Tennessee’s trip to Texas A&M now has a window, even if the exact kickoff and TV assignment are still waiting on the final call.
The SEC announced Monday that the Vols’ Nov. 14 game in College Station will start in the afternoon, somewhere between 3 p.m. and 4:15 p.m., and will air on either ESPN or the SEC Network. The league said the details will be locked in after this week’s games.
It will be Tennessee’s first game at Texas A&M since 2016, and the first time the Vols have gone to Kyle Field since the Aggies won that wild double-overtime meeting a decade ago. Texas A&M has also played twice at Neyland Stadium since then, in 2020 and 2023.
The matchup sits in the middle of another SEC slate built around eight conference games. Texas at LSU, Missouri at Georgia and Florida at Kentucky are the other Flex games on the Nov. 14 schedule. Alabama visits Vanderbilt in the Early window, Ole Miss heads to Oklahoma in the Afternoon, South Carolina goes to Arkansas in Flex, and Auburn plays Mississippi State in Starkville in the Early slot.
When the SEC released TV windows for Tennessee’s final eight league games back in June, the Texas A&M date was one of the five Flex games, meaning it could have landed in the afternoon or in primetime. Tennessee’s other Flex game is Nov. 21 at home against LSU, while the Nov. 28 game against Vanderbilt is set for a night kickoff between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m.
The Vols have had a pretty steady run of kickoff times so far. They opened with an afternoon game against Furman, then played night games at Georgia Tech and against Kennesaw State. The Texas game was originally slotted for noon on ABC, and Tennessee then worked through four straight afternoon kickoffs in October: Auburn at home, at Arkansas, Alabama at home and at South Carolina.
This week brings another big one for the 16th-ranked Vols, who host No. 8 Kentucky at 6:15 p.m. on ESPN. After that comes Texas A&M, which entered the season ranked No. 8 in the AP Top 25 but has slipped to 4-4 with only one SEC win, over Arkansas.
The Aggies started 2-0 with wins over Missouri State and Arizona State, then Kentucky beat them 31-21 in College Station. Texas A&M fell out of the top 25 after a 35-6 loss at LSU, and the season has kept moving in that direction. The Aggies lost 10 NFL Draft picks from last year’s College Football Playoff team and changed both coordinators, with first-time play-caller Holmon Wiggins moving up to offensive coordinator after Collin Klein left to become head coach at Kansas State, his alma mater.
Even with veteran quarterback Marcel Reed back, along with several skill players from last season’s offense, Texas A&M has struggled to generate much production. The Aggies rank 13th in the SEC in total offense and have averaged 17.4 points per game in five conference games.
After a 2-2 start, Texas A&M beat Arkansas at home, then got routed 27-6 at Missouri. The Aggies later handled The Citadel in a rare mid-October non-conference game, and then pushed Alabama into the fourth quarter in Tuscaloosa before the Crimson Tide scored the final 14 points in a 31-20 win.
Tennessee owns a 3-2 edge in the all-time series. The Vols won both bowl meetings, taking the 1957 Gator Bowl 3-0 and the 2005 Cotton Bowl 38-7. Texas A&M won the first two SEC matchups, in 2016 and 2020, before Tennessee answered with a win at Neyland Stadium in 2023.
That 2016 game at Kyle Field remains the one everyone remembers. Texas A&M led 28-7 early in the third quarter in a meeting of unbeaten top-10 teams, but Tennessee stormed back late.
The fourth quarter featured four touchdowns in the final 7:06, with the Vols scoring with 2:07 left and again with 41 seconds remaining, and Malik Foreman’s hustle play to force a fumble for a touchdown in between. Alvin Kamara piled up 312 all-purpose yards, with 127 rushing yards and 161 receiving yards, and scored three touchdowns, including the tying score.
Joshua Dobbs threw the game-ending interception in Tennessee’s 45-38 loss.
In Other News...
LSU's Ranking Suddenly Carries More Weight Before A Massive Showdown
A wild weekend across the AP Top 25 is set to ripple through the rest of the college football calendar, and Tennessee has plenty of reason to pay attention. Seven ranked teams went down, with Ohio States loss to USC carrying especially heavy playoff implications, while USC, New Mexico, South Carolina and Iowa all stand to climb when the new poll comes out. For teams like Tennessee, the chaos at the top only adds more meaning to every ranking shift, especially with conference races and postseason positioning tightening up.
LSU now finds itself in a more consequential spot ahead of a massive showdown, because the Tigers standing will be judged against a much shakier national field than it was a week ago. Some teams are idle, others are already turning the page to games that could reshape their place in the pecking order again, and that makes the next round of results even more important for anyone tracking the Volunteers path. The rankings may not tell the whole story yet, but they are suddenly carrying a lot more weight. [Read more 🡒]
Two Former Vols Add Extra Tension To Tennessees Kentucky Showdown
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Heard has become Kentuckys starting left tackle and has held that spot through the first eight games, while Anderson is part of the Wildcats reserve depth. For Tennessee, it adds another layer to a game that kicks at 6:15 p.m. ET on ESPN, with the Vols trying to handle a division rival and a pair of former teammates who know the setting well. [Read more 🡒]
Tennessee Just Got A Chance To Reset Everything Against Kentucky
Tennessee heads into its bye week at 6-2 and up one spot to No. 16 in the Coaches Poll, a solid place to regroup before the stretch run. The timing is useful, too, because the Vols return to Neyland Stadium for a matchup with Kentucky that carries real College Football Playoff weight and gives Josh Heupels team a chance to sharpen itself before the stakes climb even higher.
Heupel said the bye week will be about fundamentals and preparation, the kind of reset every contender wants before a game that can shape the rest of the season. With kickoff set for 6:15 p.m. ET in Knoxville, Tennessee gets a rare opportunity to step back, clean up the details and then find out whether the pause helped turn a good season into something more dangerous. [Read more 🡒]