NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee football hosted Texas A&M in 2020, the final game Jeremy Pruitt would coach for the Vols. That game went accordingly, with Tennessee falling 34-13 in Neyland Stadium.
That game was in 2020, when only 50% of capacity was allowed in Neyland Stadium. The Aggies have mixed feeling about where the toughest place to play is in the SEC.
“You tell me,” defensive lineman McKinnley Jackson said. “I still don’t know yet.”
Said defensive lineman Fadil Diggs, “I would say South Carolina. It gets loud and they’re rowdy, they have all the noises playing and they added the lights. It’s a tough place.”
The Aggies travel to Neyland Stadium in 2023, but this time it is at full capacity. Aside from just playing the Vols, Diggs is looking forward to something else: finding out what the fanbase is like.
“I’m looking forward to it, when I went it was COVID so I don’t know what the fanbase is like,” Diggs said. They’re a good team, and we respect how they play. So, it’s going to be a tough opponent.”
With Joe Milton at the helm for the Vols, and the game being played in Knoxville, Tennessee will more than likely be the favorite going into the game. For A&M wideout Ainias Smith, the crowd isn’t something that worries him.
Instead, he is worried about the weather.
“In 2020 we went there and it was a little cold at the time,” Smith said. “I do know it’s probably going to be cold. The fans, then, were 50% capacity so it wasn’t as loud as it can get. I know Tennessee has a great history of winning, not only in the past five years, well in the past couple of years, but in the previous years. They have a culture of winning and that’s what they stand for. They want to win.
“It’s going to be a tough battle, especially going there after the season they just had. Definitely going to have to come with our “A” game.”
The Aggies and Vols face off in Neyland Stadium on October 14.
