Lucas Panzica discusses three major dates that all Tennessee Volunteers fans need to know
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00:00We are less than 100 days away from college football, and we have kickoff times for Tennessee's first three games of the season.
00:07And it reminds us of one scheduling quirk that's going to be tough to get used to this coming year for the Vols.
00:16Hey, Lucas Panzeca here from 104.5 The Zone and A to Z Sports.
00:19So we already knew that Tennessee's neutral site game against Syracuse to open the season in Atlanta would be an 11 a.m. Central noon Eastern kickoff.
00:27We also have kickoff times now for Week 2 against ETSU and Week 3 at home against the Georgia Bulldogs.
00:35In Week 2, Tennessee will take on ETSU with a 2.30 Central, 3.30 Eastern kickoff on SEC Network Plus.
00:42And in Week 3, the Vols get another 2.30 Central, 3.30 Eastern kickoff against Georgia at home for a game televised on ABC.
00:52Now, it was announced prior to these times coming out that this is also the Checker-Neeland game.
00:56The Vols rolling it out for the SEC opener in 2025, and immediately there was some consternation from Tennessee fans that the Checker-Neeland game is not a night game for the Vols.
01:07And in fact, it's so early in the season that it's barely going to be dark by the end of that game against Georgia.
01:13When you look around the SEC, the matchup that did end up getting that 6.30 Central, 7.30 Eastern primetime kickoff on ABC, Florida versus LSU.
01:24Big rivalry, two teams that are expected to make a big leap going into this coming year.
01:29And it's a Tennessee team that obviously without Nico Iemaliava loses some of that star power that maybe would have carried weight for that Tennessee-Georgia game to be a primetime matchup under the lights at Neyland Stadium.
01:41It'll be an electric atmosphere nonetheless, but the weird thing about this schedule is how early that matchup against Georgia is.
01:49For so long, Tennessee fans got so used to the SEC opener, always with the exception of one year with the games being switched around due to 9-11.
01:58That first SEC game was always the Florida game, and it carried a ton of weight.
02:03It kind of set the tone as to how the rest of the season was going to go, with the Georgia game usually coming later on in the season.
02:11Last season, the Georgia game was in November.
02:13In fact, this is the earliest Tennessee-Georgia game since 1995.
02:19This matchup has not happened in early to mid-September in about 30 years.
02:25So that's going to take some getting used to, and there's no question that while Florida has given Tennessee tons of issues over the course of the last couple of decades,
02:33this is a much taller task to introduce yourself into SEC play in terms of the opponent.
02:40Georgia loses a lot from last year's team, but as always, they're going to reload talent-wise.
02:44Gunner Stockton expected to be the starting quarterback against a Tennessee team that is talented, yes,
02:50but has a ton of unknowns on both sides of the ball, including at the quarterback spot,
02:55where potentially Joey Aguilar will be the starting quarterback for Tennessee in that game.
03:00So it'll be Checker Neyland.
03:02It'll be under the lights.
03:03But what better way for Tennessee to introduce itself into the 2025 season,
03:08a season with tons of question marks, a season after an offseason where the entire narrative about Tennessee
03:14revolved around the messy divorce between the program and Nico Iamaljava.
03:19What better way for Tennessee to announce itself into next year than by beating Georgia at home in week three with Checker Neyland.
03:28Again, 3.30 Eastern, 2.30 Central kickoff.
03:30Josh Heupel will have his first opportunity to knock off the Georgia Bulldogs as the head coach of the Tennessee Volunteers in early to mid-September.