Tennessee vs. Texas A&M: Neyland Stadium sold-out for 10th straight time

Neyland Stadium is sold-out for a 10th straight time ahead of No. 19 Tennessee (4-1, 1-1 SEC) hosting Texas A&M (4-2, 2-1) on Saturday afternoon (3:30 p.m. Eastern Time, CBS) in the annual ‘Checker Neyland’ game in Knoxville.

The Vols enter Saturday having won 11 straight home games, the longest win streak at Neyland Stadium since Tennessee won 23 in a row from 1996-2000. The sellout streak dates back to last season’s 63-6 win over Akron.

Texas A&M has lost its last seven true road games, dating back to November 2021. Aggie head coach Jimbo Fisher addressed the road losing streak earlier this week.

“We’ll do things different (in practice),” Fisher said. “We’ll crank up maybe more crowd noises, we’ll crank up more situations. That constantly does change. 

“And usually on the road what happens, mature teams play well on the road. Mature teams that are confident and trusting things and believe in themselves.”

Vols looking to continue home win streak while A&M looks to snap road skid

Texas A&M lost 48-33 at Miami in its first road game this season, back on September 9. The Aggies haven’t played a true road game since, with home wins over UL Monroe, Auburn and a home loss to Alabama, along with a win over Arkansas at AT&T Stadium in Dallas on September 30.

Last season A&M went 0-4 on the road with losses at Mississippi State, at Alabama, at South Carolina and at Auburn. The Aggies in 2021 won 35-14 at Missouri in October, then lost at Ole Miss and at LSU in their final two road trips of the season. 

Tennessee’s home win streak started with a 60-14 win over South Alabama on November 20, 2021 and continued with a 45-21 win over Vanderbilt in the 2021 regular-season finale.

The Vols went 8-0 at home last season with wins over Ball State, Akron, Florida, Alabama, UT Martin, Kentucky and Missouri. So far this season there have been home wins over Austin Peay, UTSA and South Carolina.

“Not a better place in all college sports to call home than Neyland Stadium,” Tennessee coach Josh Heupel said last week. 

The 23-game home win streak started in October 1996 with a 20-13 win over Alabama. It continued with a 6-0 home records in both 1997 and 1998 and a 7-0 home record in 1999. The streak ended in September 2000 with a 27-23 loss to Florida, after a 19-16 home win over Southern Miss to start the season. 

Heupel, who is 22-9 in his first 31 games as Tennessee’s head coach, has won 15 of 18 games at Neyland. He’s led Tennessee to 15 wins in its last 18 games in total, too. 

He said last week that the home-field advantage the Vols enjoy starts long before kickoff.

“It starts early in the week,” Heupel said. “There’s a bunch of boats tied up on the river, Vol Navy on game day —100, 150 deep. You take the Vol Walk into the stadium and there’s 35,000-plus people there. Every Saturday, 102,000 (fans) on game day.”

No. 19 Tennessee vs. Texas A&M, Saturday, 3:30 p.m. ET, CBS

Tennessee finished last season fifth in college football and second in the SEC in average attendance, at 100,532 per game, trailing Michigan (110,246), Penn State (107,379), Ohio State (104,663) and LSU (100,596).

The Vols over the offseason sold out their entire allotment of 70,500 season tickets. 

After hosting Texas A&M on Saturday, Tennessee has remaining home games against UConn on November 4, No. 1 Georgia on November 18 and Vanderbilt on November 25. 

“Man, challenge our fans to be a huge part of the (Texas A&M) game,” Heupel said. “They always are. They were on Saturday night (against South Carolina). And that’s important to us and this football team as we continue to go through this journey. 

“(The fans) gotta play a factor in the football game. I told our fans to enjoy bye week and get ready for a big one against A&M. And I’m sure they’ll be ready when the Aggies come to town.”