THIS GAME HAS ROOTS
Bobby Dodd played quarterback at Tennessee. Three years under General Neyland. He's in our Hall of Fame.
He's also the man who took Georgia Tech out of the SEC.
Tech was a charter member in 1933 and won five conference titles. But Dodd spent the early sixties fighting the league over a scholarship rule that meant taking full rides away from kids who didn't pan out. He wouldn't do it. The other teams in the SEC voted him down. In January 1964, he walked Georgia Tech out the door.
Sixty-two years later, we're going to Atlanta to play them in the stadium that carries his name.
AND WE'RE PLAYING IT ON CAMPUS
Here's the part we're most excited about. This is a Power Four road game at an actual college stadium. This is not a neutral site, not a corporate kickoff game in a domed NFL building with the roof closed and the AC on.
For a while the expectation was that it'd land at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Instead we get Bobby Dodd on North Avenue, an on-campus stadium sitting right in the middle of midtown Atlanta, with a student section close enough to hear.
That's real college football. It's also the first time Tennessee has set foot in that stadium since October 25, 1986.
Come with us.
WHO'S COOKING
We weren't going to haul a smoker down I-75 and serve you mediocre barbecue in a parking lot. So we found the real thing.
Larry and Danny Williamson drove over from Alabama one Sunday in 1988 with no particular plan. They got off the loop in Marietta, found an empty restaurant, and signed the lease on the spot. Then they went home, collected their one employee, came back, and spent every dollar they had building a barbecue pit by hand. When the doors opened on March 24, 1990, they had $167 left between them.
Thirty-six years later they're still smoking over wood, and if you ask anybody in Cobb County where to eat, this is the answer you get.
On the 12th, they're cooking for us:
Pulled smoked chicken · pulled brisket · smoked wings · mac and cheese · stir-fry green beans · banana pudding · fresh baked cookies
Same premium bar as Knoxville. Same orange and white. Just a longer drive.
THE DETAILS
Game: Tennessee at Georgia Tech, Bobby Dodd Stadium
Kickoff: 7:00 PM ET
Tailgate: 3:30 PM until kickoff
Where: Green Lawn