With Tennessee football returning to college football relevance in recent seasons under Josh Heupel, the Vols have reminded the college football world what an elite venue Neyland Stadium.
Neyland Stadium reminded the world of that fact again this weekend, producing a raucous environment as Tennessee knocked off Alabama 24-17 on Saturday afternoon.
But one person inside Neyland Stadium wasn’t believing that the crowd was naturally that loud. On just the second play of the game, with Alabama facing second-and-16, Alabama radio play-by-play man Chris Stewart claimed that Tennessee was bumping crowd noise into the stadium.
“Second-and-16 is not what you’re looking for,” Stewart said. “Especially with the crowd noise being what it is here. You got 100,000+ and they also pipe in crowd noise, as well.”
“They also pipe in crowd noise, as well.”
Suuuuurrrreeeeee. pic.twitter.com/c6pyTistyP
— Rob Harvey (@RobMHarvey) October 21, 2024
The crowd noise had a major impact on the game with Alabama committing 15 penalties for 115 yards including four pre snap penalties on offense. Penalties weren’t the only area where the crowd had an impact on the game.
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“It was so loud on the last couple drives they couldn’t get their pass protection set,” Tennessee linebacker Arion Carter said postgame.
Stewart is in his first season as the official voice of Alabama football, replacing the legendary Eli Gold. But Stewart did serve as Alabama football’s radio play-by-play man in 2022 when Gold was unable to call games due to health issues. Gold called home games during the 2023 season but Stewart travelled with the team and broadcasted its away games.
Stewart has long been a member of the Crimson Tide Radio Network and has been the play-by-play man for Alabama basketball since 2002. You can listen to his full call of the 107 edition of the Third Saturday in October here.
Tennessee earned the rivalry win, turning a 7-0 halftime deficit into a 24-17 victory. The Vols’ defense was stellar again, keeping them in the game despite another abysmal offensive first half. Then with Tennessee’s offense waking up and putting together three touchdown drives in the second half, the defense kept playing at an elite level.
Alabama failed to record a single first down in its final four drives, going three-and-out, three-and-out, four-and-out and then Will Brooks intercepting Jalen Milroe on the first play of the final drive to secure the win.
It was Tennessee’s second win over the Crimson Tide in the last three years after losing the previous 15 meetings in the series before the 2022 game.
One Response
I’m an usher for that game and everyone was shouting at the top of their lungs. I wear earplugs and it was still loud 🔊📢……..