Depending on how old you are, you might think wildly differently about Tennessee Football rekindling its old rivalry with the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. Maybe you’re a boomer or older Gen-Xer and look fondly on the years of them being SEC foes in the 1950s and 1960s and then facing off annually during the Johnny Majors era.
On the other hand, if you’re a millennial or Gen-Zer, all you remember is the only other time these two have faced off since 1987, back in 2017 to open the season. The Vols were about to be a program in freefall under fifth-year head coach Butch Jones and secured a lucky 42-41 double-overtime victory in game they had no business winning.
That win was massively overshadowed by three things: The debut of the turnover trash can, Jauan Jennings suffering a season-ending injury and UT going on to finish the year 4-8, its worst season in SEC history. Yeah, nobody looks fondly on that moment for Tennessee Football.
Well, maybe they have a chance to create better seasons out of this series.
The Vols have announced a home-and-home with GT in 2026 and 2027 to replace their series with the Nebraska Cornhuskers, who backed out of the agreed matchup between the two schools. It follows them facing another ACC foe, the Syracuse Orange, to open the 2025 season. This is a dangerous game to schedule because, like ‘Cuse, GT is a program on the rise with a very solid coach.
Now, it’s not going to be as dangerous as it was in 2017, when Georgia Tech ran the triple-option under Paul Johnson, but it’s still a matchup the Vols have to be careful about. Whether or not it was worth it to schedule this series depends on what the College Football Playoff formula will be after this year.
From a historical perspective, though, these two share a lot. Georgia Tech and Tennessee were the dominant SEC programs in the mid-20th century with Robert Neyland coaching the Vols and his protege, former Vol Bobby Dodd, coaching the Yellow Jackets. GT’s stadium is named after Dodd.
Until 2023, Tennessee had played Georgia Tech more times in its history than it had played Georgia despite having faced the Bulldogs for 20 consecutive years to that point. When the Vols won the 1951 national title, they had to share the SEC title with GT since both went undefeated in conference play and didn’t face each other.
In the memorable 1956 season led by Johnny Majors, the Vols’ biggest win that year was over GT, a game that decided the SEC regular season champion. UT finished the regular season 10-0 while GT finished 9-1. Eight years later, Doug Dickey got his first signature win with the Vols against a top 10 GT team, and he beat them again the next year when they were in the top 10.
Simply put, Tennessee Football and Georgia Tech have an amazing history, and if the Nebraska cancelation forced them to rekindle this series, it’s worth it for those older fans who remember this rivalry. Doing it in a home and home format is even better than last time too, when they had to just face off in Atlanta.
