By Jeremy Durham
Let’s settle something before kickoff. There are two UTs. One was educating Tennesseans in 1794, back when Texas was still Spain’s problem. The other opened in 1883, got rich off oil, and has spent 140 years trying to buy the history it didn’t have. One has a checkerboard end zone. The other has a cow.
(Yes, Longhorn fans, Bevo is technically a steer. Take it up with the comments section.)
Saturday, No. 1 Texas (3-0) visits No. 14 Tennessee (3-0). Noon Eastern, ABC, Checker Neyland, GameDay in town. A noon kick means the students will be sober. Mostly.
Also on the guest list: President Trump, every Republican politician in the state trying to glom onto him, plus enough celebrities to stock a Nashville red carpet. That means Secret Service, metal detectors, and Cumberland Avenue as a parking lot. If you usually leave at 9, leave at 7.
Welcome to the SEC, Boys
Yes, it’s year three. But you’re not really in the SEC until you’ve been to Knoxville, and Texas never has. This is the Longhorns’ first trip ever to Neyland, and the first regular-season meeting between the two UTs. The last one was the 1969 Cotton Bowl.
A reminder on how road trips went last year: Texas lost at Ohio State, lost at Florida, got smoked 35-10 at Georgia, and needed overtime to survive Kentucky and Mississippi State. They went 0-5 against the spread away from Austin. Zero. Five.
The Eyes of Texas are upon you, sure. So are 101,000 pairs in Knoxville, and ours come with a sound system. And the right shade of orange.
Still, this isn’t Alabama or Florida week. It’s two loud Southern families at the same reunion with the same initials on the towels. Theirs are burnt orange, which is what Tennessee orange looks like after you leave it in a Texas parking lot all summer.
The Manning Problem
Every Vol fan over 40 has a Peyton jersey in a closet, and Saturday we root against his nephew. Credit where it’s due: two weeks ago, Arch dragged No. 4 Texas back from 20 down in the fourth quarter to beat No. 1 Ohio State. Then last week, he went 17-of-33 for 164 yards against UTSA. At home. We wish him no harm, just a quiet Saturday and a long NFL career somewhere far away. (By the way, Tennessee still wants Peyton’s son Marshall who is a freshman QB at Baylor School in Chattanooga to choose the Vols in a few years, so don’t be too disrespectful to Arch on Saturday! Let’s not burn bridges unnecessarily.)
The Kid
Across the field is Faizon Brandon, the youngest QB on record to start at Tennessee. In his debut, he threw three touchdowns and ran for two, the first SEC player to do that in a first start since Cam Newton. He’s from Greensboro, same as Hendon Hooker. Vols fans would gladly take that ending, minus the knee.
Tennessee has scored on every red zone trip this season, but ranks 119th in penalty yards. Against the No. 1 team in America, every yellow flag is potentially a gift-wrapped possession for a Manning.
What to Watch
Tennessee has 896 rushing yards through three games. Texas has 525. Move the chains, keep Arch on the sideline in a headset, and let Neyland do the rest.
Vegas agrees. Texas opened at 7 in some books; by Wednesday it was 4.5, tying the smallest spread the Vols have faced against a No. 1 team since Peyton’s 1997 trip to Gainesville. (We lost that one. We don’t talk about it.)
What we do talk about: that opening 7 matched the lines when Tennessee hosted No. 1 Auburn in 1985 and No. 1 LSU in 1959. The Vols won both. Bo Jackson and Billy Cannon came to Knoxville feeling good about themselves, too.
The Bottom Line
No venom, no grudges. Just one very conflicted Manning family group text. Get there early. Sing Rocky Top like you mean it and be polite to the folks in burnt orange. They came a long way to find out which UT is the real one.
THE PICK: Vols 31, Texas 27.
