Tennessee Football’s new nine-game schedule presents several intriguing matchups for Josh Heupel’s Volunteers this fall. You’ve got rivalry rematches scattered throughout, games against former playoff teams, the return of the Manning bloodline to Neyland Stadium, and more.
But one game in particular will see several former Tennessee coaches roll back into Neyland Stadium on a fall Saturday this October.
When Tennessee hosts Auburn on Oct. 3, it’ll be a reunion of sorts for multiple members of the Tigers’ coaching staff. Auburn has former Tennessee OC Alex Golesh as its head coach, former Tennessee DC Tim Banks as its safeties coach/co-DC, former Tennessee receivers coach Kodi Burns as its associate head coach/co-OC, and former Tennessee tight ends coach Larry Scott as its tight ends coach.
Golesh, Banks, and Burns were all on Josh Heupel’s inaugural UT coaching staff back in 2021. Burns lasted one year, Golesh was there for two years, and Banks was with the team for five years. Scott was an assistant during the Butch Jones era.
While we don’t know the exact time for the game just yet, we do know that it’s in the Flex timeslot. This means that the game will either be played between 3:30-4:30 ET or 6-8 ET. It’s not a ton to work with, but we do know that it won’t be a Noon kickoff like the Texas matchup the week before. This does open the possibility up to it being a raucous night game in Neyland, though.
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Auburn and Tennessee have played each other 54 times during their program histories. The Tigers hold a 29-22-3 advantage in the all-time series.
This fall’s upcoming game will be the first time that the two have squared off since the 2020 season, though. Tennessee went into Auburn that season and fell to the Tigers by a score of 30-17. The two teams have met twice in the SEC Championship game, with Tennessee winning narrowly in 1997 and Auburn winning by 10 in 2004.
This season will be the first year of the new nine-game conference schedule for SEC teams. The new format also requires each SEC team to play a non-conference Power 4 team, of which Tennessee will do so in the second week of the season in a road game against Georgia Tech.
What we know from Tennessee’s schedule is that the Week 1 game against Furman is set for 3:30 p.m., the Week 2 game at Georgia Tech is set for 7:00 p.m., the Week 3 game against Kennesaw State is set for 7:30 p.m., and the Week 4 game against Texas is set for Noon.
The only games that aren’t locked into Flex spots are at South Carolina (afternoon), against Kentucky (night), and at Vanderbilt (night).
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