Former NFL players Taylor Lewan and Will Compton are bringing their podcast Bussin' With The Boys to Kern's Bakery for a free live pregame show before Tennessee hosts No. 3 Texas in a noon kickoff on September 26. The show is set to run from 8:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. and will offer free food and drinks, giveaways, games and surprises for fans heading to Neyland Stadium.
The Knoxville stop is part of a broader Bussin' Tailgate Tour that began in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and includes four scheduled stops total, according to Knoxville News Sentinel reporter Emmett Siegel. That Baton Rouge leg coincided with LSU hosting Clemson, and the tour will continue after Knoxville with stops for Indiana at Nebraska on October 10 and Arizona State at Texas Tech on October 17, the same day Tennessee hosts Alabama at home.
Lewan and Compton launched Bussin' With The Boys in May 2019 and were affiliated with Barstool Sports before leaving the company in 2025 to take the podcast independent. That same year, according to Outkick, Barstool founder Dave Portnoy disclosed that the hosts had signed a three-year, $30 million licensing and distribution deal with FanDuel. The pair's media footprint has only grown since: in July 2026, ESPN was planning a new weekly college football show with Compton, Lewan and college football analyst Josh Pate, airing Friday afternoons from college campuses, according to Sports Illustrated.
Two Former Titans With Deep Tennessee Ties
Lewan and Compton were NFL teammates, and both have strong regional roots in the state. Lewan played offensive line for the Tennessee Titans from 2014 to 2022 after being selected 11th overall in the 2014 NFL Draft, earning three Pro Bowl selections along the way. Compton played for five NFL teams between 2013 and 2021, including two stints with the Titans, in 2018 and again in 2020.
The tailgate show will also feature a fan activation with Kevin's Natural Foods, according to NOSH, which reports the brand is running an interactive Sauce Showdown fan vote pitting Teriyaki against Cilantro Lime sauce across all four tour stops, including Knoxville.
A Historic Bakery Turned Gathering Space
Kern's Bakery, located at 2110 Chapman Highway, is itself part of the story. The venue emerged from a $32 million historic preservation project that converted a 1931 industrial bread factory into a 65,000-square-foot multi-tenant culinary and gathering space that debuted in April 2024, according to Crescent Growth Capital.
The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2017, according to the National Park Service. It still has original steel beams and a grain silo from its decades as a regional baking facility for Sara Lee, which operated there until 2012. It's a fitting backdrop for a modern sports-media event landing in a corner of Knoxville built on a century of industrial history.
Texas Returns To Knoxville After 57 Years
The game itself carries rare historical weight. Texas held a 2-1 all-time series record against Tennessee heading into the matchup, but the two programs had not played each other in 57 years — not since the 1969 Cotton Bowl Classic on January 1, 1969, according to Winsipedia. Per Siegel's reporting for the Knoxville News Sentinel, Tennessee will face Arch Manning, the nephew of Peyton Manning, when the No. 3 Longhorns arrive for what's being billed as a marquee home matchup for the Volunteers this season.
The September 26 game also doubles as Tennessee's annual Checker Neyland spectacle, a fan tradition. The orange-and-white checkerboard pattern is a Tennessee tradition, according to Volunteer Traditions. The spectator version of the tradition is part of Tennessee game days, per Tennessee Athletics.
Neyland Stadium is Tennessee's home venue. Knoxville also hosted ESPN's College GameDay pregame show in 2025, a connection Hoodline previously covered ahead of Georgia game.
A Loaded Week 4 Slate
The Tennessee-Texas game arrives amid a stacked Week 4 slate featuring six games between currently ranked teams, per the Knoxville News Sentinel's rankings rundown. Georgia sits at No. 2 and Oregon at No. 6, with Oregon playing USC, ranked No. 14. LSU, ranked No. 8, will play Texas A&M, ranked No. 9, while Oklahoma, ranked No. 10, faces Georgia. Ole Miss, ranked No. 11, plays Florida, ranked No. 25, and Iowa, ranked No. 21, takes on Michigan, ranked No. 24. Alabama sits at No. 12 ahead of its own trip to Knoxville on October 17, and Tennessee is also scheduled to host LSU on November 21.
