Tennessee coach Josh Heupel dismissed any notion that there was artificial noise pumped into Neyland Stadium, as had been ascertained by some media types from Alabama.
“I had not heard that,” Heupel said flatly during his press conference on Wednesday. “Neyland doesn’t need anything fake piped into the stadium for that to be the loudest place in America.
“Hopefully, our fans take that personally and enjoy this bye week and come back and we’ll be louder than ever the next time we’re at home.”
They almost assuredly will, when the Vols host Kentucky on Nov. 2. The Vols have a bye week, which means Tennessee fans have a bit longer to stew on being accused of needing noised pumped in during the Vols’ 24-17 win over the Crimson Tide on Saturday.
Tennessee has publicly denied the allegations made by Alabama play-by-play announcer Chris Stewart and later echoed by former Bama quarterback A.J. McCarron. Whatever the case, the scene for the Vols-Bama game clearly helped Tennessee in recruiting. The Vols have picked up two commitments since the Alabama fiesta.
“Big time games,” Heupel said when asked how Neyland Stadium could help recruiting. “Elite environment inside of Neyland, and it’s always special, but for some of those rivalry games, it’s ratcheted up another notch.
“I think those are great environments to see the competitive makeup of playing in this league, in the big games, that recruits get an opportunity to see how special playing football on Rocky Top is. What the Neyland effect looks and sounds like. Those are our huge pieces of the recruiting puzzle for us.”
Indeed. Artificial noise or not.
