Tennessee
Does Tennessee use fake crowd noise at Neyland Stadium? I stood by speakers to find out
Brock Vandagriff ran frantically to his offensive line.
The Kentucky quarterback tried to communicate, bolting right then left then right again. Vandagriff yelled to his running back, got the snap and started to run. The play didn’t count. Wildcats coach Mark Stoops had called timeout on the sideline but players didn’t hear the whistle signaling the timeout inside a roaring Neyland Stadium.
There was no noise coming from the speakers by the Kentucky bench in the northwest corner of Tennessee football’s cathedral.
An Alabama play-by-play announcer claimed that Tennessee pipes in fake crowd noise at home games during UT’s 24-17 win against the Crimson Tide on Oct. 19.
I decided to find out if there is any validity to those claims during Tennessee’s 28-18 win against Kentucky on Saturday night. There is not.
Alabama announcer made claim that Tennessee uses fake noise
I came to Neyland Stadium on Saturday equipped with a pack of Walgreens foam earplugs and a plan to find out how the on-field speakers are used.
Crimson Tide Sports Network announcer Chris Stewart declared two weeks prior during the CTSN broadcast that Tennessee pipes “in crowd noise as well” on top of the sound of a sellout crowd. UT and athletics director Danny White dismissed the comment. Stewart doubled down on a Birmingham radio station, stating it was a fact that Tennessee amplifies noise with speakers.
Stewart was correct about one thing: Tennessee has speakers on the field. The speakers line the east and west sidelines at Neyland Stadium. There are two sets of three in each of the corners. The visiting sideline featured three sets of three at intervals behind the bench. The on-field speakers supplement the ones attached to the video board and others under the overhang of the upper deck. They are intended to provide noise to the bottom half of the lower bowl and face the crowd − and not the bench − for that reason.
The pregame featured music and announcements through the speakers.
I popped in my first set of earplugs 18 minutes before kickoff by the speakers in the southwest corner. The stadium reached more than 100 dB before kickoff. It hovered at the same mark on the first play.
How Tennessee uses Neyland Stadium on-field speakers
Neyland Stadium always seems to be at its best on third downs. That was the case against Kentucky.
The crowd was bumping as “Spooky Rocky Top” played on the first third down. The raw fan noise hit 106.6 dB. The speakers in the southeast corner were silent as Kentucky lined up and failed to convert. Then music returned before fourth down. Fans dialed up the noise to more than 115 dB after a failed fourth-down attempt. Then UT sent the band playing “Rocky Top” through the speakers.
The pattern was consistent. UT utilized the speakers in between plays when it was on defense. It pumped in music ranging from Travis Scott to The Killers to Michael Jackson. It funneled in the band playing in dead-ball situations. It used the speakers for announcements via the referees’ microphone and the public address announcer.
The speakers dropped off and natural crowd noise took over each time the Wildcats lined up without any added crowd noise on top of 100,000 screaming Vols fans, which is how White described the sound at Neyland Stadium in his rebuttal of the fake noise claim.
Does Tennessee use fake crowd noise at Neyland Stadium?
The speakers came to life during the first-quarter Kentucky timeout.
The Pride of the Southland Band boomed through. The refs announcing the resetting of the game clock came through as well. The noise from the speakers dropped off and Neyland Stadium was all natural for the final play of the quarter.
That was the experience throughout as the No. 7 Vols moved to 7-1 (4-1 SEC). The noise of Neyland Stadium was more than enough to cause chaos during Kentucky plays. The stadium sound system was used outside of live football and I used three sets of earplugs.
I watched Kentucky’s Hardley Gilmore IV dance around when the band noise played through in a media timeout. I witnessed how fluid the game management crew is at turning on the speakers following big plays such as Andre Turrentine’s interception. The band struck up “Rocky Top” and the speakers had it. They turned them off for fans to sing the chorus, the natural sound carrying.
But fake crowd noise? I never heard any of that.
Mike Wilson covers University of Tennessee athletics. Email him at michael.wilson@knoxnews.com and follow him on Twitter @ByMikeWilson. If you enjoy Mike’s coverage, consider a digital subscription that will allow you access to all of it.