Butch Jones confident 'due diligence' will be done prior to Battle at Bristol
HOOVER, Ala. — College football fans can’t wait for the 2016 season. Week 1 is set up to be quite a spectacle.
While the Week 2 schedule pales in comparison, one of the most highly anticipated games in the history of the sport takes place when Tennessee “hosts” Virginia Tech on Sept. 10. Yes, “hosts” with quotation marks.
Apparently, the organizers of this border war felt that Neyland Stadium and its capacity of 100,000-plus simply wasn’t enough. The Volunteers and Hokies will take the field — track? — at Bristol Motor Speedway in front of a crowd in the vicinity of 150,000. Anything close to that figure will set an all-time record.
There have been crazy settings for games before. However, inside a race track will be a first for the SEC.
The contest took years of planning. Despite Bristol being equidistant between Knoxville and Blacksburg — literally splitting the Tennessee-Virginia state line — the teams have only played on eight occasions.
Fortunately, it’s an ideal time to perhaps light a fire under what has the makings of a fresh rivalry. The Vols are expected to be the pick in the East this season after steady improvement in the first three years of the Butch Jones era. With Frank Beamer retiring, Justin Fuente signals a changing of the guard at Tech.
While the hoopla leading up to the event has been celebrated, questions remain regarding the game itself.
“We’re very confident,” Jones said Tuesday at Media Days. “Our administrative staff led by Chris Spognardi has done a great job. They are up there almost every week working with the representatives from Bristol Motor Speedway. They’ve done a good job taking our input. It is a home game for us (and) all of the logistics that go into it.”
Credit: Butch Dill-USA TODAY Sports
On assignment, I took a tour of the facility alongside representatives from Bristol Motor Speedway and the title sponsor, Pilot Flying J. Not all of the legitimate game-day concerns have been solved. For example, nobody could tell me where the play clock will go. Could we see a rash of delay of game flags as a result?
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“Everything is about communication and the sight lines with everything,” Jones said. “So, again, where the coaches’ booth is, all of that communication part of it, I think it will be a challenge. But this has been a number of years in the making, and there’s a lot of people doing their due diligence behind the scenes.”
The scoreboard at the track, nicknamed Colossus, could end up being a distraction due to its mammoth size.
“The most amazing thing today I think is the scoreboard that’s already been placed over the track,” Jones said. “It’s something that if you haven’t seen, go online and read about it because it’s magnificent. But it will be different.”
Technically, it’s a “home” game for Tennessee. The Battle at Bristol is too big of a venture to make it an annual home-and-home, although BMS officials are hoping to book Volunteers-Hokies every three years or so.
One of the topics of conversation this week in Hoover has been this brutal four-week stretch for the Vols: vs. Florida, at Georgia, at Texas A&M and vs. Alabama. If Jones and Co. can go 3-1 through that gauntlet, they’ll win the East. If they somehow go undefeated, they’re legit contenders for the College Football Playoff.
But don’t sleep on Virginia Tech prior to that aforementioned death march. The Hokies might not be the only opponent in Bristol.
John Crist is the senior writer for Saturday Down South. You can send him an e-mail directly at jcrist@saturdaydownsouth.com or follow him on Twitter @SaturdayJC.
