It’s not often that a non-SEC player has multiple trips to Neyland Stadium under his belt, but that’s exactly the case for UAB redshirt senior running back Jevon Jackson. The Alabama native will be making his third trip to Neyland Stadium this Saturday when the Blazers take on the Volunteers in Week 4 action.
This will be the third straight season that the 5-foot-8 running back will step foot on Shields-Watkins Field.
Jackson played his first three seasons with Austin Peay coming out of Austin High School in Decatur, AL. He made his first career trip to Knoxville with the Govenors during the 2023 season, where he had five rushing attempts for 18 yards in a 30-13 loss to the Volunteers.
Jackson then transferred to UTEP for the 2024 season and once again had a trip to Knoxville on the schedule. This time around, he had 13 carries for 25 yards in a 56-0 loss to Tennessee in a late-November contest.
Jackson left UTEP after one season and transferred to UAB for the 2025 season. He’s set to play his third game at Neyland Stadium in the last three years this Saturday.
“It’s been a different experience every time I’ve been,” Jackson said about the trips to Knoxville in a story written by Steve Irvine for The Banner publication.
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Scotty Walden was the head coach at Austin Peay in all three of Jackson’s seasons with the Governors. When Walden moved to UTEP before the 2024 season, Jackson followed his head coach and that staff to West Texas. While this will be Jackson’s third trip to Neyland Stadium in as many years, it’ll be the first without Walden’s staff.
“I’ve been there twice with the same coaching staff, but different schools,” Jackson said to Irvine. “So now this will be the third team and without that coaching staff. So now I’m just adjusting to a whole new everything.”
Despite it not being one of Tennessee’s famously loud SEC game environments, Jackson has still seen UT’s stadium achieve monster levels of noise during his two prior trips to Knoxville. He told Irvine in the interview that he’s been communicating with his teammates about the noise expectations for the game on Saturday and the challenges that come with the territory.
“It definitely gets loud, for sure,” Jackson said to The Banner. “I mean, there were some critical third downs in my last couple games, I couldn’t even hear my quarterback and he was right next to me.”
Through three games this season, Jackson has totaled 277 yards and three touchdowns as the Blazers’ lead running back. He burst out to 166 yards in the season opener against Alabama State, but hasn’t topped 70 yards since. Still, though, the Blazers have had a balanced offensive attack. UAB might be forced to throw the ball more often while behind on the scoreboard against the Vols, but Jackson still projects to be plenty featured in the game plan.
No. 15 Tennessee will host UAB at 12:45 p.m. ET on Saturday afternoon in Neyland Stadium.
