Talkin’ Tennessee this weekend?
ESPN is taking College GameDay to Knoxville this weekend as the Tennessee Volunteers take on the Texas Longhorns.
And before we get started, can I just rant for a minute about how annoying it is that this is the fourth SEC school they’ve been to this year? They started the season at LSU for their game against Clemson, then went to Texas for their week 2 matchup with Ohio State and Ole Miss for the highly-anticipated return of Lane Kiffin to Oxford. I know there weren’t a ton of big games the first few weeks, but now that teams are getting into their conference schedules we’ve got some good matchups this week, including Oregon at USC, Oklahoma State at West Virginia, and Iowa at Michigan, so it would be nice to see them go somewhere other than the SEC.
It’s also been 3 years since GameDay was at a non-Power 4 school, and while I get that a game like Boise State vs. Western Michigan might not get as much attention as the power conference games, imagine the storyline if ESPN went to Western Michigan just weeks after their heartbreaker against Michigan for a game against one of the best teams in the Group of 6 that will probably be in the playoffs. Maybe spread things around a little bit instead of going to the same 16 schools every year.
But anyway, that’s not the point here, just something I needed to get off my chest.
There’s obviously no shortage of names from Tennessee that GameDay could turn to for their celebrity guest picker this week. Peyton Manning would be the most obvious choice, given his connection to both Tennessee as one of the most legendary players for the Vols, and Texas as the uncle of their star quarterback Arch Manning. And last time GameDay was in Knoxville they brought in WNBA legend Candace Parker.
They could also go with Kenny Chesney, a Tennessee fan who’s served as guest picker in the past.
But fans seem to think GameDay is bringing in another country artist who happens to be a Tennessee fan this week: Morgan Wallen.
While Wallen didn’t go to college, he grew up a Tennessee fan like most people in his small East Tennessee hometown of Sneedville, just an hour and a half outside of Knoxville. He’s headlined Neyland Stadium in the past, and Morgan frequently references his Vols fandom in his music with songs like “Tennessee Fan,” “TN” and “The Way I Talk.”
Morgan recently launched a merch collab collection with the Vols, and even dropped a shirt for this weekend’s game against Texas:
And some think the collab is a sign that Morgan will be on hand to serve as the celebrity guest picker with GameDay in town:
Of course there was speculation that Morgan would be the guest picker last time GameDay was in Knoxville too and it didn’t happen. But this is a big game for the Vols, with Texas ranked #1 in the country, so it wouldn’t surprise me to see him accept what I assume is an open invite at this time to fire up the home crowd.
Still, would love to see Peyton given his connection to both teams this year. That’s an opportunity you don’t get very often.
