Asked if playing in near-freezing weather at Ohio State might pose a challenge for his football team, Tennessee coach Josh Heupel quickly noted that it wouldn’t be the Volunteers’ first rodeo with cold conditions.
Tennessee kicker Max Gilbert even posted a photo last week of himself standing with teammates as light snow fell before a morning practice in Knoxville. And before that, Tennessee beat in-state rival Vanderbilt last month on a tundra of sorts with a kickoff temperature of 41 degrees before dropping to the 30s in the fading daylight in Nashville.
A combination of heated benches, portable heaters and extra layers helped take the chill off that regular-season finale, along with a 36-23 comeback victory for the Vols as they wrapped up the first College Football Playoff berth in program history.
The forecast for Saturday night in Columbus, Ohio — where the eighth-seeded Buckeyes and ninth-seeded Vols will face off in a first-round matchup of 10-2 teams — calls for temperatures in the high teens to low 20s with a slight chance of snow. With few degrees of separation between climates in the Tennessee Valley and Ohio Valley, though, it won’t feel much different when the Vols venture 350 miles north to face the Buckeyes.
“Yeah, it’s a June day in South Dakota,” Heupel, who hails from Aberdeen, South Dakota, joked this week. “It’s going to be great football weather.