Leading into Tennessee’s Sunday night season opener against Utah State, the stage is set for a two-day tailgate unlike anything Knoxville has experienced in a decade.
On Saturday, Boomsday festivities begin at 3 p.m. and culminate with a fireworks show over the Tennessee River. For some, the holiday weekend will start as early as Thursday night.
Fans will congregate Saturday in the same parking lots and grassy spots where they will tailgate on Sunday. And the entire experience will be caked in the overflowing optimism and anticipation that accompanies the first football game of the season in an SEC town.
Barring severe weather, it may seem that nothing could ruin one of Knoxville’s marquee weekends.
But Chuckie Keeton could.
The Utah State senior quarterback might be the best signal caller the Vols face in 2014 and he leads a team that won nine games in 2013 while playing without him for much of the season.
“We all understand what we are in for with quarterback Chuckie Keeton,” UT coach Butch Jones said Tuesday.
Statistically, they are in for a mobile quarterback who completes nearly 70 percent of his passes.
In one full season and two partial seasons as the Aggies quarterback, Keeton has racked up 70 total touchdowns.
If Keeton is close to 100 percent after suffering an ACL tear midway through 2013, recent history shows that UT could provide him an early stage to bolster the #Chuckie4Heisman campaign that Utah State is advertising.
Quarterbacks with less ability than Keeton, like Missouri’s Maty Mauk and South Alabama’s Ross Metheny, ran freely against the Vols in 2013.
And ancient history is not relevant to the conversation when it comes to examining prior instances of UT opening the season against Mountain West foes.
When the Vols kicked off the 2004 season on Labor Day weekend with a Sunday contest against University of Nevada, Las Vegas, UT won handily.
To avoid a redundant recitation of UT’s fall from relevancy since that game, suffice it to say things have changed for the Vols.
Little does it matter that Utah State plays in a stadium that seats just a quarter of what Neyland Stadium holds. Irrelevant is the fact that the Aggies cannot hold a candle to the tradition of UT football.
When they strap the pads on Sunday night, it’s just two football teams. One has been to three consecutive bowls. The other will start several players who were in middle school the last time their program qualified for the postseason.
And though Jones, his staff and UT’s defense are well aware of Keeton’s ability, that doesn’t mean they are capable of stopping him.
There is little doubt that this weekend is shaping up as an eventful one for the people of Knoxville who cheer for the Vols.
Be warned, though. The Saturday night fireworks could be the best part of the holiday, because the outcome on Sunday is not guaranteed.
Chuckie wants to play.
David Cobb is a senior in journalism electronic media and former sports editor of the Daily Beacon. He can be reached at [email protected] and can be followed on Twitter at @DavidWCobb.
