Neyland Stadium’s gameday atmosphere is intimidating.
With 102,455 people piled into their seats and thousands more scattered across campus, the environment is enough to make any visiting team lose focus – if only slightly.
Neyland, however, may adversely affect the Vols in Sunday’s home opener against Utah State, when the 19 newcomers listed on UT’s 2-deep depth chart run through the ‘T’ for the first time.
“I am worried about the shock value of our team,” Tennessee head coach Butch Jones said. “A lot of these individuals haven’t performed (in that environment). That is why the open practice was monumental – our fans coming out and supporting us was monumental. When you hear them say, ‘that is the largest crowd I ever played in front of, 40,000.’ I told them a couple weeks ago, that isn’t even half of what you are going to be playing in front of. So I am more concerned with how our players respond and not getting all caught up in the emotions of a game.”
Despite making that open practice “as chaotic as possible,” Jones is right. A large percentage of this Volunteer roster remains unfamiliar with what they will face on Sunday, especially with tickets for the game expected to be sold out.
“There’s probably always going to be a little bit of nerves,” sophomore wide receiver Marquez North said. “Just coming in from high school, it’s a big step playing in front of probably about 1,000 people at the most at my school, to 102,455. There are going to be a little nerves, but we’ve just got to prepare the same way each practice, and then hopefully we’ll handle it.”
Handling the moment will be especially important for the Vols, as the Chuckie Keeton-led Aggies have already proven their ability to play in hostile environments.
In the last five years, Utah State has hit the road to play USC, Wisconsin, Auburn, Oklahoma and Texas A&M. While they lost all five contests, they lost only by a combined 24 points – the largest margin of defeat being the 8-point defeat to Texas A&M back in 2009.
“They’ve played in front of some opposing crowds that are on par with ours,” senior quarterback Justin Worley said. “The intimidation level from our fans won’t be as much because they’ve had the experience and they have a senior quarterback and an older group of guys.”
The same, however, can’t be said about the 18 and 19-year-old players donning the orange and white.
“It’s the game of the unknowns,” Jones said. “Utah State is going to come out and give us something that we haven’t seen on video whether it is offense, defense or special teams, and those are the nuances of playing the first game, and when you have a veteran team, they can usually adapt and adjust right away. That is one of our concerns.
“We will have some new wrinkles in our offensive and defensive systems too. It just comes down to execution. We have to be able to control the controllables. That is our effort, being assignment sound, and simple alignment.”
Regardless, Jones expects his team to be ready come Sunday night.
He also expects them to have their emotions in check by the time they buckle up their chinstraps and take to the field.
“I don’t ever want a football team that plays on emotions,” the second-year coach said. “Emotion goes highs and lows. There are peaks and there are valleys. I want a straight-lined football team that plays with passion and energy.
“There is a difference between passion and energy and emotion. I don’t like emotional football teams because they are up and they are down, they are on that roller coaster. I just want a team that is just straight-lined, handles the task at hand and gets better each and every day.”
