We’ve known Tennessee will open up Josh Heupel’s second season on Thursday, Sept. 1 at 7 p.m. ET on the SEC Network for some time, but the kick-off time and broadcast details of Tennessee’s week two and week three matchups were released Thursday afternoon.
Tennessee and Pittsburgh will kick off at Heinz Field at 3:30 p.m. ET with ABC broadcasting the game. Round two of the “Johnny Majors Classic” is a major early-season game for both the Vols and Panthers.
This game will be Tennessee’s first appearance on ABC since the Battle at Bristol against Virginia Tech in 2016, according to Tennessee’s press release.
Tennessee is looking to avenge last season’s loss to Pitt at Neyland Stadium by taking the back half of the home-and-home series. Both teams are projected as fringe top 25 teams entering the season and while Tennessee gets an easy week one matchup against Ball State, Pitt travels to rival West Virginia to open its season.
Following the Pitt matchup, Tennessee returns to Neyland Stadium to host Akron. The Vols and Zips kick-off at 7:00 p.m. ET and the ESPN+/SEC Network+ will stream the game.
The Akron matchup comes a week before Tennessee’s matchup with rival Florida. The SEC opener against the Gators is a massive game in Heupel’s first season as he faces a down Florida program under first-year coach Billy Napier.
The game time and broadcast details of Tennessee’s nine other regular-season games will be announced 12 days ahead of the matchup.
CBS chose Alabama versus Texas A&M for its one primetime night game a season. The Aggies’ trip to Tuscaloosa falls on the same day as Tennessee’s trip to Baton Rouge. While the Vols and Tigers won’t know the official kick-off time for a while, they’ll likely kick off in the afternoon or the noon ET time slot.
