Overall Gameday Flavor on UTK Campus

[shieldpacal]

Some posts here by BGSU fans have indicated regret that the game is not being played in Neyland Stadium. I regret that too. It is true that back around the year 2000, ESPN named UT-Knoxville the BEST GAMEDAY EXPERIENCE IN ALL OF COLLEGE FOOTBALL. Really. They did. Many of you may be driving toward Nashville on Thursday night and Friday, so I thought it would be good to go ahead and post this item to give you all a bit of the overall feel of gameday on the UTK campus. Also, here in Knoxville on the local news, they are referring to the game on Saturday in Nashville as a "UTK HOME GAME. This means the UTK band will probably be coming to Nashville, which will make it have more of the UTK home game flavor.

Sometime a few years ago, Brent Musburger did a series of documentary films entitled "Fields of Glory." The idea was to show the overall gameday flavor at several famous FBS football venues. The link below shows the documentary for UTK gameday at home. Please enjoy, and I hope it makes up just a little bit for the fact that the BGSU-Tennessee game is not in Knoxville. Here is the link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nILjeoOG58" target="_blank

[OrangeHammer]

UT*

[shieldpacal]

UT*

UTK

[kdog27]

Some posts here by BGSU fans have indicated regret that the game is not being played in Neyland Stadium. I regret that too. It is true that back around the year 2000, ESPN named UT-Knoxville the BEST GAMEDAY EXPERIENCE IN ALL OF COLLEGE FOOTBALL. Really. They did. Many of you may be driving toward Nashville on Thursday night and Friday, so I thought it would be good to go ahead and post this item to give you all a bit of the overall feel of gameday on the UTK campus. Also, here in Knoxville on the local news, they are referring to the game on Saturday in Nashville as a "UTK HOME GAME. This means the UTK band will probably be coming to Nashville, which will make it have more of the UTK home game flavor.

Sometime a few years ago, Brent Musburger did a series of documentary films entitled "Fields of Glory." The idea was to show the overall gameday flavor at several famous FBS football venues. The link below shows the documentary for UTK gameday at home. Please enjoy, and I hope it makes up just a little bit for the fact that the BGSU-Tennessee game is not in Knoxville. Here is the link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nILjeoOG58" target="_blank

Based on the seats they put us in (the corner end zone) there is little doubt who the home team is.

[Dayons_Den]

I don't care for any UTs.

[shieldpacal]

Some posts here by BGSU fans have indicated regret that the game is not being played in Neyland Stadium. I regret that too. It is true that back around the year 2000, ESPN named UT-Knoxville the BEST GAMEDAY EXPERIENCE IN ALL OF COLLEGE FOOTBALL. Really. They did. Many of you may be driving toward Nashville on Thursday night and Friday, so I thought it would be good to go ahead and post this item to give you all a bit of the overall feel of gameday on the UTK campus. Also, here in Knoxville on the local news, they are referring to the game on Saturday in Nashville as a "UTK HOME GAME. This means the UTK band will probably be coming to Nashville, which will make it have more of the UTK home game flavor.

Sometime a few years ago, Brent Musburger did a series of documentary films entitled "Fields of Glory." The idea was to show the overall gameday flavor at several famous FBS football venues. The link below shows the documentary for UTK gameday at home. Please enjoy, and I hope it makes up just a little bit for the fact that the BGSU-Tennessee game is not in Knoxville. Here is the link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nILjeoOG58" target="_blank

Based on the seats they put us in (the corner end zone) there is little doubt who the home team is.

I would not worry too much about that. As of tonight, Tennessee has been unable to sell 9,000 game tickets and my best guess is that this will not be a sellout game. If you are not happy with your seats---move to a section of unoccupied seats and enjoy the game from there. Also, Nissan Stadium---unlike Michigan Stadium and the Rose Bowl---is a high stack stadium just like Neyland Stadium. I think you will have a better view of the game than you expect. Cheers!!!

[zete]

Thanks for sharing that.
It reminds me of the Ohio State games in Columbus - they too have a colossal following. Most of the state of Ohio pulls for them as they are usually poised to win Big 10 and National Championships. As a Falcon and MAC fan, I am waiting for the day that BG or any school in the conference knocks their feet out from under them. Even if it is to be short-lived, what an accomplishment it would be!
ie. Toledo 13 Michigan 10 in 2008 And unlike some on this site, I do pull for the MAC schools in out of conference games. I have never understood why other Falcon fans don't.

[Falcon137]

I spent some time in Knoxville and really enjoyed it. I forget the name of the section of downtown I was exploring, but, I loved it. Lots of places being renovated, good coffee shops, bars, restaurants.

Very pretty campus, reminded me of UK, in the sense that it didn't feel urban, but, you are just steps away from a good sized city.

I was hoping the game was in Knoxville so I could bring my boat. The Volunteer Navy is something I wanted to see / do.

I will say every major college atmosphere is unique and special. It's hard to rank one over the other. Ohio State, Michigan, Florida, Tennessee, etc. they're all great. I will say the one thing southern schools have over northern schools, is that the women dress much better...

[BGSU33]

If this game was in Knoxville I would be there. That is why I'll be watching it at home on TV. Don't get me wrong, I love Nashville (very fun city, been there twice), but Tennessee playing at home in Knoxville and Tennessee playing in a neutral site in Nashville just isn't the same.

I was actually just in Knoxville two months ago. I took a tour of the stadium and they take you through the team entrance gate, into the locker room, the press tower, post game interview area, etc. Real nice tour and for only $8. I also did my own "tour" as I found an open the gate at the top of that long ramp that runs up on the southwest side of the stadium. They were resodding the stadium when I was there, putting in a new grass playing field. One thing I found kind of interesting was how there's one small road that wraps underneath and right alongside the east side of the stadium. I also wasn't aware there were what looked to be many old rooms built into the stadium on that side and the south side of the stadium (looked to possibly be old dorm rooms in the stadium I'm guessing, I've seen that in a few otger stadiums before if so). One thing that was interesting from my tour was they explained why Tennessee's endzones are checkerboards like that, stemming off a coach who made the comment about running to the checkerboard that you could see on the top of a building over the north end zone. I didn't know that. There's also a beautiful view of the river and bridges from the upper deck concourse on the east side. While walking through the stadium, you could notice where some of the stadium renovations were done as the capacity increased in phases.

I also took a look around the basketball arena since the renovations they did a few years ago when they took out seating on the one side of the upper level and added those suites, and put in new seats. It was a nice job, and the arena looks much nicer inside than outside (exterior is really bland).

Another pleasant surprise for me was the old historic part of downtown Knoxville. Very cool! Nice restaurants, shops and bars. Spent a little time down there and it was a real nice place to walk around and take things in. I actually like that area much more than the area around the university where the students congregate. I actually like it more than Tennessee's campus too. I'm not being critical but I expected the campus to be a little nicer, though I did like the older part on the hill. But the historic downtown made up for that.

I have also been to the Titans' stadium. It essentially sits on the other side of the river from downtown Nashville. I was last there a couple years ago and they were installing new video boards in the end zones. It's a nice enough stadium, don't get me wrong, most NFL stadiums are. But it just lacks the character and obviously the on-campus atmosphere that you would get if this game was being played in Knoxville.

[OrangeHammer]

Always thought some of the Tennessee fans that call their alma mater UT-K is dumb. You don't hear Alabama calling themselves UA-T or Florida UF-G or Georgia UGA-A

[Beaker]

Maybe we should start referring to ourselves as BG-BG, so not to be confused with the Firelands campus.

[mscarn]

If you are not happy with your seats---move to a section of unoccupied seats and enjoy the game from there.

We've lived under the oppressive yoke of the CSC goons for games with a couple thousand people. I'm not sure how our fans would react to that type of freedom.

[madmaxvol]

Always thought some of the Tennessee fans that call their alma mater UT-K is dumb. You don't hear Alabama calling themselves UA-T or Florida UF-G or Georgia UGA-A

The university of Tennessee system has had multiple institutions that were referred to as "The University of Tennessee" at whatever location they were in. For example The University of Chattanooga, was (until recently) referred to as The University of Tennessee - Chattanooga. There was also The University of Tennessee - Martin. There are actually five campuses in The University of Tennessee system, overall (Knoxville, Chattanooga, Martin, Memphis and Tullahoma). They are often referred to as: UT-Knoxville, UT-Chattanooga, UT- Martin, UT-Memphis and UT-Tullahoma.

There are no other schools in the Georgia system that are named "The University of Georgia". UGA is the only one in their system.. There are no other schools in the Florida system named "The University of Florida". UF is the only one in their system.

There are people who refer to Alabama as UAT...since there is a University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). But, in reality, they refer to Alabama as "Bama"...when have you ever heard anyone refer to Alabama as UA?

[OrangeHammer]

I live in Alabama. Heard it called UA plenty of times. Also UAB, UAH- etc. and Alabama is called UA. While many Auburn fans refer to themselves as AU.

[BGSU33]

Maybe we should start referring to ourselves as BG-BG, so not to be confused with the Firelands campus.

Wait, what??? Western Kentucky has a Firelands campus too???