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The Liberty Bowl’s associate executive director, Harold Graeter, told the Knoxville News Sentinel that the game’s representatives want Tennessee to play in the game.
“We’ve made it very clear that Tennessee is the team we want,” Graeter said. “We’ve been following Tennessee since Signing Day. …We visited with (Tennessee coach Butch Jones) and (athletic director) Dave Hart throughout the spring, summer and fall. We went to five UT games. We’ve been very visible and very out front about the team we’d like to have. There’s no secret about the team that we want.”
Liberty Bowl representatives were in attendance for the Vols’ bowl-clinching victory against Vanderbilt last week. Tennessee hasn’t made a Liberty Bowl game appearance since 1986, defeating Minnesota, 21-14.
“It’s the flagship university of the state, and they haven’t played in our game in 28 years,” Graeter said. “…There’s a huge base of alums in this part of the state. There are 9,000 UT-Knoxville alums within 25 miles, so that’s a substantial number of alumni here. Coming here would certainly dovetail what Butch is trying to do from a recruiting standpoint, and it dovetails with the university trying to attract students from Memphis.”
A former freelance journalist from Nashville, Jason covers Tennessee, Vanderbilt and Kentucky
