After the sun sets tonight, things will change on the University of

Tennessee campus.

The air will get a little cooler than usual. The wind will blow a little

harder than usual. Every student will experience a feeling like no other

before. A different personality will emerge from your insides, almost

demonic.

Yes my friends, tonight, student life will change as you know it. Students

will bond together as one unit. The bond that will take place tonight after

sunset is almost like a unitary blood flow among the entire student

body.

If you were here last year, you experienced this change. You have been

through this bond before, but it’s a different change every year.

If you are a freshman, oh, you are in for a treat.

Tonight you will experience something that cannot be explained to anyone

outside of the student body. There are no words that define what you will

feel tonight, after sunset.

And by midnight, you will never be the same again. You will have

experienced something that is duplicated nowhere else. Not like this.

This is a warning from me to you. Beware, students of the University of

Tennessee. The Wildcats are in town.

After sunset, you will feel a tightness in your stomach. A tightness like

the tightness before giving a public speech. You will feel shaky. Shaky

like before you take your first final exam. You will feel anxiety like

never before.

Then, when you walk into the arena, it all comes to a climax.

You will see a strange sight. No longer will the 24,000 seats be

half-filled. No, my friend. Every seat in Thompson-Boling Arena will be

taken.

No longer will the taken seats be filled by students, supporters, and Big

Orange maniacs. This is a different night.

It is Kentucky and they have a cult-like following. Buses and buses will

make the drive from Lexington in hopes of embarrassing the people of

Tennessee.

Your people will be in the bottom section. The top – well that’s a

different story. A sea of blue will flood the upper section at our very own

arena. Yes, it’s true.

They are invading as you read these words.

You will feel an anger that builds inside of you. That anger is fueled and

fed off of the blue sea that will invade your very own basketball arena.

This is no ordinary blue sea that is quiet and calm.

Oh no, this blue sea will continue to fuel your fire because Kentucky fans

will act as if this is their home too. They will be just as loud as you and

your people. They will have no respect for your home.

It is not their home. It is yours!

That is the anger and why you feel it.

They are Kentucky and they hate you. It doesn’t matter if you follow sports

or not. They hate you because you are a student at the University of

Tennessee.

Like it or not, you will experience this change that I have spoken of. The

change will begin tonight at sunset. You will become a different

person.

I strongly urge the student body to help defend their home tonight at

Thompson-Boling Arena at 8 p.m. This is a night like no other. I urge you

to come in groups, which are stronger than individual efforts.

Be strong! The change you will experience is not easy.