Tennessee’s relationship with football openers in Atlanta is, at the very minimum, unique.
The Volunteers opened their 2012 and 2017 seasons in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Classic, downing North Carolina State 35-21 in 2012 at the former Georgia Dome and outlasting Georgia Tech 42-41 in two overtimes five years later inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The Tennessee coaches for those two victories, Derek Dooley and Butch Jones, were fired before the end of those respective seasons after failing to earn a single Southeastern Conference win.
Of course, Peach Bowl CEO and president Gary Stokan is familiar with the unique after establishing the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Classic, known now as the Aflac Kickoff Classic, as appointment television back in 2008, when Alabama opened Nick Saban’s second season with a 34-10 thrashing of Clemson.
“The same thing happened with Tommy Bowden in our first game,” Stokan said. “Tommy went through six weeks, and then (former Clemson athletic director) Terry Don Phillips named Dabo Swinney as the interim coach for the rest of that year. Dabo, of course, has gone on to lead Clemson to two national championships.”
Tennessee will open its 2025 season on Aug. 30 against Syracuse in the Aflac Classic, which will have a noon start on ABC. The very next day, a second SEC-versus-ACC showdown will take place in Mercedes-Benz when South Carolina squares off against Virginia Tech.
Stokan said that Tennessee and South Carolina will be the home teams in those contests.
Though this is the third neutral-site opener for the Vols in Atlanta, it’s the first to take place on a Saturday. Their victory over N.C. State transpired on a Friday night and was followed the next evening by a Clemson topping of Auburn, and their win over Georgia Tech occurred on Labor Day, two nights after Alabama dismantled Florida State in college football’s debut game at the $1.6 billion venue.
“We have the Orange Bowl before the Orange Bowl with Syracuse and Tennessee,” Stokan said. “I had some fun with (national coordinator of officials) Steve Shaw of the NCAA and told him that I had allowed both teams to wear their orange uniforms. I had him going for about five minutes, because he was like, ‘You can’t do that,’ and I said, ‘Well, why not? They’re different color oranges.’
“I told him, ‘There is a Tennessee orange and a Syracuse orange and a Texas orange and a Clemson orange,’ and he said, ‘My officials won’t be able to tell them apart.’ Then I told him I was only kidding.”
What is no laughing matter for Stokan is the future of neutral-site openers, as nothing is scheduled in Atlanta beyond this year.
“When the concept of a 12-team playoff was proposed late in 2021, a lot of the ADs went out and scheduled a lot of big home-and-home matchups,” he said. “I’m a big believer in big intersectional games, and when the 12th game was legislated in 2008, we saw an opportunity to use our ACC-SEC matchup that had been so successful selling out year after year in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl to put together that kind of matchup on the front side of the season.
“We basically changed the face of college football, because prior to us doing that, there were a lot of nondescript games against directional schools for the bigger programs. When we put Alabama and Clemson together, it sold out and had a huge viewership. You look at this season’s opening weekend, and you have Notre Dame-Miami, LSU-Clemson, Texas-Ohio State, Tennessee-Syracuse and South Carolina-Virginia Tech.”
Stokan admitted that there has been some dialogue about a matchup for next season, but future years hinge on what the SEC and ACC plan to do with their league scheduling.
“If those leagues move to nine games and keep the rivalry games with Clemson-South Carolina, Georgia-Georgia Tech, Florida-Florida State and Kentucky-Louisville, then it would be very tough to schedule these kickoff games, because the inventory will shrink,” Stokan said. “If the ACC and SEC stay with an eight-game conference schedule, then I think we’ll be able to continue to successfully put on these games like we have for the past 18 years.”
Backfield competition
Tennessee held its 10th preseason practice Tuesday, with rain keeping the Vols indoors.
Following the workout, second-year running backs coach De’Rail Sims spoke to the media. Sims had the services of SEC offensive player of the year Dylan Sampson last season but is now working with redshirt sophomore DeSean Bishop, sophomore Peyton Lewis, senior and Duke transfer Star Thomas, early enrollees Justin Baker and Daune Morris, and redshirt junior walk-on Hunter Barnes.
“You’ve got Bish and Peyton from last season and then the rest of the room,” Sims said, “but there is really no set number in the rotation yet. It’s still working itself out as we get to game week. I think you look at our two older guys, and then Star is a guy who’s played a ton of football and is having a really good camp.
“Those two freshmen we have don’t want to take a back seat to anybody.”
The Vols will have Wednesday off before practicing Thursday and scrimmaging Friday.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.