Alabama Football vs. Tennessee Postgame Notes
10/25/2014 12:00:00 AM | Football
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GAME CAPTAINS: Alabama's captains for tonight's game at Tennessee were Landon Collins, Jalston Fowler and Arie Kouandjio. The Crimson Tide won the coin toss and deferred the opening kickoff.
SERIES HISTORY: Alabama leads the all-time series with Tennessee, 51-38-7 (actual record, 52-37-8), and has won eight straight in the series after tonight's 34-20 victory in Knoxville. The Tide has won five consecutive games in the series in Tuscaloosa and four straight in Knoxville.
FIFTH YEAR IN A ROW OVER 30 AGAINST THE VOLS: With its 34points scored in tonight's game, Alabama has now recorded 30 or more points against Tennessee in the last five games in the series. During those five games, the Crimson Tide is outscoring the Volunteers 201-59.
DICKSON GETTING PRESSURE: Xzavier Dickson sacked Tennessee quarterback Nathan Peterman on the opening drive bringing Dickson's season total to a team-best 6.5 sacks. The senior linebacker had two against West Virginia, two at Ole Miss, one at Arkansas and a half against Texas A&M. He entered tonight's game ranked 22nd nationally and fourth in the SEC in sacks at .79 per game.
RAGLAND CONTINUES TO SHINE ON DEFENSE: Reggie Ragland produced another solid game of defense for the Crimson Tide finishing with a game-high 9 total tackles, 1 pass breakup and 1 forced fumble. For the season, the junior linebacker leads the team in total tackles with 56 in addition to one interception, four pass breakups, one quarterback hurry, two fumble recoveries and two forced fumbles.
COOPER MOVES UP RECEIVING LISTS: Junior wide receiver Amari Cooper caught 9 passes for 224 yards and two touchdowns tonight against Tennessee. The 224 yards set a new Alabama school record for receiving yards in a game, breaking the old mark of 210 set by Julio Jones at Tennessee in 2010. With his totals against the Vols on Saturday night, Cooper has 71 catches for 1,132 yards this season. The catches ranks second on the Alabama single-season receptions list behind Jones' 78 catches in 2010. The yardage ranks second by only one yard to Jones' 1,133 yards in 2010. On the career lists, Cooper now ranks third in receptions with 175 (DJ Hall had 194 from 2004-07 and Jones had 179 from 2008-10); Cooper ranks second in Alabama history for career receiving yards with 2,868 (DJ Hall holds the record with 2,923 from 2004-07). With his first reception of the game, an 80-yard touchdown catch and run, Cooper passed Jones for No. 2 in career receiving yards at Alabama. Cooper is now 56 yards away from breaking the Alabama career yardage list. Cooper set the single-game yardage mark with a 14-yard catch with approximately 9:35 left in the fourth quarter. Cooper's two receiving touchdowns against Tennessee gives him 9 this season, tying for third on the Alabama single-season list with Dennis Homan (1967). Cooper holds the record for receiving touchdowns in a season with 11 set in 2012. Al Lary is second on the list with 10 in 1950.
GOING DEEP: According to long-time Alabama observers, tonight's 80-yard touchdown reception on the game's first play is the third time in the series against Tennessee that the Tide has scored on the first play on a pass of at least 80 yards. The other two occurrences: an 80-yard pass from quarterback Gary Rutledge to wide receiver Wayne Wheeler on Oct. 20, 1973, and a 90-yard pass by quarterback Jeff Dunn to receiver Pierre Goode on Oct. 17, 1987.
SCORING STREAK CONTINUES: With Amari Cooper's 80-yard touchdown reception from Blake Sims in the first quarter, Alabama has scored in 177 consecutive games - the longest streak in program history.
