Did you hear that Tennessee is playing Florida next week and that the game inside Neyland Stadium is already sold out?
Volunteers coach Josh Heupel is aware, but he's even more cognizant of Saturday's test against Akron. Tennessee is ranked No. 15 after opening victories over Ball State and Pittsburgh and is seeking its first 3-0 start since 2016.
"Fans get to do whatever they want to, right?" a smiling Heupel said earlier this week. "They get a chance on Saturdays to enjoy the football game, and in some ways they're prognosticators who get a chance to enjoy the buildup to everything.
"When you're a competitor, you've got to be really consistent in your habits, and that's something that we talk about with our football team."
Heupel recently received a pay raise from $4 million annually to $5 million, and his contract that ran through January 2027 now goes through January 2028. Vols assistants have received pay hikes and one-year extensions as well, with offensive coordinator Alex Golesh jumping from $750,000 a year to $1.2 million.
The Vols are 47-point favorites over the Zips from the Mid-American Conference, who are just 4-28 since the start of the 2019 season. That includes the 3-24 tenure of Tom Arth, who coached from 2019 through the first nine games of last year after spending the 2017-18 seasons guiding the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
Akron (1-1) is coming off a 52-0 loss at Michigan State.
"You don't have to do anything other than to look at the scoreboard from last week in college football to understand that this game doesn't care who you are or where you're ranked or what conference you're in," Heupel said.
The Tennessee-Akron game will be available through ESPN+ and SEC Network+ digital-only broadcasts. SEC Network+ is complementary to the SEC Network and accessible with TV provider credentials, and it also can be accessed through the ESPN App on smartphones, tablets, connected streaming devices or through ESPN.com/watch.
ESPN+ is a standalone streaming service that requires a subscription. It is available to stream through the ESPN app on a connected streaming device and on ESPN.com.
Heupel is looking to build upon last week's 34-27 overtime win at Pittsburgh. The Vols struggled early in falling behind 10-0 and prevailed despite losing two fumbles and having a punt blocked in the second half.
Sophomore running back Jaylen Wright, who missed most of preseason camp, has fumbled each of the first two games.
"It's one of the things you're concerned about as you get ready for a guy who hasn't had a bunch of physical contact during the leadup to the first game," Heupel said. "You try and help them prepare for it, but there is nothing real until it is live. He has played a lot of football for us and done a really good job of taking care of the football at times, and I expect him to do that the rest of the way home."
Players dismissed
Tennessee redshirt sophomore linebacker William Mohan and junior offensive lineman Savion Herring have been dismissed from the program.
Mohan was arrested on a domestic aggravated assault charge on Aug. 23 and was immediately suspended, so the Michigan transfer never wound up playing this season after tallying nine tackles last year in a reserve role.
Herring, a junior-college transfer from New Jersey who enrolled in June, was arrested earlier this week on domestic violence charges.
Lofton to be honored
Former Tennessee basketball guard Chris Lofton will have his No. 5 jersey retired inside Thompson-Boling Arena when Kentucky visits on Jan. 14.
The 6-foot-2, 197-pounder from Maysville, Kentucky, played for the Vols from 2004-08, becoming a three-time SEC first-team selection and the 2006-07 Associated Press SEC player of the year. Lofton set the league standard for career 3-pointers with 431 — Auburn's Bryce Brown is second on that list with 382 from 2015-19 — and his long-range accuracy resulted in multiple Tennessee marks as well.
Lofton averaged 16.6 points per game over his 128 career contests, with his 20.8-point clip in 2006-07 leading the league.
Baseball foes known
The SEC this week revealed the league baseball schedules for 2023.
Tennessee, which ascended to No. 1 in the rankings and was the NCAA tournament's top overall seed for the first time in program history earlier this year, will host three-game series against Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi State, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt. The Vols will travel to Auburn, Georgia, LSU, Missouri and South Carolina.
That means the Vols will not be playing Alabama, Arkansas and reigning national champion Ole Miss.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.