With Tennessee’s third game of the season set for Saturday night, the scene around Neyland Stadium is already building toward another Vol Walk. Fans will start lining up to greet the Vols before the 7:45 p.m. kickoff, with the walk expected to get underway around 5:30 p.m.
Tennessee enters the game as the heavy favorite against Kennesaw State, which is facing its first SEC matchup. The Vols are also aiming to push their record to 3-0.
There will be one notable absence when Tennessee takes the field. Earlier this week, head coach Josh Heupel said senior tight end Ethan Davis will miss the rest of the season because of an ACL injury.
One of the players drawing attention this week is senior linebacker Arion Carter. After serving a one-game suspension in the season opener, Carter said he is trying to make a bigger impact this year through his play. The NCAA suspended Carter because of a $427 flight he accepted during the pre-NFL Draft process, though he later paid it back after withdrawing from the draft because of an injury.
Carter has also tied his production to a cause. For the rest of the season, he is donating $427 for every tackle to help people with cancer treatments, along with donations for every sack, interception, forced fumble and defensive touchdown.
Against Georgia Tech, Carter posted eight tackles, and his pledge in partnership with his mother Sheteka Alexander’s nonprofit Girls in Real Life Situations came out to more than $3,400.
In Other News...
Texas Coach Just Added More Fuel To Neyland Before Tennessee Showdown
Steve Sarkisian did his part to turn up the volume before Texas heads to Knoxville, calling Neyland Stadium the loudest venue in the country ahead of the Longhorns trip to face Tennessee. It is the kind of pregame praise that only adds more buzz to a matchup already carrying plenty of it, with No. 1 Texas visiting No. 14 Tennessee in a setting built for big-game noise.
Checker Neyland will be in full effect for a noon ET kickoff on ABC, and ESPNs College GameDay will be on hand for one of the weeks marquee games. With more than 100,000 fans packed into the stadium, Tennessee gets the stage and the atmosphere it wants, while Texas arrives with the ranking and the target that come with it. [Read more 🡒]
Tennessee Fans Have A New College GameDay Guest Picker Tease
The build-up to Tennessees showdown with Texas has already spilled into the Saturday-morning spotlight, with fans now trying to decode who might join College GameDay as the guest picker. The latest tease points to Morgan Wallen, the Knoxville-born country singer whose name has started to circulate after a Tennessee vs. Texas shirt dated for the game appeared on his website.
Nothing is official yet, which has only added to the guessing game around one of the weekends biggest stages. Wallen is hardly the only possibility, either, with Candace Parker, Leanne Morgan and Peyton Manning also lingering as familiar Tennessee-linked names fans would love to see on set when the show arrives for the matchup. [Read more 🡒]
Peyton Manning Puts Texas-Tennessee GameDay In An Awkward Spot
With College GameDay headed to Knoxville before the Sept. 26 matchup between Texas and Tennessee, the pregame spotlight is already getting a little extra attention. Peyton Manning, the former Volunteers quarterback, figures to loom over the weekend as much as anyone, especially with his nephew Arch Manning set to lead Texas into one of the seasons biggest early games.
The awkward part is obvious: Peyton has said he would pull for his nephew over his alma mater, and ESPN still has not named the guest picker for the show. Local writers have already started wondering whether Manning would want that role at all, leaving GameDay with a familiar Tennessee legend and a very unusual family subplot hanging over a marquee SEC-SEC meeting. [Read more 🡒]