When you list the most storied college football programs of the past century, it is impossible to omit Tennessee or Texas. The Volunteers and Longhorns rank in the top 12 of most major measurements when sizing up greatness, from wins (Horns 976, Vols 890) and claimed national titles (Vols 6, Horns 4) to bowl appearances (Horns 63, Vols 58) and first-round NFL draft picks (Horns 58, Vols 48).
However, Saturday's capital-T Throwdown in Knoxville (noon ET, ABC) will be just the schools' fourth meeting on a football field, the first since 1969 and the first not played on New Year's Day in the Cotton Bowl.
Their inaugural clash was Jan. 1, 1951, when Robert Neyland's Vols -- yes, the guy whose name is on Tennessee's stadium -- won 20-14, thanks to a fourth-quarter rally. The Vols were led by running back and 1951 Heisman Trophy runner-up Hank Lauricella. (See, even in those days, Tennessee was coming up short in the Heisman race.) After the game, Texas head coach Blair Cherry resigned, despite a 9-1 record and a Southwest Conference championship, because he said the stress was killing him. Yes, even then, the expectations of the Longhorns' fan base were eating coaches alive.
The Horns and a new head coach (Ed Price) got their revenge two years later, also in the Cotton Bowl.
Then came that 1969 game, when James Street, aka father of former MLB pitcher Huston, ran the Texas wishbone to perfection under the guidance of head coach Darrell Royal -- yes, the guy whose name is on Texas' stadium.
But despite such a small sample size of head-to-head games, Texas-Tennessee still kind of feels like a rivalry. Because during what feels like forever, the namesake schools of two very proud states have been in competition for everything from acronyms to history to the loyalty of college football royalty.
Don't believe me? Grab an orange highlighter pen and try to keep up.
UT vs. UT
First, which school was UT first? This one is pretty easy -- or is it? The University of Tennessee -- UT -- was founded Sept. 10, 1794, chartered two years before Tennessee became a state. It was originally called Blount College, then in 1807, it became East Tennessee College, followed by East Tennessee University, and finally, in 1879, the University of Tennessee.
The University of Texas was founded 89 years after the school in Knoxville was christened, almost to the day, opening its doors Sept. 15, 1883. The Texas state legislature organized the school's structure in 1881 and broke ground on the campus one year later. However, Texas UT truthers like to point to the Texas Constitution of 1876, which promised to establish "The University of Texas," or even go back to the legislature's plans to allocate funds from the Compromise of 1850 for "a University of Texas." That compromise was an attempt by the federal government to spread the wealth through the states and ease tensions between the North and South. Spoiler alert: It didn't work.
So, what constitutes (pun intended) the first real usage of UT? Was it Tennessee's founding under a different name in 1794, or the name change to the University of Tennessee, aka UT, in 1879, which was still four years before the opening of the University of Texas, aka UT? Or do the UT mentions in all of that other stuff before there was an actual school in Texas count as the establishment of a UT, all of which took place years before Tennessee's name change to UT?
And this is the part where we tell you that Texas' UT officially changed its name to the University of Texas at Austin in 1968 and that Tennessee's UT became the University of Tennessee Knoxville one year later. There are some in Tennessee who refer to the Knoxville campus as UTK, but not many.
Burnt Orange vs. Big Orange
It was April 1885, when some Texas students were in a hurry to attend the school's first baseball game. Seeking to look fancy for the occasion, they dashed into a local general store in search of ribbons to affix to their clothing. The only colors the storekeeper had were white and bright orange because, the salesman explained, no one ever bought the orange. Over the next decade and a half, the students and fans of Austin couldn't decide if they wanted to stick with orange or switch it out for gold, which most people did because -- what was it that shopkeeper said? -- no one really liked the orange.
But the school voted in orange as the school color, as it narrowly edged royal blue and, wait for it, crimson?! The football team debuted its burnt orange uniforms in 1925, but fluctuated between bright orange and burnt orange before Royal took over the program in 1957 and established the darker shade as his team's official choice.
Tennessee fans didn't start adorning themselves in naranja until four years after the Texas students wore their ribbons. In 1889, Charles Moore, the president of the student athletic association and the guy in charge of campus Field Day, chose the colors after picking petals off the orange and white daisies that rose that spring along the side of the Knoxville campus' academic center, aka The Hill. Two years later, students dressed in orange and white to support the football team in a game against Sewanee, and several Tennessee players did the same.
The Vols first wore orange jerseys in the opening game of their 1922 season. When they crushed Emory & Henry 52-0, the team decided that the hue was good luck, and the Vols have worn it ever since.
So, if you're scoring at home, and in Austin and Knoxville, they most definitely are, Texas students wore orange four years before Tennessee students, but Tennessee's football players wore their orange three years before Texas.
Orange you enjoying this?
Something to make Texas fans angry
General Neyland was an Aggie.
Yep, the guy whose name is on the stadium by the Tennessee River (did we mention that?), coached the Vols for 21 years (interrupted only for military service, hence the general title) and transformed the program into the elite brand that it is.
Neyland was a second-generation Texan, born and raised in Greenville. His dream was to play ball and serve in the military, so when the then-small Texas A&M offered him a chance to do both, he couldn't move to College Station fast enough. In the 1910-11 school year, he played first base and was a lineman for football coach Charley Moran, who had worked for Pop Warner, inventor of the single wing, and thus began Neyland's lifelong love affair with the offense. There are still schools around the state of Tennessee running the single wing.
Neyland spent only one year at A&M before he received an invitation to become an Army West Point cadet. But to a Longhorn, that's one year too many.
Something to make Tennessee fans angry
Davy Crockett died in Texas.
You know the song, right? You should. The movies starring Fess Parker are on Disney+ right now!
Born on a mountain top in Tennessee
Greenest state in the land of the free
Raised in the woods so he knew ev'ry tree
Kilt him a b'ar when he was only three
Davy, Davy Crockett, king of the wild frontier!
Crockett was born in East Tennessee, the area we now know as the Tri-Cities that also birthed country music, Bristol Motor Speedway and Steve Spurrier. In the early 1800's, Davy became the face of Tennessee's Volunteer reputation, taking up arms and going wherever he was needed to help fight during the War of 1812. His signature look, the coonskin cap and musket rifle, became the inspiration for the Vols' sideline mascot and logo.
The King of the Wild Frontier was his area's representative in the U.S. Congress for two different stints, the last ending in 1835. Not happy with how Washington was going about its business, he moved West to help in another fight, the Texas Revolution, in which Texas colonists sought independence from Mexico. Heck, there's even a verse about it in that song, and it mentions Austin!
He heard of Houston an' Austin so
To the Texas plains he jest had to go
Where freedom was fightin' another foe
An' they needed him at the Alamo
Davy, Davy Crockett, the man who don't know fear!
After all those years of exploration, war and fighting b'ars, Crockett lasted only a few months in Texas, as he was killed during the Battle of the Alamo on March 6, 1836, at the age of 49, after the San Antonio mission was overrun by the Mexican army. But that loss, and especially the death of the living legend Crockett, became the rallying cry for Texans -- Remember the Alamo! -- as they ultimately became an independent republic, and in 1845, became a U.S. state. His remains are on the Alamo property, though exactly where is still debated.
What is not debated is Tennessee's belief that Texas would not be Texas were it not for Crockett and his Volunteers. See: the "You're Welcome, Texas. Sincerely, Tennessee" merchandise that is for sale all over Knoxville this week.
The Man in the Middle
Rick Barnes' closet must look like a sunset. Barnes is about to tip off his 12th season as Tennessee's men's basketball coach, having led the Vols to eight NCAA tournaments and a current streak of three consecutive Elite Eights. But before moving to Knoxville, he spent 17 seasons as head Horn, leading Texas to 16 NCAA tourneys, including the 2003 Final Four.
"I can definitely pick out the differences in orange from school to school," Barnes said with a chuckle. "Texas orange and Tennessee orange, that's easy. But don't forget, I also spent four years at Clemson."
The Mannings in the Middle
UT and UT are also the only schools to convince quarterback royalty to veer away from their DNA loyalties, and have both wear No. 16 in those two shades of orange. Had the internet existed in 1994, Peyton Manning would have broken it when he announced he was taking his talents to Knoxville instead of Ole Miss, where his father, Archie, is the indisputable Rebels GOAT. Some of the most hilarious college football images from back in the day were of Archie trying to be incognito in the Neyland Stadium grandstands in his plain clothes and giant plastic radio earmuffs, but TV cameras inevitably found him, the 1990s version of Taylor Swift at Arrowhead.
Then, Archie's namesake, grandson Arch, proceeded to do that worldwide web-breaking in 2022, when he chose Austin over Oxford, despite then-Rebels head coach Lane Kiffin's most unsubtle efforts to win over the kid. What, you thought them painting the entire Vaught-Hemingway end zones "MANNING" in '21 was really for Eli?
Just this week, Arch confessed that he has never been to Knoxville. That's understandable. His uncle played there three decades ago, and Arch is only 22. But also this week, a quote from Uncle Peyton from over the summer resurfaced, and his alma mater isn't too happy about it. At the Manning Passing Academy, Peyton confessed that blood was thicker than that corn from a jar they sing about in "Rocky Top."
"One of the kids was asking me earlier who I was going to go for," Peyton said in June. "And I said, 'Well, who do you think?' And he said that he would go for his school over his relative. And I went, 'Well, you and I are different. You and I are wired differently.' Nothing's more important than your family.
"My dad dealt with it when I was in college, when Tennessee played Ole Miss. Look, I love my university, my alma mater, and I pull for them unconditionally. But nothing's more important to me than my family. And when you have a nephew playing, I pull very hard for him every single Saturday. So that's pretty much a no-brainer that you're pulling for your nephew to play well. But, like I said, everybody knows pretty strongly where my loyalties lie on all other Saturdays -- with the University of Tennessee."
That has not gone over so well on The Hill.
Not Peyton. It needs to be someone who wants Tennessee to beat Texas. https://t.co/z96z583041
— DRVawl (@DRVawl) September 20, 2026
So, say what you want about the scarciTy of hisTory, there is plenTy of animosiTy when it comes to UT v. UT.