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Josh Heupel after Tennessee's win over Texas A&M: 'There's nothing like Neyland loud'

IMG_3593by:Grant Ramey•10/14/23•

GrantRamey

Tennessee Football
Tennessee Athletics

Josh Heupel knows the noise created inside a sold-out Neyland Stadium is unique. In fact, he said Saturday night, it’s part of the reason No. 19 Tennessee was able to take down Texas A&M 20-13 in front of a capacity crowd in Knoxville.

“I said it earlier today and I’ve been a lot of different places, this is the best atmosphere in college football,” Heupel said during his postgame press conference. “Man, there’s nothing like Neyland loud. When (the fans) come and they’re fully engaged and they typically are, man, our fan base is awesome. A huge factor in the ball game today. Love being with them on this journey this year, man. Appreciate them.”

CBS analyst Gary Danielson made headlines this week when he told the Knoxville News Sentinel that the noise level at Neyland isn’t that much different than other big stadiums in the Southeastern Conference.

“This is not a criticism,” Danielson said in the interview with Knox News, “just an observation. It has nothing to do with Neyland, per se, or any other stadium.

“(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.”

Tennessee football’s social media accounts appeared to reference the quotes in a video Saturday morning.

Tennessee on Saturday extended its home win streak to 13 straight games, the program’s longest since  23 straight home wins from 1996-2000. Saturday’s ‘Checker Neyland’ game is the 10th-straight sell out in Knoxville.

Tennessee has the sixth-biggest stadium in college football with a capacity of 101,915. It’s third in the SEC behind Texas A&M’s Kyle Field (102,733) and LSU’s Tiger Stadium (102,321). 

“I don’t know if it makes any difference if there’s 80,000 loud people,” he said, “or 100,000 loud people.”

Texas A&M, on the other hand, as now lost eight straight true road games. The last win on the road for the Aggies came at Missouri on October 16, 2021.

“We embrace it from a production standpoint, and it’s fun,” Danielson told the News Sentinel. “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).”

Up Next: No. 19 Tennessee at No. 11 Alabama, Saturday

In the win Saturday, Tennessee ran for 232 yards as a team and Joe Milton III completed 11 of 22 passes for 100 yards, with one interception. He ran eight times for 34 yards while Jaylen Wright led the Vols on the ground with 136 yards on 19 attempts.

Special teams returner Dee Williams downed a Tennessee punt on the Texas A&M 1-yard line and, after the Vols forced a three-and-out on defense, took the Aggie punt back 39 yards for the go-ahead touchdown with 6:47 left in the third quarter, giving the home team the lead for the first time.

Texas A&M scored on a seven-play, 80-yard drive on its first offensive possession, but from there Tennessee’s defense forced four punts, gave up two field goals and had two interceptions, both coming on A&M’s final two possessions of the game.

“How about that, man? Wow,” Heupel said afterward. “I haven’t been involved one like that in a long time.”

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