Looking for its third-straight victory in conference play, the Tennessee football program turned the page to Week 7 and began preparations Monday for No. 13/14 Ole Miss to visit Knoxville this weekend. The Vols and Rebels will square off under the lights on Saturday night, with kickoff from Neyland Stadium set for 7:30 p.m. ET on SEC Network.
In his opening comments to the media on Monday, head coach Josh Heupel discussed the team’s review of film from the 45-20 victory over South Carolina and called upon Vol Nation to create an imposing atmosphere when the Rebels come to Rocky Top Saturday night.
“I’m looking forward to an electric atmosphere this weekend,” Heupel said. “We need everybody in orange and white at the stadium. Be there early, be loud and make it a hostile environment for the opponent that’s coming in.”
Saturday’s matchup will feature the Power Five’s two most up-tempo offenses. Ole Miss is averaging 2.89 offensive plays per minute (No. 2 FBS), while UT puts up 2.87 players per minute (No. 3 FBS). The Rebels and Vols are averaging 1.75 and 1.58 points per minute, respectively, which also ranks second and third in the FBS.
Tennessee’s head coach has familiarity with Ole Miss offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby, who worked under Heupel at UCF as quarterbacks coach in 2018 before being promoted to offensive coordinator in 2019.
“Jeff does a great job, was our quarterbacks’ coach at UCF when I first got the job there,” Heupel said. “He’s a highly competitive guy, does a great job. You can see offensively that there’s a rhyme and a reason behind everything they’re doing. They’re going to put defenses in a conflict. Up-tempo, similar to what we do … They do a great job of being balanced and creating big plays, too.”
Tickets for Saturday’s clash with the Rebels are on sale now at AllVols.com.
