Sunday, September 03, 2006

The Crowd Was Electric

Commentary by John Pennington from Knox News From the GOVOLS extra

"*The crowd at Neyland Stadium was electric. And it clearly got to Cal's quarterbacks and their offensive teammates.

*I spoke to former Vol Mike Stowell after the game and I said to him, 'you know what game this reminded me of?' He immediately answered, 'Florida 1990.' Yep, that was it. Just as the Vols swamped the Gators 45-3 on that night, nothing went right for Cal on Saturday night. The UT D had an answer for every offensive weapon. They had a big play every time a first down was needed. This was 'one of those nights' for Cal and the Vols. If UT hadn't lifted Ainge and decided to take their foot off the gas, I believe the score could have reached 45-3 levels. Unbelievable season opening performance... and atmosphere."

(john pennington)..my comments below


And so it was. I attended the game in an 11 hour whirl wind round trip from Nashville with 2 of my brothers. The game gave us enough energy and enthusiasm to drive back. Hell we could have driven to the West Coast.

You've read the news. You know the Vols Won. But the crowd and the energy levels is something that is difficult for the sportswriters to write about. The atmosphere was totally unbelievable and completely positively berserk. No one expected this kind of victory. The 3rd quarter was simply mind numbingly ecstaticly incredbily fun. We were up 35-0. We were hugging our seatmates, we were high fiving strangers, we were jumping up and down, the feeling was so good. This was college football at it's finest moment. Pure unadulterated emotionally charged sensations for a team and a program that had almost been written off.
I will always remember this game for the raw emotions that came exploding from the fans in the stadium who were so totally happy.