Mark Story: Alcoa split between Vols and Cobb

Mark Story / Herald-Leader Sports Columnist

Mark Cornelison | Staff

Randall Cobb saluted the fans as he left the field after Kentucky's win at Vanderbilt. He is remembered in his hometown as "humble and nice to everybody."

ALCOA, Tenn. — The wall of honor in the Bread of Heaven restaurant is a collage of orange.

An array of Tennessee football players who have traveled the 14.9 miles from the UT campus to sample the "best barbecue in East Tennessee" have left behind autographed pictures.

Yet, this week, the most talked about face on the wall is the one who supplies a speck of blue amid the orange.

Go Cats! is the salutation Randall Cobb signed on the picture of himself in his blue No. 18 Kentucky jersey that hangs in the main lunch spot of his hometown.

"In here, there's always lots of talk about Randall Cobb," says Bread of Heaven proprietor Michael Colquitt. "This week, there's a little extra."

Welcome to a town that is torn.

When Kentucky tries yet again Saturday to throw off 24 straight years of football mastery by Tennessee, Alcoa will find itself in quite a pickle. Before matriculating up north and becoming Kentucky's star receiver/runner/return man, Cobb helped the Alcoa High Tornado win four straight state championships.

Here, UT vs. UK is Homestate U. vs. Hometown Hero.

Come Saturday, who is Alcoa to root for?

"For a lot of us, this is kind of a split decision," says Butch Steele, an Alcoa furnace repairman. "We're Tennessee fans, but everyone here thinks the world of Randall Cobb."

Make no mistake, this town of some 8,800 is a well-fortified outpost of the Big Orange Nation.

Signs that welcome visitors to Alcoa proclaim "the home of Pat Summitt." The legendary Tennessee women's basketball coach's house lies within the Alcoa city limits.

Knoxville's McGhee Tyson Airport is actually in Alcoa.

Football is serious business at Alcoa. The school has won 10 state championships, five in a row, and is in the state semifinals Friday night in pursuit of another.

Across its rich history, the locals say the school has had few football stars better liked than Randall Cobb.

"When Randall was here at school, he was humble and nice to everybody," says Alcoa Coach Gary Rankin. "He wasn't that kid that thought he was better than everybody else."

At the Bread of Heaven, they say that every time Cobb comes home from college, he still makes it in for pulled pork, greens and cornbread.

"He's become a (college) star, but he's the same as when he lived here," says Pat Dean, the restaurant cashier. "You can stay here all day. You won't find anyone that doesn't love Randall Cobb."

Lofton in reverse

In the Kentucky-Tennessee sports rivalry, a high school legend being neglected by his state university's recruiters only to become a college standout for the border rival is hardly a new story.

Maysville, Ky., knows exactly what Alcoa is feeling this week.

In 2004, Kentucky Mr. Basketball Chris Lofton — the Mason County star who was one of the most significant high school basketball players in the commonwealth's history — signed with Tennessee after a UK scholarship offer never came.

Lofton went on to become one of the all-time greats ever to play men's basketball at UT. Poor Tubby Smith never heard the end of snubbing him.

Cobb seems to be the state of Tennessee's karmic payback to Kentucky.

Unlike Lofton, Cobb did have a chance to play for his State U.

Randy Sanders, the former Tennessee assistant who now coaches quarterbacks at UK, probably gave his current school the inside track with Cobb when he secured well-regarded wide receiver Kyrus Lanxter out of Alcoa High School in 2007.

Lanxter and Cobb were best friends. In the summer before his senior season at Alcoa, Cobb committed to Kentucky, too.

Cobb then quarterbacked Alcoa to another state title. By the end of that trek, former UT coach Phillip Fulmer finally offered a scholarship.

For Cobb, that Volunteers offer was not the fulfilment of a lifelong ambition.

"Randall was always a Florida fan," says Tyler Robinson, Alcoa's current standout tight end and a UK football commitment himself.

Cobb saw in Gainesville a college player worth emulating, his mom says.

"He wanted to be Tim Tebow," said Tina Cobb.