Tennessee legend Peyton Manning said he’s confident in the Volunteers’ future under head coach Josh Heupel entering the 2024 college football season.

led Tennessee to a 27-12 record (.692) in his first three seasons and has the Volunteers entering 2024 as a preseason top-15 team and College Football Playoff hopeful.

“I am excited about Josh Heupel,” Manning said this weekend at the Manning Passing Academy. “I like him a lot, especially the program he’s built at Tennessee. We are excited about our team this year. It’s going to be a tough conference, and it’s gotten even tougher with Oklahoma and Texas coming in. We are excited about it. Josh has done a good job. He’s built a good culture. We got a good recruiting class coming in. We pull hard for him. I got to visit with him at the baseball game. He’s excited about the season. I am, too.”

EA Sports sparked controversy this week following the release of its toughest stadium ranking for the College Football 25 video game. It ranked Texas A&M’s Kyle Field at No. 1 and LSU’s Tiger Stadium at No. 2. Tennessee and Neyland Stadium checked in at No. 12. Manning said Neyland got slighted in the rankings and also remembered Georgia (No. 5) and Florida (No. 10) as two of the toughest places he played during his college career.