Tennessee football fans started running past Megan Bell and her husband Michael, carrying pieces of the goalpost.

“We’re hearing people say they threw it in the river,” the two-time Alabama graduate said of the scene following the Crimson Tide’s loss to UT last season. “It was wild. Yeah, it was wild.”

The Bells, were departing Neyland Stadium after getting stuck on the wrong end of a field rush. Just like every time Alabama has lost a road game for over a decade, fans had spilled onto the field, eager to revel with their team at midfield and do as much damage to the goalpost as possible.

For Alabama fans in the stands when a field rush occurs, the moment can range from annoying to nerve-racking, as well-hydrated victorious fans blast past them on the way to the playing surface.

“I was expecting them to be happy, but they seemed really aggressive,” Bell told AL.com ahead of Alabama’s Saturday rematch with the Volunteers. “So it was a little scary.”

‘Just there to have a good time’

Talbot Ritchey was pretty sure the Crimson Tide was going to win.

“Oh yeah, I definitely thought that,” the Alabama alum and Baton Rouge resident said.

Richey spent the day leading up to the 2022 Alabama-LSU game tailgating around Tiger Stadium. His family hails from Baton Rouge, so he went to his aunt and uncle’s spot in preparation for the game.

Bell had never been to Neyland Stadium, so she and her husband came from their home in Raleigh, N.C. and made a weekend of it in Knoxville. Ahead of the game, they bounced around town, grabbing food and some drinks before heading toward the stadium.

They didn’t know anyone else there, but ran into several Alabama tailgates where they made friends. Overall, the two enjoyed the pregame environment.

“It was a good time, it was a great atmosphere,” Bell said. “To be honest, I was a little apprehensive going into it, just because you hear a lot about it and what it’s like over there. But I was pleasantly surprised, people were nice.”

A few weeks later in Baton Rouge, Ritchey had a similar experience. He and his group mingled with LSU fans, who he said weren’t expecting to win the upcoming game.

“New coach, new players and all that,” Ritchey said. “They felt like they were just there to have a good time.”

‘Expecting to win’

After the tailgates, both Bell and Ritchey headed for their seats. When the games began, both sets of home fans remained friendly.

Bell didn’t particularly enjoy her surroundings in Neyland.

“It was so crowded, the lines were really long,” she said. “It was one of the worst stadium atmospheres I’ve ever been in from that aspect of things.”

The Bells were seated in the end zone, completely surrounded by Tennessee fans. The situation made her think that it could get nasty should the Crimson Tide win the game.

Despite the atmosphere, Bell thought Alabama was set for another win in the series.

“I really was,” she said. “But I also always go into every game expecting to win. Even coming from a student during the Mikes era, I always just kind of have this belief that we’re going to win.”

As the games neared their ends, both atmospheres grew more and more tense. The LSU game went to overtime when Alabama kicked a field goal in the final 30 seconds.

The Crimson Tide were having major trouble in Knoxville, but it looked like that game would go to overtime as well, when kicker Will Reichard missed a 50-yard field goal for the lead. Then the Volunteers took over with 15 seconds left and got cooking.

Tennessee got into Crimson Tide territory after a coverage lapse and lined up for a 49-yard Chase McGrath field goal attempt as time expired.

In Baton Rouge, Alabama scored first in the overtime period, then quarterback Jayden Daniels looked to Mason Taylor on a two-point conversion play to win the game.

McGrath’s field goal sputtered through the uprights. Taylor caught the pass.

Alabama lost both games, three weeks apart. At both venues, out came the fans.

‘It was just wild’

At Tiger Stadium, Ritchey was a little surprised when the fans started going.

“The student section I want to say started first, which is normally the case,” he said. “And then everybody else just started doing that.”

Ritchey and his group were at the very back of their section, so they just stayed in place while a mad rush of fans headed for the field. The Tigers were actually the last team to beat Alabama at home and not storm the playing surface, way back in 2010.

But after last year’s game, there was no holding them back. Still, according to Ritchey, he and his all-Alabama group didn’t hear much in the way of verbal jabs from LSU fans.

“Nobody was saying anything and we were all surrounded by LSU fans,” Ritchey said. “I think right after that play, it blew their expectations and they wanted to get on the field.”

No such luck for Bell in Knoxville. She and her husband were sitting in the end zone where McGrath’s field goal was aimed.

After 15 years of losing to Saban, the Volunteer fans were ready to trash talk.

“I really thought if we won, we would be in a bad spot, like people were gonna be angry, that could not be good for us,” Bell said. “But what I didn’t anticipate was the anger that came toward us when they won. I was kind of expecting them to be happy, but they seemed really aggressive.”

The lights flashed, the goalposts came down and a flood of orange-clad fans continued to spill onto the field, some of them hurling profanities toward Bell, who said she also had a shaker slapped in her face.

One of them crudely told her to go back to Tuscaloosa.

“I don’t even live in Tuscaloosa,” she said. “It was just wild.”

The one positive to being on the wrong end of a field storming, is that after getting past the initial rush of people, departure is pretty easy. After all, everyone’s on the field.

“There were no LSU fans outside the stadium,” Ritchey said. “It was all Alabama fans running to their cars.”

The Bells headed to a bar for food and a much-needed glass of wine. Ritchey and company went to the Baton Rouge Walk-Ons location to eat.

He heard a few jokes from the wait staff.

“But after that, I couldn’t say anything,” Ritchey said. “That was a great game.”

While beating the Crimson Tide has cost other teams in the league more than $1 million in fines since the SEC started imposing them in 2004, Alabama has never incurred such a penalty itself. That’s not an accident, UA fans have taken pride in never feeling the need to rush the field.

Even after seeing opposing fans take the field with gusto live and in-person, either Bell nor Ritchey felt any desire for a rush to happen at Bryant-Denny Stadium.

“I like that tradition,” Ritchey said of never rushing. “I’d like to keep that. Because of the amount of items it’s happened to us, and we hate it anyway. I think the amount of times it’s happened to us and we’ve never done it, it’s just one of my favorite stats.”