Tennessee will open its 2024 campaign against Chattanooga at Neyland Stadium on Aug. 31.

In anticipation of the season opener, VolReport is highlighting a former Vols player whose jersey number matches the amount of days until kickoff.

TALK ABOUT IT IN THE ROCKY TOP FORUM

With 16 days to go, Dewey Warren, who passed for more than 3,300 yards during his career at Tennessee and was the quarterback during the program's resurgence under head coach Doug Dickey in the mid 1960s, is selected.

Warren was a standout player at Herschel V. Jenkins High School in Savannah, Georgia where he picked up the nickname, "swamp rat" from his head coach after showing up late to practice one day. The moniker followed Warren the rest of his career, especially at Tennessee.

He signed with the Vols in 1963 to play for then-head coach Jim McDonald, but because of Tennessee's single-wing offense, Warren spent much of his freshman season playing linebacker for the JV team. Then Dickey was hired as head coach after the program had failed to reach a bowl game for the sixth-straight season.

Dickey did away with the run-heavy offense, ditching the single wing in favor of the T-formation. Warren thrived in the new system when starting quarterback Charlie Fulton went down with an injury late in the 1965 season.

Called in for the injured Fulton against Ole Miss, Warren entered the huddle on the field without his helmet, perhaps a sign of nerves in his first significant playing time. But provided a glimpse of a revolutionized offense with him leading the charge in Tennessee's final regular season game against Rose Bowl-bound and No. 5 UCLA in Memphis.

Warren led the Vols to a two-score lead, then had to bring them back after falling behind in the fourth quarter, passing for 274 yards and two touchdowns.

Facing fourth-and-goal with less than a minute left, Warren, who was nursing a pulled groin, rolled to his left. Unable to find an open receiver, he tucked the ball and dove into the endzone to cap a 37-34 victory. Tennessee won its first bowl game in eight years a few weeks later, beating Tulsa, 27-6 in the Bluebonnett Bowl to finish the season 8-1-2.

The unquestioned starter heading into the 1966 season, Warren set records. He attempted 229 passes and completed 136 of them, easily topping the previous school records of 75 and 36, respectively.

Warren was the first Vols passer to top the 1,000-yard mark with 1,716 yards while tossing for 18 touchdowns during Tennessee's eight-win campaign.

Against Syracuse in the Gator Bowl later that season, Warren was named the game's Most Valuable Player after headlining an 18-12 win.

"When you have a boy who can throw like that, you just let him get out and throw all he wants," Dickey told Sports Illustrated.

Warren dealt with injuries during his senior year in 1967, missing parts of the Vols' SEC and national title run, but he was still a major factor. He passed for more than 1,000 yards for the second-straight season and engineered a memorable comeback effort against Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl, bringing Tennessee from a 19-0 deficit in a 26-24 defeat.

Warren went in the sixth round of the 1968 NFL Draft and played one season for the Cincinnati Bengals before beginning his coaching career at BYU under then-head coach LaVell Edwards.

Like he did as a quarterback at Tennessee, Warren completely changed the Cougars offense in two seasons as a coordinator, turning a run-heavy scheme into a record-breaking passing system.

Warren also had coaching stints at Kansas State, Tennessee and Sewanee.

In the Tennessee record books, Warren ranks 18th all-time with 3,339 passing yards and 27 touchdowns.

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