Tennessee football crowd won't remind Texas A&M of its last Neyland Stadium visit | Adams
Texas A&M won’t recognize Neyland Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
The Aggies made their last trip to Knoxville in 2020. That’s when COVID was going full force, and SEC crowds were reduced to a fraction of their capacity.
Even if a pandemic hadn’t been raging, UT fans had little incentive to spend an afternoon with the Vols. By the last game of the 2020 season, it was apparent then-Tennessee coach Jeremy Pruitt wouldn’t revive the glory days of UT football.
The Vols had lost six of their previous seven games and often had looked worse than their record. A predictable 34-13 loss to Texas A&M would be the last loss of the Pruitt era – at least, until the NCAA started doling out forfeits for all of UT’s recruiting violations on Pruitt’s watch.
The Aggies were headed in a different direction. They were on their way to a 9-1 record and a No. 4 national ranking. In fact, they were doing just what they were supposed to do when they offered coach Jimbo Fisher a 10-year, $75 million contract to leave Florida State for College Station, Texas.
The contract has sense been increased and extended, which is probably the main reason Fisher wasn’t fired after the Aggies' 5-7 season in 2022. Texas A&M’s fall coincided with Tennessee’s sudden rise under coach Josh Heupel, who has lifted a program from 3-7 in 2020 to 11-2 and a top-10 finish last year.
The success hasn’t been lost on a fan base desperate to put bad coaches and big buyouts behind them. The Aggies will notice that crowd Saturday.
Tennessee now has one of the best home-field advantages in college football. That can be measured in more than decibels. The Vols have won 12 consecutive games at Neyland.
Contrast that with the gloomy atmosphere when the Aggies showed up in Knoxville three years ago. They would hand the Pruitt-plagued Vols their fourth consecutive home defeat.
The Vols are no longer sinking, and Texas A&M is at least in a better place than last season. And this matchup, unlike their last one three years ago, matters greatly to both teams.
Tennessee (4-1, 1-1 SEC) has a chance to bolster its national ranking and enhance a resume that doesn’t include a victory over an FBS opponent with a winning record. But the outlook could darken considerably in defeat. Up next are road games against Alabama and Kentucky. After a nonconference break against Connecticut, the Vols will play at Missouri before taking on No. 1 Georgia at home.
However, the game could be even more significant to the Aggies, whose loss to Alabama was a severe blow to their hopes of an SEC West title. They were overwhelmed by the Tide defense in the second half of a 26-20 defeat at Kyle Field before more than 108,000 fans. That crowd was a big factor in eight Alabama false-start penalties. But it couldn’t help the Texas A&M offense.
The crowd will be decidedly against the Aggies on Saturday. And the noise level won’t be anything like what they experienced in 2020.
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John Adams is a senior columnist. He may be reached at 865-342-6284 or john.adams@knoxnews.com. Follow him at: twitter.com/johnadamskns.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Tennessee football crowd won't remind Aggies of last Neyland visit
