Alabama hosted Tennessee in October 2009 at 7–0 and near the top of every poll. Tennessee came in at 3–3 in Lane Kiffin's first and only season in Knoxville. On paper it was a mismatch. For four quarters at Bryant-Denny Stadium, it never played like one.
Four kicks and no touchdowns
Alabama moved the ball between the 20s all afternoon and stalled every time it got close. Leigh Tiffin carried the offense: field goals of 38, 50 and 22 yards before halftime, and a 49-yarder with 6:31 left that made it 12–3. Greg McElroy threw for 120 yards and no touchdowns. Mark Ingram ran for 99.
The defense did the rest. Tennessee kicked one short field goal in the second quarter and missed from 47 as the half ran out. With a little over ten minutes to play, Daniel Lincoln lined up a 43-yarder, and Terrence Cody blocked it. That was the first one. Alabama's defense hadn't given up a touchdown in more than eleven quarters, and with six minutes left it looked like that streak would last another week.
Four minutes of trouble
Then it came apart. Inside the last four minutes, Eric Berry knocked the ball loose from Ingram at the Alabama 43, and Tennessee recovered. Jonathan Crompton finished the drive with an 11-yard touchdown pass to Gerald Jones with 1:19 left. The extra point made it 12–10.
Out of timeouts, Tennessee tried an onside kick and got it back at its own 41. Crompton hit Jones for 14 yards, then found tight end Luke Stocker for 23 more to the Alabama 27. Two plays later the Vols sent Lincoln back out for a 44-yard try to win it. Alabama called timeout with four seconds on the clock.
Mount Cody
Cody was 6-foot-5 and about 354 pounds, and teammates called him Mount Cody. On the snap he shoved past Tennessee's left guard and raised his left arm. He didn't need to jump. Lincoln's kick hit his hand and skidded away sideways, and Alabama fell on it at its own 28 as the clock hit zero.
It was Cody's second blocked field goal of the fourth quarter, and it was the difference between 8–0 and a season-wrecking loss. Alabama fans gave it a name that twists Tennessee's own fight song: the Rocky Block. Cody and Tiffin were both named SEC players of the week.
What it saved
Nobody knew it yet, but Cody had saved a perfect season. Alabama didn't lose again. It beat Florida 32–13 for the SEC title, beat Texas 37–21 in Pasadena for the program's 13th national championship, and finished 14–0, Nick Saban's first title in Tuscaloosa. Ingram, whose fumble nearly cost Alabama the Tennessee game, won the Heisman Trophy that December.
Of all the wins in that title run, none came closer to being a loss.