Vol fans love to hear “Rocky Top” on game days. Because if “Rocky Top” is being played a lot on Saturdays, that means the Vols are doing well both on offense and defense.
But apparently, Florida’s new head coach also finds Tennessee’s most popular song rather catchy.
Dan Mullen met with the media on Monday for his weekly press conference, and he was asked if he planned on taking extra preparations this week for a potentially sold-out Neyland Stadium when the Gators make their first road trip of the 2018 season. And he said “Rocky Top” will enter the rotation of their usual practice soundtrack.
“We’ll mix ‘Rocky Top’ into our crowd noise,” Mullen replied. “We usually have music playing at practice a lot now for our guys. When we’re at home, the music is on the defensive field because when we’re at home, The Swamp’s louder when we’re on defense…it’s just the opposite now. We move the speakers over to the offensive field. I’ll be whistling Rocky Top by the end of the week. You just hear it over and over, like every third song it’ll roll through within the crowd noise that we play at practice.
“You get used to it. It’s a catchy tune.”
Though he thinks one of the Vols’ main fight songs is “catchy,” Mullen still doesn’t want to hear it on Saturday. He’s content to hear it much more during practice than he is during the game.
“I hope I don’t hear it all that much,” Mullen explained. “I hope I hear it more in practice than I do on game day.”
Dan Mullen has only faced the Vols once as a head coach, and that was back in 2012 when he was still the head coach of the Mississippi State Bulldogs. But that game was in Starkville, so Mullen likely didn’t hear “Rocky Top” nearly as much there as he would’ve had the game been in Knoxville. Plus, the Bulldogs beat the Vols 41-31 in that contest.
Vol fans hope that Mullen hears his fill of “Rocky Top” on Saturday when the Vols take on the Gators at 7:00 Eastern under the lights of Neyland Stadium. The last time the two teams met in Neyland, “Rocky Top” was played a lot in the second half of that game as the Vols scored 35 points in the second half to defeat the Gators 38-28.
