Tennessee just got the perfect opportunity to renew a regional rivalry that divides some East Tennessee households
UT has the ultimate opportunity to rekindle a clash that barely gets played.
The Tennessee Vols and Virginia Tech Hokies capture the hearts of many fans in the East Tennessee area, and that’s particularly the case in the Tri Cities region of the state. Go in any sports store in the area, and you’ll most likely see healthy amounts of Volunteer and Hokie memorabilia available.
And that’s because there are plenty of fans and alumni from both schools in the area. The result has been a bit of an unofficial regional rivalry between the schools even though the play about once a generation.
Thanks to the latest move by Virginia Tech, perhaps that could change in the relatively near future.
The university announced this week that it is hiring Brian White as its new athletic director. As in, the brother of Tennessee athletic director Danny White.
Danny White’s brother hired as athletics director of Virginia Tech
White is coming off an eight-year stint in Boca Raton as the AD for Florida Atlantic. White made one of the best hires in school history, tabbing Dusty May as the school’s men’s basketball coach in March 2018. May led FAU to the Final Four in 2023, as Vol fans recall, with the Owls knocking out Tennessee along the way.
White’s football hires certainly left a lot to be desired though. After Kiffin left FAU for Ole Miss, White hired Willie Taggart. He followed that up with Tom Herman. Neither man reached .500 in five combined seasons.
However, the White brothers now have a chance to bring their respective fan bases together again. The schools last met in 2016, when the Vols won the long-awaited clash at Bristol Motor Speedway 45-24.
Would a return match at the massive venue be in the cards? Or perhaps could a home-and-home on campus, where the schools haven’t played since the 1930s, finally be in the cards?
In any event, the duo should have plenty of time to discuss it at family functions and other get togethers in the coming year.