Tennessee football heads on the road for the first in the 2025 season Saturday afternoon when they face undefeated Mississippi State in Starkville. Dave Neal, Fozzy Whittaker and Morgan Uber are on the call for the SEC Network. Kickoff is at 4:15 p.m. ET.
It’s Tennessee’s third game in the afternoon slot this season. The Vols played ETSU and Georgia at Neyland Stadium in the afternoon slot. Tennessee’s matchups against Syracuse and UAB were both in the early time slot. Saturday’s matchup is the first Tennessee game that the Neal, Whittake, Uber crew have called this season.
Despite Tennessee-Mississippi State being an important SEC game, it is not one of the bigger games of the week in the conference. Georgia hosts Alabama in the primetime, 7:30 p.m. ET ABC slot. LSU-Ole Miss is the 3:30 p.m. ET game on ABC while Auburn-Texas A&M is the 3:30 p.m. ET game on ESPN. Notre Dame-Arkansas is a the noon ET kick off on ABC.
ESPN elected for South Carolina-Kentucky in the 7:45 p.m. ET SEC Network slot, going with a less significant matchup up against Alabama-Georgia and Oregon-Penn State (NBC) in the night game slot.
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Tennessee is off to a 3-1 (0-1 SEC) start to the season with lopsided non conference wins over Syracuse, ETSU and UAB. The Vols dropped their SEC opener in heartbreaking fashion, falling to Georgia 44-41 in an overtime thriller. Josh Heupel’s fifth Tennessee team is looking for its first SEC win of the season, a game they have to get if its going to return to the College Football Playoffs.
After winning just two games a season ago, Mississippi State is off to a 4-0 (0-0 SEC) start with non conference wins over Southern Miss, Arizona State, Alcorn State and Northern Illinois. While the Bulldogs are undoubtedly improved, the challenge gets vastly greater this week against Tennessee.
The Vols are currently 7.5-point favorites over Mississippi State according to the DraftKings Sportsbook. Tennessee opened as 10.5-point favorites on Sunday afternoon. The over/under is set at 61.5.
Tennessee and Mississippi State have faced off 47 total times in program history with the Vols holding a 30-16-1 advantage. The two teams have only played 10 times since the SEC split into divisions back in 1992. Tennessee holds an 8-2 advantage during that time.
The Vols won the last two games in the series, knocking off Mississippi State 33-14 a year ago and 20-10 in 2019 in Knoxville. Mississippi State won the last meeting in Starkville, knocking off Derek Dooley and the Vols 41-31 back in 2012. Tennessee’s last win in Starkville was a 33-21 victory back in 2007.
