There will be a football team Saturday afternoon inside Neyland Stadium that already has scored 42 points four times this season.
It’s not the high-flying Tennessee Volunteers.
UT Martin, which is making its second-ever trip to Neyland and the first as a homecoming opponent, is off to a 4-2 start this season that includes a 3-0 record in Ohio Valley Conference play. The Skyhawks are ranked 14th in the Football Championship Subdivision coaches poll and 18th in the Stats Perform FCS Top 25.
“You can just look at the production they’ve had,” Vols second-year coach Josh Heupel said. “They have the ability to move the football and score points, so I think it will be a great test for us on the defensive side of the football to go out, execute and play well. There are some things we’ve obviously been focused on.”
The Skyhawks had an open date last Saturday, when Tennessee ended its 15-year losing streak against Alabama with a thrilling 52-49 win. The Vols played the Crimson Tide without safety Jaylen McCollough and cornerback Kamal Hadden and wound up losing defensive tackle LaTrell Bumphus, linebacker Juwan Mitchell and cornerback Christian Charles to injuries in the fourth quarter.
UT Martin is guided on offense by sixth-year senior quarterback Dresser Winn, a 6-foot-3, 215-pounder who has completed 133 of 210 passes (63.3%) for 1,761 yards with 11 touchdowns and two interceptions. Redshirt sophomore Zak Wallace leads the Skyhawks in rushing with 552 yards and is averaging 5.7 yards a carry, while redshirt freshman Sam Franklin has amassed 393 yards and averages a whopping 12.7 per rush.
This marks the seventh time in 10 years the Vols will host an FCS team from within the state, having faced Austin Peay (2013), UTC (2014, 2019), Tennessee Tech (2016, 2021) and East Tennessee State (2018).
“If you took away these games and they went to 10-game SEC or Power Five opportunities, you could possibly be eliminating opportunities at non-Power Five and FCS schools,” UT Martin coach Jason Simpson said. “You could be eliminating opportunities for guys to get scholarships to come play football. If there were not these opportunities, maybe guys turn and play other sports.
“Before you know it, over a 10-year period, you have a lot less guys playing football.”
Simpson is 104-82 midway through his 17th season with the Skyhawks, having been hired after spending the 2005 season as UTC’s offensive coordinator. Ty Simpson, his son, is a freshman quarterback at Alabama who has played during blowout wins over Utah State, Louisiana-Monroe and Vanderbilt.
Heupel’s only stint in the FCS came as a Weber State quarterback in 1997.
“I do think it’s important, having been around the game with my dad at a small college to having been at an FCS school,” Heupel said. “These games support their football program and in some way support their entire athletic department as it continues to trickle down.
“I think it is important these games are played, and it speaks to the health of football on all levels.”
Tennessee (6-0), third in the Associated Press rankings, is the only Southeastern Conference opponent for UT Martin this season, but the Skyhawks doubled up on SEC foes in 2014 (Kentucky and Mississippi State), 2015 (Ole Miss and Arkansas) and 2019 (Florida and Kentucky).
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.