GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- Fresh off its first South Atlantic Conference championship in 13 years, the Tusculum football team will take on an 11-game slate with the release of its 2021 schedule announced TU head coach Jerry Odom.
The Pioneers wrapped up a 4-1 COVID-shortened campaign this past spring with four consecutive wins including a 28-23 victory at Lenoir-Rhyne to claim the program's third SAC Championship and fourth conference title overall.
This year's schedule features three non-conference contests to go along with a challenging eight-game league schedule.
"It is going to be great to get back to a sense of normalcy after the past year and a half," said Odom. "Our student-athletes and coaching staff did a great job navigating the pandemic and the challenges brought on with it. We look forward to the 2021 fall schedule. We have added three new opponents to compliment what will be a tough and exciting South Atlantic Conference slate of games."
The Pioneers travel to Raleigh, North Carolina to kick off the 2021 campaign at St. Augustine's on Sep. 4. The Falcons had their 2020 season cancelled due to the COVID pandemic. St. Augustine's went 2-8 during its last season of competition in 2019 including a 2-5 worksheet in the CIAA.
Tusculum will begin a stretch of three straight home contests when they host Chowan in the first meeting between TU and the Hawks. Like St. Augustine's, Chowan had its 2020 season wiped out by the pandemic and will see its first action since 2019. The Hawks went 3-7 overall and finished 2-5 in CIAA play.
The Pioneers will open its 23rd SAC season when the Limestone Saints visit Pioneer Field on Sep. 18. Tusculum owns a 5-1 series lead with Limestone, including a 49-17 win over the Saints in April which proved to be the SAC Mountain Division title game.
On Sep. 25, Tusculum will battle the Newberry Wolves in Greeneville in the 24th meeting between the two schools. The two teams opened the 2021 spring campaign in a non-divisional match-up as the Wolves came away with a 21-6 victory, handing the Pioneers their only set-back of the COVID-shortened campaign. Newberry went 5-1 in the spring with its only loss coming at Lenoir-Rhyne which would prove to give the Bears the SAC Piedmont Divisional crown. Newberry leads the series with Tusculum 12-11.
The Pioneers will be on the road for back-to-back games at Wingate (Oct. 2) and Lenoir-Rhyne (Oct. 9).
Wingate went 2-2 last spring, opening with wins over Barton and Catawba, before dropping losses to Lenoir-Rhyne and Newberry to close out the abbreviated year. Wingate leads the all-time series with Tusculum at 15-8 including a 28-21 win in Greeneville as part of the Bulldogs' 10-2 campaign which saw them advance to the NCAA Division II Playoffs.
The following week, the Pioneers will be at Lenoir-Rhyne in a rematch of April's SAC title game. The Bears went 3-1 in the spring with its lone blemish coming at the hands of the Pioneers. Lenoir-Rhyne went 13-1 in its last full season and advanced to the 2019 NCAA Super Region 2 final before falling to eventual national champion West Florida. L-R holds a 13-11 edge in the series with Tusculum, which began in 1924.
Tusculum returns home Oct. 16 to host SAC foe UVA Wise in the 12th overall meeting with the Cavaliers (UVAW leads 6-5). UVA Wise went 1-2 in the spring, opening with close losses to Carson-Newman and Limestone before having its Mar. 25 meeting with Tusculum cancelled. The Cavs returned to action a week later and ended the spring season with a win at Mars Hill. TU defeated UVA Wise 21-19 in its last encounter in 2019.
Tusculum will host another newcomer to its schedule on Oct. 23 as Barton visits Greeneville for Homecoming. The Bulldogs are playing all nine SAC teams this year before becoming an associate member of the league in 2022 and 2023. Barton went 1-4 in the spring in its inaugural gridiron campaign.
The Pioneers will be at Catawba on Oct. 30 in the 25th game between TU and the Catawba Indians (CAT lead 16-8). Catawba went winless in its two outings in the spring before having the remainder of its abbreviated season cancelled. The Indians went 1-10 in 2019 including a 32-14 loss at Tusculum.
TU will travel to cross-mountain rival Mars Hill on Nov. 6 in the 38th meeting with the Lions. Tusculum has won the last four meetings with Mars Hill including a 58-20 decision in March which sparked a four-game winning streak for the Black & Orange. Tusculum leads 22-13-2 in a series that started in 1922.
The Pioneers will close out the regular season on Nov. 13 when they host long-time rival Carson-Newman in the 50th recording meeting in the second-oldest collegiate football rivalry in the State of Tennessee. C-N leads the series 35-12-2 including a 49-13 win over Tusculum in 2019 in the last meeting between the two schools. The Eagles went 1-0 this past spring, but had the remainder of their games cancelled due to the pandemic including a scheduled Apr. 10 game with the Pioneers.
The NCAA Playoffs, which were cancelled this past year, will begin Nov. 20 at campus sites, culminating with the Division II title game on Dec. 18 at McKinney ISD Stadium in McKinney, Texas.
