CBS broadcaster Gary Danielson is well familiar with SEC country. The 72-year-old broadcaster jumped from ESPN to CBS in 2006 and has been primarily focused on SEC play ever since.
That’s what makes Danielson’s recent comments so confusing for Tennessee fans.
During a recent interview with Knox News’ Adam Sparks ahead of his call of the Tennessee-Texas A&M game in Knoxville this weekend, Danielson revealed his thoughts on the Vols’ Neyland Stadium venue in comparison to the other 13 stadiums around the Southeastern Conference.
“I get that. It’s a way of life. We embrace it from a production standpoint, and it’s fun,” Danielson said to Sparks about Neyland Stadium. “I love it all, the pomp and the circumstance and the storylines. Tennessee doesn’t have to take a backseat to anybody. But to me, it’s just about the same (as other SEC stadiums).”
Tennessee is planning to pack 100,000+ people into Neyland Stadium this weekend for Saturday’s big cross-divisional game. In addition to that, though, Tennessee is also implementing Checker Neyland for the game this weekend.
“This is not a criticism, just an observation. It has nothing to do with Neyland, per se, or any other stadium,” Danielson said to Knox News. “(Home-field advantage) is about the same every week. Whether you’re playing at Ole Miss or LSU or Florida in The Swamp or Georgia … for a football player, loud is loud. I don’t know if it makes any difference if there’s 80,000 loud people or 100,000 loud people.”
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Danielson’s comments have quickly become a conversation on social media since the interview was released on Friday afternoon. Many Tennessee fans appear to look at Danielson’s comments as a backhanded compliment like, “Thanks for saying Tennessee doesn’t take a back seat, but thanks for also contradicting that in your next sentence.”
Tennessee’s Neyland Stadium boasts the third-highest capacity of any stadium in the SEC at 101,915, even despite the seats that were taken out for construction and stadium enhancements between the 2021 and 2022 seasons. Ole Miss Football’s Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, as Danielson alluded to, only holds 64,038 spectators.
Loud is loud, yes. But there’s a difference with 35,000+ more spectators in the stands. As one famous college quarterback once said, there’s a “different type of loud” in Knoxville.
“You can’t beat the Cotton Bowl. There’s nothing like that. But last year when we went to play Tennessee in Neyland Stadium, that was probably the best game experience I’ve had and probably will ever have,” former Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield said after the 2015 season. “That’s a different type of loud. I can’t even describe it. It was unbelievable.”
Head coach Josh Heupel and Athletic Director Danny White have worked hard since arriving in Knoxville to make Tennessee a premier college football destination, in different ways. Heupel routinely calls on and thanks the Tennessee fanbase before and after home games, inviting and challenging the fans to make more noise each week than the last. White, on the other hand, continues to work with the athletics department to give Neyland Stadium new features such as in-stadium WiFi, enhanced comfort options, quicker lines with digital ticketing, and more.
The work that Tennessee has done, combined with the Vols 15-3 home win record under Josh Heupel, has resulted in nine-straight home sellouts dating back to the third week of the 2022 season. Tennessee did not sell out the 2022 season opener due to the fact the game was played on a Thursday night to open the year.
No. 19 Tennessee will host Texas A&M this Saturday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. on CBS. Gary Danielson, Brad Nessler, and Jenny Bell will be on the call for the game.
2 Responses
I despise Gary Donelson and it is so obvious he dislikes Tennessee greatly!
I despise Gary Donaldson it is so obvious that he dislikes Tennessee VOLS and he always has! He make comments on Tennessee that are disgusting for Tennessee fans and he alway has!