That's because, at nearly every turn, you'll find yourself involuntarily singing or humming "Rocky Top." You'll catch yourself doing it and quickly stop. But sooner or later, you'll drift off into thought only to be awoken by a faint voice that sounds strangely like your own singing, "Rocky Top, you'll always be, home sweet home to meeeeeeeeeee..."
It's sort of like going to Costa Rica and coming home with a weird tropical disease. But in reality, I came away from my first true SEC weekend with a few more thoughts than that. I share them with you (in abridged form) now.
Knoxville and the pregame environment
My only mental imagery of Knoxville prior to this past weekend was of Neyland Stadium and the World's Fair site, as depicted in a mid-90s episode of The Simpsons. I came in with a blank slate and was pleasantly surprised -- what I saw of the town was pretty nice (bonus points for the cleanest Waffle House EVAR). I didn't get to see much of the downtown, but Cumberland Avenue was a pretty solid college strip, even if its layout was predictable to the point of being formulaic. I was surprised, however, about how subdued the pregame environment was. It certainly doesn't help that the Vols are a bit down this year following last year's SEC East championship. In fact, the Tennessee fanbase almost seemed scared. I don't mean that in a mocking way because I've been there before and it's no fun. But the Vols fans seemed more tentative than I would have expected, perhaps because they expected (and ultimately got) a blowout. I was also surprised to learn that the schools undergraduate enrollment is just north of 20,000. Even with a hearty influx of Florida fans, there just didn't seem to be enough people out on Friday night to enter "holy shit this is crazy" territory. The tailgate scene on Saturday was expansive but scattered due to the urban layout of the area. Regretably, I did not catch a glimpse of the Vol Navy, but nearly all of the Tennessee fans I bumped into for more than a passing moment were genuinely nice. I'm sure that's different for Florida weekend when the Vols are rolling, but this time around, the level of douchebaggery was pleasantly low.
The stadium
From a natural-setting standpoint, Neyland is right near the top. Again, that's sort of an "eye of the beholder" statement, but I've been to many of the other purported beautiful stadiums, so I feel comfortable saying that. The actual inside of the stadium is stunning. It's cool-looking, huge and relatively comfortable, and the double-decks all the way around trapped in a lot of noise (you know, for the 20 minutes of real-time or so when the outcome was in question). Despite the size, however, the sightlines were good. Here's a view from our upper-deck seats:
Neyland, however, has three huge strikes against it. First, the stadium's setting means its down a river bluff and hemmed in by buildings, making the immediate tailgate scene miniscule. Second, for all the beauty around it, the stadium itself looks like an erector set from the outside. Last, and most importantly, the concourses (at least nearly every one I walked on) were unforgivably small. A stadium that seats 107,0000-plus should not have six-foot wide bottlenecks. But despite these drawbacks, I still came away impressed.
Final thoughts
I'll skip a game recap mainly becuase I'd prefer to address the actual football themes at another time. But I got the sense throughout the weekend that I wasn't seeing Knoxville, Neyland or the Vols fans in their full glory. While it certainly was a great time for all the Gators who made the trip, it was something else entirely for those wearing creamsicle Orange. You could feel the latent doubts and frustration on Friday night and Saturday morning, and all the negative energy came out in torrents of boos during the game. The maelstrom is growing around Fulmer, and it was perhaps never more evident than on Saturday. In the end, it would have been nice to see the full craziness of the place, but I had a great time nonetheless.
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