As if Tennessee and Josh Heupel needed another issue before Texas A&M, it has arrived via something completely out of the Vols' control. On Friday, news broke that an FAA nationwide ground stop has come in, only for the third time ever, delaying thousands of flights across the United States. This is impacting Tennessee, as the Vols are supposed to be Lone Star State-bound for an important SEC showdown.
Tennessee indeed is among the teams trying to find workarounds to make it in time for kickoff. Per multiple reports, Washington, Ole Miss, and others are also on the list. With no set timeframe for how long this stoppage will last, it leaves plenty of us guessing whether the Vols and Aggies will kick off on time come Saturday afternoon.
Tennessee was scheduled to depart @FlyKnoxville at 4 p.m. ET for College Station (CLL). We are currently returning to the @Vol_Football facility for dinner and will await further direction.
— Bill Martin (@Bill_Martin) November 13, 2026
The nationwide FAA ground stop is causing travel issues for Tennessee heading to Texas A&M
Tennessee was waiting for quite some time to leave Knoxville, but as announced by Senior Associate Athletic Director of Strategic Communications Bill Martin, the team got off the plane and is instead heading back to campus for dinner. The Vols will then wait for further updates before deciding what the next move will be. Talk about a complete mess.
When it rains, it sure pours for this squad. Friday has been filled with nothing but negativity for the Vols, as the day started with the update coming in that running back Daune Morris was involved in an overnight car accident. Since then, it's been reported that he's going to be out for the season, and that he'll need surgery for a broken leg.
Add in this travel nightmare, and it only adds to the frustration for Heupel and the rest of his locker room. As things stand, the Vols are left scratching their heads about how/when they'll be able to travel. While other teams have the ability to take a bus to their destination, going from Knoxville to College Station that way would take around 15 hours. Yeah, no thanks.
Could things get postponed to Sunday? That's not known at this time, but that discussion for other games has arrived, including for Oklahoma vs. Ole Miss. With kickoff set for 2 p.m. local time and 3 p.m. ET between Tennessee and Texas A&M, there's a bit of a race here to make sure these two teams face off at the scheduled time.
This article will be updated soon.
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