A year after earning an invitation to the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff, the Tennessee Volunteers are making their fourth appearance in the Music City Bowl.
Nashville’s Nissan Stadium was not the destination the Vols were seeking as a follow-up to last year’s 10-3 season, but that’s where Josh Heupel’s fifth year at the helm will conclude. Tennessee and Illinois are set to have their first-ever encounter Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. Eastern, with the matchup of 8-4 teams to be televised by ESPN.
Tennessee’s first-round playoff loss at Ohio State last December had a whopping 14.3 million viewers.
“I think the landscape of college football with the expansion of the playoff certainly has changed the dynamics a little bit,” Heupel said Monday afternoon during a news conference. “At the end of the day, for us as a program, this is an entire month where you get a chance to grow and compete and develop young players who are on your roster.
“It’s a finish to this season, but it’s also a springboard before you get back in January for all of your younger players.”
More than 50,000 tickets had been sold to the Music City Bowl as of Monday night, but it’s not expected to reach the 69,489 attendance of the 2021 pairing between Purdue and Tennessee.
The Vols will be competing with linebackers coach William Inge serving as the interim defensive coordinator following the Dec. 8 firing of Tim Banks. They will also be competing without 1,017-yard redshirt junior receiver Chris Brazzell II, senior edge rusher Joshua Josephs, junior linebacker and Southeastern Conference tackles-per-game leader Arion Carter, and redshirt sophomore cornerback Colton Hood.
Those four players are bypassing their remaining eligibility to get a jump on their professional journeys, and there are others such as redshirt freshman quarterback Jake Merklinger and sophomore running back Peyton Lewis who are entering the NCAA transfer portal when it opens Friday and will continue their college careers elsewhere.
Merklinger’s departure leaves freshman George MacIntyre as the backup to graduate transfer starter Joey Aguilar.
“When we started bowl prep, George was taking reps with the twos, so this didn’t just get thrown on him,” Vols offensive coordinator Joey Halzle said Monday. “We wanted to take his December and use it as a new spring ball for him. He’s done a great job handling it, and he’s a really smart, competitive kid.
“There is a lot of college football in his blood, and he’s been around it his whole life, so he’s handled this thing the way I expected him to. I feel comfortable that if he has to go in the game that he’ll play well.”
When asked whether MacIntyre would see the field against the Fighting Illini, Heupel said, “We’ll see how the game unfolds and what the identity of the game is. We don’t have a plan of putting him in the second series or anything like that.”
Tennessee entered its regular-season finale against Vanderbilt inside Neyland Stadium on a quest to reach 40 wins for its fourth-year seniors, but the Commodores spoiled that by breaking away from a 21-21 halftime deadlock for a 45-24 runaway. A victory by the Vols against Illinois would still result in a four-year mark of 39-13, which would be the program’s best since the 2001-04 teams compiled that same record.
While the Vols are also seeking their fourth straight season of at least nine wins, Illinois is vying to win at least nine games in consecutive seasons for the first time ever. Bret Bielema has guided the Illini to three bowl games in a four-season stretch, matching the program’s run from 1982-85 under Mike White and topped only by the five straight appearances for the Illini from 1988-92 under John Mackovic and Lou Tepper.
Illinois capped a 10-3 season a year ago with a 21-17 downing of South Carolina in the Citrus Bowl.
“We’ve talked about sustainable success,” Bielema said Monday. “I keep going back to the two years we missed, and they were both five-win seasons, so if we had gotten one more win in those two seasons, we would be five-for-five. When I was at Wisconsin, we never missed a bowl game, and when I was at Arkansas, we went to three straight. I missed that last year, and that wasn’t good enough for them, so I got shooed out the door.
“We’re playing a good, quality opponent, and if we wind up on the right side, it would be a giant step in the right direction.”
The Vols will be wearing white jerseys and white pants, which was a successful combination during their wins at Kentucky and at Florida.
Hosting dynamic
While Tennessee has used Montgomery Bell Academy for its practices leading up to Tuesday’s showdown, Illinois has been stationed at Vanderbilt.
“We’re the first Big Ten team to be in their building,” Bielema said. “Usually the SEC team is always in there, but I know Tennessee didn’t really want to use Vandy’s facility, which I understand. I understand rivalries, so we’ve been the benefactor of that.
“It’s an unbelievable facility. I talked to Coach (Clark) Lea before we came down here, and to have this unbelievable facility has been absolutely awesome.”
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.