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Alex Golesh proposes USF as Nebraska replacement opponent for Tennessee

Grant Grubbs Profile Pictureby:Grant Grubbs•about 21 hours•

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alex golesh on3
USF head coach Alex Golesh (photo: gousfbulls.com)

On Friday, Nebraska backed out of its home-and-home series against Tennessee set for the 2026 and 2027 seasons. It didn’t take long for other programs to try to fill the newly-open slot on Tennessee’s schedule. Shortly after the news broke, USF head coach Alex Golesh tweeted at Tennessee athletic director Danny White.

Golesh might be biting off more than he can chew. Tennessee is poised to be one of the best teams in the country next season. The Volunteers posted a 10-3 overall record and a 6-2 mark in conference play last season, reaching the College Football Playoff for the first time in program history.

Tennessee ultimately fell 42-17 to eventual national champion Ohio State in the first round of the CFP. Nonetheless, Tennessee is returning plenty of key pieces from last season’s roster, most notably star quarterback Nico Iamaleava.

Evidently, Nebraska chose to go in another direction on the schedule than what Golesh would do. After the news broke that the home-and-home series was canceled, Danny White revealed that Nebraska had backed out of the deal, not Tennessee.

“Correction: Tennessee is not canceling this series. Nebraska did,” White wrote Friday morning. “We are very disappointed that they didn’t want to play these games, especially this close to 2026.”

According to ESPN’s Pete Thamel, Nebraska backed out of the series because it wanted eight home games in 2027 during planned renovations to Memorial Stadium.

Thankfully for Tennessee, it seemingly already has one option to fill the empty spot on its schedule. Of course, USF certainly wouldn’t be an easy opponent. The Bulls went 7-6 last season and defeated San Jose State 41-39 in the Hawai’i Bowl.

Alas, it’ll be difficult for the Volunteers to generate nearly as much excitement around a showdown against a Group-of-Five foe after having Nebraska on the schedule. This is the second time the first-ever regular-season football series between the Huskers and Volunteers has been altered.

The programs also moved the dates of the original series from 2016-17 back a decade to 2026-27 to accommodate a scheduling change from Tennessee in 2013. Oregon ultimately replaced the Vols on Nebraska’s 2016-17 schedules with both teams winning their respective home games.

The Cornhuskers and Volunteers have met three times in their storied histories. Most recently, they met in the 2016 Music City Bowl when Tennessee beat Nebraska 38-24. The Huskers hold a 2-1 advantage in the all-time series after winning the previous two bowl game matchups in the 1998 Orange Bowl and the 2000 Fiesta Bowl.