In Knoxville, a rivalry tilts the stage
Eight straight. That’s Georgia’s grip on Tennessee, and that’s the streak the Volunteers are trying to snap with the whole sport watching. ESPN College GameDay rolled into Knoxville for Week 3, and the show leaned into the noise and nerves that come with a top-15 SEC showdown between No. 6 Georgia and No. 15 Tennessee.
The set was packed with the regular crew—Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard, and Pat McAfee—plus celebrity guest picker Candace Parker, the Tennessee alum who knows “Rocky Top” by heart. Nick Saban also weighed in on the picks. The on-air energy matched what’s coming inside Neyland Stadium: fast tempo, roaring crowd, and a rivalry that hasn’t felt this high-stakes in years.
The picks told you everything about the tension. Herbstreit, who was on the broadcast call for the game, stayed out of it. Howard sided with Georgia. Saban did the same. Parker went with her alma mater, and McAfee followed her lead, belting out, “Rocky Top, you’ll always be home sweet home to me,” as he locked in Tennessee. A split panel usually hints at a coin-flip game. This one has that feel.
Why the divide? Tennessee under Josh Heupel has speed baked into every snap. The Vols want to stack plays, stress substitutions, and punch early. With quarterback Joey Aguilar steering the offense, they’ve got enough arm and tempo to test a defense’s depth. Georgia, meanwhile, leans on what’s worked through this entire eight-game run: discipline, leverage, and a front that squeezes space until opponents run out of ideas.
If you’re looking for swing points, start with pace versus poise. Tennessee’s tempo can crack even the best defenses if the Vols stay on schedule. Georgia’s answer is usually simple and brutal: win early downs, force third-and-long, and make the throw windows tiny. Explosive plays for Tennessee and red-zone stubbornness for Georgia will decide how long this stays tight.
There’s also the matchup up front. Tennessee has to protect the edges and keep Aguilar out of obvious passing downs. Georgia’s pass rush isn’t just about sacks—it’s about collapsing timing. If the Bulldogs muddy the pocket before Tennessee can go fast, those drives stall and the crowd goes from adrenaline to anxious in a hurry.
And don’t forget the intangible: Neyland’s chaos. When the Vols get rolling, it feels like the whole place is breathing down the opponent’s neck. Crowd noise won’t win a game by itself, but it can turn one mistake into a meltdown. Georgia’s counters are the same as always: control the run, live in third-and-short, and make special teams boring. If the Bulldogs keep it on script, they usually pull away late.
Beyond bragging rights, this is a fork in the road for both. For Tennessee, it’s proof of concept under Heupel against the league’s gold standard. For Georgia, it’s retention of power—showing that the gap is still the gap. In September, you don’t clinch anything, but you do shape the conversation. And this one will be quoted all season.
The rest of Week 3: must-wins and trap doors
Florida at LSU was the other SEC headliner, and the panel didn’t overthink it. No one picked the Gators to walk out of Baton Rouge happy. It’s Death Valley for a reason, and road offenses rarely get comfortable there. Florida needs a clean pocket and a clean sheet of mistakes; they’re unlikely to get both.
Notre Dame hosting Texas A&M in South Bend carried the most urgency. The Irish came in 0–1 after a narrow loss to Miami in Week 1, and this felt like a circle-the-calendar spot. The panel mostly rode with Notre Dame; McAfee stood alone with the Aggies. That split reflects the matchup. The Irish want timing, rhythm, and a high completion rate. The Aggies want to knock all of that off schedule with a physical front and force Notre Dame into long, ugly drives.
Special teams could swing that one. Notre Dame has usually been tidy in the kicking game under pressure, and A&M’s best path is to flip the field and play short-box football. Watch third-and-medium on both sides: if the Irish get the ball out quick and live in those manageable downs, they’ll look like a playoff hopeful again. If A&M owns the trenches, it becomes their kind of fight.
USF at Miami was a sneaky big one. The Bulls aren’t just a nice story; they rolled in as the first team this season to beat two ranked opponents—Boise State and then-No. 13 Florida. Miami at No. 5 is the favorite, and hard to pick against at home, but USF’s speed and confidence travel. Group of Five teams that punch above their weight usually do three things well: they tackle in space, they live off chunk plays, and they don’t blink when the crowd tries to blow them over.
For Miami, keeping a lid on explosive plays is the whole job. Force USF to march and the odds swing back to the ‘Canes. If the Bulls hit a couple of early shots, it turns into a track meet, and Miami has to prove it can win that kind of game without gifting short fields.
Wisconsin at Alabama added that Big Ten vs. SEC edge that always draws extra eyes. The Tide already stumbled once, and the question now is simple: is the reset clean? Alabama needs a tidy first quarter—few penalties, no busted protections, and some early downhill runs—to reassert control. Wisconsin will try to turn it into a possession squeeze, leaning on the ground game, long drives, and third-and-twos that drain the clock and the noise.
Elsewhere, Vanderbilt at South Carolina is a checkpoint game for both programs. The Gamecocks want to show they can start fast and put two clean halves together. Vanderbilt needs to stay within one score late to have a shot; if they’re chasing, it gets away from them.
Clemson at Georgia Tech is the classic trap: unglamorous for the favorite, massive for the underdog. If Clemson controls the line of scrimmage and limits the quarterback run game, the Tigers usually win with margin. If Georgia Tech spills screens and hits a couple of gadget plays, we’ve seen that movie get weird.
And then there’s Pittsburgh at West Virginia, the Backyard Brawl, which earns the “bitter” label every time it’s played. Rivalry games usually flip the usual rules. The best team often still wins, but the path there is messy: special teams swings, a sudden turnover that feels like a dagger, a fourth-and-short near midfield that fans will debate for weeks. Expect field position to matter more than usual, and expect both teams to call something aggressive in the first quarter just to land the first punch.
What makes this Week 3 slate tricky is that so many teams are playing for narrative as much as wins. Notre Dame doesn’t just need a result; it needs to look like a playoff team. Alabama doesn’t just need a bounce-back; it needs certainty. Georgia wants to keep its hold on the SEC pecking order. Tennessee wants a statement win that changes how everyone talks about the Vols for the rest of the year.
GameDay has a way of supercharging all of that. The cameras, the signs, the songs—teams say it doesn’t matter, but recruits notice, and so do voters. Picks set the tone. The games rewrite them. By Saturday night, we’ll know who earned the noise and who has to live with it for another week.
