What Tennessee football commit Ethan Utley said about his first Florida game, Arkansas loss

Tennessee football commit Ethan Utley has visited Knoxville a number of times for games at Neyland Stadium.

But through all his visits, Utley has never been to a Tennessee-Florida game.

That will change Saturday night. Utley is a four-star prospect from Ensworth ranked as the No. 2 overall 2025 player in Tennessee and the No. 23 defensive lineman nationally, according to the 247Sports Composite. He will be among what’s expected to be a large group of 2025 commits that will visit Tennessee when it hosts Florida.

“I’ve been to Tennessee-Kentucky twice and Tennessee-South Carolina. But I think that the Florida game will be something different, especially at night time,” Utley said. “Checkerboard Neyland, wearing the traditional home uniforms. I’m excited to see it and I’m excited to see my friends and future teammates.” 

UT is holding a Checker Neyland game for the eighth time. Fans are encouraged to wear orange or white, depending on their seat location, to make a checkerboard board pattern throughout the stadium. 

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What Ethan Utley said about Tennessee football loss to Arkansas

Utley let out a long sigh when asked about Tennessee’s 19-14 upset loss at Arkansas last week. 

It was not a fun watch, but Utley saw a silver lining.

“Watching that game, it gave me hope,” Utley said after Ensworth’s 24-7 win over Father Ryan on Friday. “There’s still more to learn. The defense got its back against the wall a few times and came up with some huge stops. Those guys are still playing electric and not folding, kind of like we did tonight.” 

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Utley has helped Ensworth (7-0) get off to its best start since 2013, but every Saturday he’s closely watching Tennessee. 

“I’m locked in at all times. Me and my best friend (Tennessee commit) Dylan Lewis, who’s from Atlanta, we’ll FaceTime and watch the game together,” Utley said. “We’ll talk about it, kind of envision ourselves on the actual defense itself.”

Reach sports writer Tyler Palmateer at tpalmateer@tennessean.com and on the X platform, formerly Twitter, @tpalmateer83.