The Five Most Pleasant Surprises of 2007: #1 - 41-17

"I miss DuBose." - Phil Fulmer

After dropping an OT heartbreaker to Georgia, looking hopelessly lost against a not too good Florida State, and then needing last second defensive stops to put away Houston and Ole Miss, there probably weren't a lot of highly confident Alabama fans heading into the Third Saturday in October. The Vols were 4-2 at the time, with a 35-14 beating of the same Georgia team that handed the Tide it's first loss to their credit, and had an impressive offense more than capable of shredding the Tide's porous pass coverage. Things started out a little hairy, as the Tide fell behind 14-10 at the start of the second quarter and a 24-14 Tide lead dwindled to 24-17 in the waning seconds of the first half due to a good return and a foolish penalty that set the Vols up well within FG distance to end the half. But Kareem Jackson's INT at the start of the second half to kill a promising Vol drive ended any and all Tennessee momentum, and it was all Alabama the rest of the way. The Tide offense piled up 510 yards and could do no wrong while the defense held the suddenly impotent UT offense scoreless in the second half. John Parker Wilson had his only "complete" game that day, hitting 32 of 46 for 363 yards and 3 TDs, two of those to DJ Hall who caught 13 for 185 yards while UT foolishly tried to keep him contained with single coverage. We couldn't have known how horribly the rest of the season would go (in fact, this was the last win of the regular season), but at least that afternoon there was the satisfaction of sending a rival home with a horrendous beatdown to show for their efforts.