Apr 12, 2014; Knoxville, TN, USA; Tennessee Volunteers head coach Butch Jones runs onto the field during the orange and white spring game at Neyland Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports
The start of the college football season is still four months way, but the Tennessee Volunteers already know what time their first two games will kick-off.
In April, the Vols moved their game with Utah State from Saturday August 30 to Sunday August 31 and announced that the game would have a 7:00 PM ET start time.
On Thursday, the SEC announced that each team in the conference would play at least one game on the SEC Network within the first four weeks of the season.
The Vols will play at least two games on the newly formed network.
Tennessee will host Arkansas State on September 6. The game will have a 12:00 PM ET start time and can be seen on the SEC Network.
Arkansas State is coming off a season in which they went 8-5 and beat Ball State in the GoDaddy Bowl.
The Vols, who open with 2013 Poinsettia Bowl champions Utah State, play nine teams who played in a bowl in 2013.
Tennessee will start the season with four straight bowl teams.
By the way, those nine teams don’t include Florida, who the Vols haven’t beat since 2004.
It’s another tough schedule for Tennessee. Reaching a bowl game will again be the ultimate goal, but another 5-7 season could possibly be on the horizon.