on the football field. He had some adversity, a tipped pick. But just super consistent, same demeanor. Goes out the following play, the following drive and cuts it. Trusts his eyes. He extended it, made some plays. Scrambled, made some checkdowns. There was a conversion and a big-time play in the fourth quarter on a bootleg play. I thought he saw it extremely well and was composed and went and played the next play."
Tennessee coach Josh Heupel says Vols now expect to beat Alabama football
Tennessee has now won three straight at home against the Crimson Tide dating back to 2022. Saturday's loss marked the first time Alabama had lost three straight at Neyland Stadium since 1996-2000.
Heupel said afterwards:
"You go back to the first one (in 2022). All the buildup and lead-up to it. Now there's an expectation that that's what you do when you're playing these guys. It's been fun building this. There's been days where we want different outcomes, but this is without a doubt the best fan base in America. They show up in an elite way every Saturday. Recruits come here. You drive by Vol Navy and see all those boats. You go to Vol Walk and you see 35,000 people, and 60 minutes before kickoff it's 65 to 70 percent full. It's college football as good as it gets. Special to be here. Walking off that field in a situation like tonight where you win, those are things that I'll remember forever, too."
Tennessee coach explains why Vols didn't chase points against Alabama
Tennessee had the ball inside the Crimson Tide 20-yard line on each of its first three possessions but settled for field goals and a 9-0 lead. Heupel said of not chasing points:
"Every game, you watch the film and try to understand what you're getting into, the style of play and matchups. There's 11 different matchups on the field every play, and you're trying to predict how it's going to play out. Ultimately, early in the football game, just not as efficient or effective as we needed to be, and that's not converting on some of the passes. Third downs, not being able to convert. You just couldn't come up empty-handed in those situations.
"I haven't mentioned it yet, but (kicker Cooper Ranvier) did an unbelievable job in probably as windy of a day inside of that stadium since I've been here. He put everything right through the uprights, and that was a huge part of the game early. You kick field goals like that and typically, it comes back to bite you in the butt, too. We were able to, in some ways, get away with that because of an elite defensive performance."
Josh Heupel talks about importance of Alabama-Tennessee rivalry, what it means to win
"You talk about the historic rivals, the history of this program, General Neyland, the great former players in every phase of the game. For them to understand the importance of this game to our fan base but to us as a team, too, and buy into that and win the preparation and practice extremely well to go play the way that you need to to go find a way to win."
Watch Heupel's full postgame press conference below.
Alabama football schedule 2026
All times Central.
- Sept. 5: vs. East Carolina Pirates (W, 48-10)
- Sept. 12: at Kentucky Wildcats (W, 45-17)
- Sept. 19: vs. Florida State Seminoles (W, 50-36)
- Sept. 26: vs. South Carolina Gamecocks (W, 49-18)
- Oct. 3: at Mississippi State Bulldogs (W, 56-23)
- Oct. 10: vs. Georgia Bulldogs (L, 20-17)
- Oct. 17: at Tennessee Volunteers (L, 26-10)
- Oct. 24: vs. Texas A&M Aggies, 2:30 p.m., ABC
- Nov. 7: at LSU Tigers, TBA
- Nov. 14: at Vanderbilt Commodores, TBA
- Nov. 21: vs. Chattanooga Mocs, 1 p.m., SEC Network+
- Nov. 28: vs. Auburn Tigers, TBA
Record: 5-2 overall, 3-2.
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This article originally appeared on Roll Tide Wire: What Tennessee coach Josh Heupel said about Alabama after beating Tide
