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Heupel believes his Vols are facing ‘a really good opponent’

Tennessee Athletics photo by Andrew Ferguson / Running back Ty Chandler's 13-yard touchdown run less than three minutes into Tennessee's 2019 game against UTC inside Neyland Stadium opened the floodgates to a 38-0 halftime lead for the Volunteers on their way to a 45-0 win. The Vols and Mocs meet this Saturday in the season opener for both teams.
Tennessee Athletics photo by Andrew Ferguson / Running back Ty Chandler's 13-yard touchdown run less than three minutes into Tennessee's 2019 game against UTC inside Neyland Stadium opened the floodgates to a 38-0 halftime lead for the Volunteers on their way to a 45-0 win. The Vols and Mocs meet this Saturday in the season opener for both teams. Tennessee Athletics photo by Andrew Ferguson / Running back Ty Chandler's 13-yard touchdown run less than three minutes into Tennessee's 2019 game against UTC inside Neyland Stadium opened the floodgates to a 38-0 halftime lead for the Volunteers on their way to a 45-0 win. The Vols and Mocs meet this Saturday in the season opener for both teams.

By David Paschall 4 min read


After spending the last several weeks discussing his own team, Tennessee fourth-year football coach Josh Heupel finally talked about somebody else Monday.

That somebody was the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

Tennessee will open its 128th season and its 103rd inside Neyland Stadium on Saturday afternoon by welcoming Rusty Wright’s Mocs, who are ranked eighth in the Championship Subdivision. The Vols are ranked 15th in the preseason Associated Press poll after finishing last season 17th.

“We’re facing a Chattanooga team that is a really good opponent,” Heupel said Monday during his first weekly news conference of the season. “They are preseason ranked and in the top-10 in their division, and they return a lot of really good players. At the end of the day, this is the first step in our journey, and I look forward to going and competing with this group.”