Josh Heupel will face Kentucky for a fourth time on Saturday during his head coaching tenure at Tennessee. Kickoff between the SEC rivals is scheduled for 7:45 p.m. EDT at Neyland Stadium (SEC Network).

The Vols have scored 33-plus points in all three contests against Kentucky under Heupel since 2021.

Heupel met with media on Monday and discussed Tennessee playing its third consecutive rivalry game this season (Florida, Alabama, Kentucky).

"Another rivalry game this weekend," Heupel said. "Night game in Neyland, dark mode, looking forward to going and playing in this one. Need our crowd to be a a huge part of the football game, and this week we got to continue our preparation as a football team, get ready to go play our best football.

"You look at Kentucky, it's a group that, defensively, is playing extremely well. You just look at them statistically, defensively, we got to do a good job. All the formations, motions, control the line of scrimmage, quarterback run game being a part of that as well. For our special teams, they got a dynamic returner that can change the game and got to do a great job against him."

This article originally appeared on Vols Wire: Josh Heupel kicks off Kentucky game week