Peyton Manning is headed back to Knoxville, and his return will land on a massive football Saturday at Tennessee.
ESPN announced Friday that the former Volunteers quarterback will be part of “College GameDay” before No. 1 Texas visits No.
14 Tennessee, with Manning joining Pat McAfee for the show’s “Kicking is Easy” segment. The setup is a familiar one by now: fans get pulled from the crowd and asked to drill a 33-yard field goal without a warm-up kick.
It’s in its fourth season, and McAfee has already handed out more than $8 million in prizes and charity donations during his time on the show.
The show itself will run from 9 a.m. to noon ET across ESPN, ESPNU, Disney+ and the ESPN App. The first two hours will be staged on the Ayres Hall Lawn before the final hour shifts inside Neyland Stadium.
Tennessee native and “Jackass” star Johnny Knoxville will be the guest picker, while Vols head coach Josh Heupel is also scheduled to appear from inside the stadium.
This will be the 13th time “College GameDay” has visited Tennessee’s campus, and the scene figures to be even busier than usual. President Donald Trump is also expected to attend the game, and officials have already warned fans to plan for extra security and travel delays.
Manning’s presence carries a little extra weight because of the family tie on the other sideline. Arch Manning, who wears No. 16 for Texas, is set to lead the Longhorns into Neyland Stadium wearing the same number Tennessee retired for Peyton.
Back in June at the Manning Passing Academy, Peyton Manning addressed the question of who he’d be pulling for.
"One of the kids was asking me earlier who I was going to go for," Peyton Manning said. "And I said, 'Well, who do you think?'
And he said that he would go for his school over his relative. And I went, 'Well, you and I are different.
You and I are wired differently.' Nothing's more important than your family."
He added, "That's pretty much a no-brainer that you're pulling for your nephew to play well. But like I said, everybody knows pretty strongly where my loyalties lie on all other Saturdays."
That answer sparked plenty of reaction from Tennessee fans, some upset and others quick to defend him. Manning remains the standard-bearer for Vols quarterbacks, with 11,201 passing yards from 1994 to 1997 still standing as the school record. The 1998 No. 1 overall draft pick went on to win Super Bowls with the Indianapolis Colts and Denver Broncos and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2021.
The game itself is set for noon ET on ABC. Texas and Tennessee are both 3-0, and this will be the first regular-season meeting between the programs. Their three previous matchups all came on New Year’s Day at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.
It’s also Tennessee’s first SEC game of the season, and Neyland Stadium is sold out for the 30th straight game.
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