Tennessee and West Virginia will meet for the second time in three football seasons when the Volunteers and Mountaineers collide at the AutoZone Liberty Bowl in Memphis on New Year's Eve.
The Vols concluded a disappointing 3-7 regular season Saturday afternoon with a 34-13 loss to No.5 Texas A&M inside Neyland Stadium, while the Mountaineers haven't played since falling to 5-4 with a 42-6 loss at Iowa State on Dec. 5. West Virginia was scheduled to host Oklahoma on Dec. 12 but had to cancel that contest and pause team activities because of COVID-19.
Tennessee and West Virginia opened the 2018 season in Charlotte, North Carolina, where the Mountaineers rolled 40-14, spoiling Jeremy Pruitt's head-coaching debut in the process.
"We look forward to the opportunity of playing a bowl game in our home state," Pruitt said Sunday night through a university release. "Since we returned to campus this summer, I am proud of our team in how they have navigated through the challenges presented during this unique season. They get another chance to take the field against a very good opponent in West Virginia.
"We know Memphis is a special place for Vol fans, and we look forward to seeing them on New Year's Eve."
It will be the 54th bowl game in program history, with only Alabama (72), Georgia (57) and Texas (57) having earned more postseason invites. It will be the first Liberty Bowl for the Vols since 1986, when they topped Minnesota 21-14 to finish 7-5.
The Liberty Bowl is the seventh-oldest bowl game, having started in Philadelphia with an Alabama-Penn State matchup in 1959. The 7-0 win by the Nittany Lions marked Paul "Bear" Bryant's first bowl game as Alabama's coach, and Bryant's last postseason trip was the 1982 Liberty Bowl, where his Crimson Tide topped Illinois 21-15.
Memphis has housed the Liberty Bowl since 1965.
"It's a tremendous development opportunity for our team and should serve as a primer to spring practice for Coach Pruitt and our returners," Tennessee athletic director Phillip Fulmer said in the release, certainly signaling his plans for Pruitt having a fourth season in Knoxville.
Tennessee is among six Southeastern Conference teams participating in bowls with a losing record, joining Ole Miss (4-5), Kentucky (4-6), Arkansas (3-7), Mississippi State (3-7) and South Carolina (2-8). LSU (5-5), which self-imposed a bowl ban, and winless Vanderbilt are the only SEC teams not participating.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524. Follow him on Twitter @DavidSPaschall.