Steve Sarkisian didn’t try to soften the landing for Texas.
With the No. 1 Longhorns heading to Knoxville for a showdown with Tennessee, the Texas coach gave Neyland Stadium the kind of praise that will only crank up the volume around Saturday’s game.
“We’re going into what I consider the loudest stadium in the country,” Sarkisian said of Neyland Stadium, according to multiple sources.
That’s the kind of line Tennessee fans will wear proudly, and it comes with some real weight considering who said it. Sarkisian has coached in major SEC atmospheres, lived through rivalry games and taken Texas into massive stadiums before. Even so, he put Neyland at the top of the list.
And the setting already had no shortage of noise around it.
Neyland Stadium officially holds 101,915, making it one of the biggest venues in college football. Tennessee went into the 2026 season with 27 straight home sellouts, and the Vols averaged 101,915 fans per home game in 2025.
Now the Longhorns are walking into that kind of environment with Sarkisian’s comment hanging in the air before the opening kickoff.
The matchup itself has all the ingredients for a huge day in Knoxville. ESPN’s College GameDay is coming to town, adding another layer to a game that was already drawing plenty of attention.
Texas arrives at 3-0 after wins over Texas State, Ohio State and UTSA. Tennessee is also unbeaten at 3-0, opening with a 56-9 victory over Furman before beating Georgia Tech 45-24 and Kennesaw State 42-9.
That sets up No. 1 Texas against No. 14 Tennessee at noon ET Saturday on ABC.
An early kickoff might usually take some edge off a road crowd. This one doesn’t figure to.
Tennessee has already marked the game as its annual Checker Neyland matchup, which means the orange-and-white checkerboard will be back in the stands. So Texas is getting the undefeated Vols, a packed house, College GameDay and a stadium that its opponent’s head coach just called the loudest in the country.
Welcome to Knoxville.
Vol fans have a few days to decide whether they’d like to prove him right.
In Other News...
Peyton Manning Puts Texas-Tennessee GameDay In An Awkward Spot
ESPN is bringing College GameDay to Knoxville ahead of the Sept. 26 matchup between Texas and Tennessee, setting up one of the more intriguing pregame stages of the early season. The backdrop is already loaded for Volunteers fans, with Tennessee hosting a marquee nonconference game and national attention set to descend on campus before kickoff.
The wrinkle is Peyton Manning. The former Tennessee quarterback has made it clear he would back his nephew, Texas quarterback Arch Manning, over his alma mater if asked to choose, and ESPN still has not announced its guest picker. That has left local observers wondering whether Manning would even be the fit for the role, giving GameDay an awkward little subplot before the show has a chance to get rolling. [Read more 🡒]
Peyton Manning Just Gave Vols Fans A Brutal Dilemma
Peyton Manning has always been one of Tennessees most beloved figures, and he made it clear this week that his affection for his alma mater has not changed. Even so, when the Vols meet Texas in a high-stakes SEC matchup, Manning said his family tie pulls him in another direction, since his nephew Arch is on the other sideline. It is the kind of rooting interest that feels impossible for Tennessee fans to hear from one of their own, even with the loyalty to Knoxville still intact.
The game carries plenty of weight on its own, with both teams undefeated and ranked inside the Top 15, but Mannings stance adds another layer to the buildup. It also complicates the usual pregame pageantry around College GameDay, where Manning would have been an obvious draw as the guest picker. Instead, his allegiance to family appears to leave that spot out of play, turning a marquee Saturday into a small but painful reminder of how messy college football can get when bloodlines and school pride collide. [Read more 🡒]
Tennessee Fans Have A New College GameDay Guest Picker Tease
A familiar Tennessee buzz has started building around this weeks College GameDay show, and it has a local twist that Vols fans know well. Morgan Wallen, the Knoxville-born country singer, has emerged as a rumored guest picker for the pregame hit ahead of Tennessees matchup with Texas, giving the buildup around the game a little extra star power.
The speculation picked up after a Tennessee vs. Texas T-shirt dated for the game appeared on Wallens website, which naturally sent fans hunting for clues. ESPN has not made an official announcement yet, and the list of possible names still includes Candace Parker, Leanne Morgan and Peyton Manning, so the reveal is still very much part of the storyline heading into Saturday. [Read more 🡒]