This is an opinion column.

There’s a specific beauty in mid-October.

It has its own shade of daylight color when tall blue skies frame the leaves shifting shades. Summer’s over.

Yet there’s a romance about this window in time as college football season seems to hit a second gear.

Around here, that means Alabama-Tennessee in a rivalry that captures so much of what’s great about this sport. It’s one of those conflicts that’s not always apparent to the uninitiated, as first-year Alabama offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb reminded us Monday .

But it truly is one of the nastiest conflicts in college football -- one that should be celebrated and was thankfully protected.

And it’s enjoying a golden age that shouldn’t be taken for granted.

For years, the hatred bubbled despite the lopsided

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