NEED TO KNOW
Opening 2023 in Music City
For the third time in program history, Tennessee will open its season at Nissan Stadium in Nashville. In the prior two season openers hosted there, the Vols defeated Bowling Green, 59-30, on Sept. 5, 2015, and topped Wyoming, 47-7, on Aug. 31, 2002.
UT owns a 5-2 record all-time in games played at Nissan Stadium but dropped its last contest in controversial fashion, a 48-45 defeat in overtime to Purdue in the 2021 Music City Bowl. Saturday's contest will be the Vols' first on the new synthetic turf of Nissan Stadium.
Great Expectations
Tennessee begins a season ranked in the top 10 for the first time since 2016 as the Vols enter the year at No. 10 in the AFCA Coaches poll. UT is No. 12 in the AP Top 25. It's the 43rd time that the Vols open a season ranked in the AP Top 25, which is 10th all-time among all programs. UT has been ranked in 16 consecutive AP polls dating back to Sept. 6 of last season. It finished the 2022 campaign ranked No. 6 in both polls. This season, the Big Orange were picked to finish second in the SEC East and fourth in the overall SEC race by the media. UT returns 62 letterwinners and 12 starters - six on offense and six on defense - from last year.
Heupel Era
Josh Heupel, the 2022 AP SEC Coach of the Year, enters his third season at the helm. Since taking over a program that was 3-7 prior to his arrival, Heupel owns an 18-8 record and has won 13 of his last 16 games. He owns seven wins over ranked teams since 2021, which is third nationally among FBS head coaches during that span and the most by a UT coach through the first 26 games of a career.
This is Heupel's sixth season as a head coach. He owned a 28-8 record at UCF prior to UT, and since 2018, he ranks eighth nationally among active FBS head coaches in victories with 46. Heupel's UT teams (2021-pres.) have averaged 42.7 points per game and 500.0 yards of total offense per game, which is second and third in the FBS, respectively, during that span.
Milton's Time to Shine
For the second straight season, Tennessee will have a sixth-year senior starting quarterback at the helm as Joe Milton III once again takes the reins. It's also the third straight season that a graduate transfer will start under center for the Vols. The Michigan graduate transfer served as the starter for the Vols' first two games of the 2021 season before an injury sidelined him in Game 2 vs. Pitt. His then-roommate Hendon Hooker took over and put up two of the most prolific seasons in UT history and finished fifth in voting for the 2022 Heisman Trophy.
In his last start, Milton was named MVP of the 2022 Orange Bowl in his home state, firing 19-of-28 passes for 251 yards and a career-high-tying three touchdown passes to defeat ACC champion Clemson.
