College football season is coming faster than Cash Jones on a wheel route. Your Georgia Bulldogs will open the season on August 30th, and between now and then we’ll be previewing every opponent, and today with the Tennessee Volunteers.
The Volunteer File
Location: Knoxville, TN. It’s actually quite a nice city, located on the banks of the Tennessee River which is unfortunately unnavigable thanks to submerged goalposts discarded there prematurely. That tracks.
Head Coach: Josh Heupel, aka Hamwise Gamcheese. 5th Season. Career record 65-23, UT 37-15
2024 record: 10-3 (6-2 SEC). Made the College Football Playoffs as the No. 9 seed, before falling to eventual national champion An Ohio State in the first round.
The Volunteers started 4-0, winning an OOC game handily against a bumbling NC State squad, before bumbling themselves at Arkansas (which is where the questioning of Nico really began). They took care of business at Neyland, winning the next 4 home games against Kentucky, Mississippi State, Florida, and even Alabama. But then they had to leave the friendly confines to play Between The Hedges. That didn’t end well… for them.
They finished convincingly against UTEP and a good Vanderbilt team yet were left out of the SECCG thanks to UGA’s tiebreaker win. So as the #9 CFP seed they went up north to Columbus, OH and were summarily trounced by a Buckeye team that was looking to avenge an implausible loss to a team even more up north.
Game Time: Saturday, September 13, 2025 in Knoxville. This will be the 3:30 pm ET game on ABC.
Fun fact: Famous alumni include Chris Moneymaker, Dave Ramsey, and Paul Finebaum. The renowned Anthropology Research Facility is “the first of its kind to permit systematic study of human decomposition.” Which explains a lot, and is a good use of what is buried beneath the stadium.
Roster Changes: The Volunteers picked up 7 new players via the portal, most notably Sam Pendleton (OL) from Notre Dame. Well, he is the highest ranked player to transfer in. The most notable is the QB Joey Aguilar who came down from the mountain (App State), had a cup of oat milk latte with a half pump of vanilla, extra ice, and a dusting of cinnamon on the West Coast (UCLA), then came up to another supposed mountain in Knoxville. All that courtesy of the unofficial team trade between UCLA and UT to get rid of Nico Iamaleava.
Iamaleavin’ is obviously the most notable player to transfer out, but he held the door open. Because UT also lost their best returning receiver in Squirrel White, and another 6 receivers, the best returning tight end, and a backup QB. 27 Volunteers in all sought greener pastures outside of Knoxville, or at least a stadium turf that doesn’t end your career prematurely.
The portal wasn’t the only way out of Knox County. Graduating, or at least getting drafted were All-SEC O-linemen Cooper Mays and Javontez Spraggins. Those guys helped produce the SEC Offensive Player of the Year in running back Dylan Sampson, whose production is frankly almost impossible to replicate.
Another calling card of UT is the defensive front. But the NFL called, and Defensive Coordinator Tim Banks is going to try and replace newly-minted Atlanta Falcon James Pearce and KC Chief Omarr Norman-Lott.
2025 Outlook:
Tennessee opens the season in Mercedes-Benz against a Syracuse team looking to build on its own 10 win season. Fran Brown is having to replace a lot, but don’t count him out.
The Vols home schedule includes ETSU, our own Georgia Bulldogs, UAB, Arkansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico St., and Vanderbilt. They travel to Miss. St., Tuscaloosa for the 3rd Saturday in October, Kentucky, and Florida.
The Hillbillies rank 81st nationally in returning production, and losing such a big chunk of your roster is always a tough thing. But they have gained a veteran gamer in QB Joey Aguilar who should pick up what Josh Heupel puts down. The Vols will always run the ball under Heupel, and it isn’t like the orange receiving corps were high performers last year.
It’s hard to believe they were ranked 12th in scoring and 15th nationally in total offense, but that was misleading if you didn’t take out the 9 touchdowns scored against Kent St., 9 touchdowns against Chattanooga, and 8 touchdowns against UTEP. I expect the orange offense to take a couple of steps back.
The defense will likely keep them in ball games, and they face new quarterbacks and new offenses against virtually all of their conference schedule. They did manage to keep preseason All-SEC defensive back Jermod McCoy. Originally a Beaver from Corvallis, McCoy came to Tennessee in 2024 and took over the starting DB position immediately, picking 4 passes and shutting down his side of the field. Gunner Stockton would do well to know where he is in the pre-snap. (Late edit: apparently McCoy has an ACL injury in camp and there is no timetable on his return.)
They do have to play Georgia, Alabama, and Florida in SEC play, but miss Texas and LSU. I think they lose to all 3 heavyweights, plus stub their toe against an improving Oklahoma. That adds up to an 8-4 regular season. And since I’ve already spoiled it:
GlimmerTwinDawg prediction: Frazier runs in 2 scores, Gunner throws for 1 and runs for 1, and Woodring saves us from a couple of stalled drives. UGA 34, UT 19.
We’re just a few weeks away from this game, and it is never too early to hate orange. Do that. And as always…
GO ‘DAWGS!!!