National college football analyst looks foolish while completely disrespecting Neyland Stadium and Vols fans
Fox Sports' Joel Klatt completely disrespected Neyland Stadium and the Tennessee Vols fan base this week. And he looks like quite the fool as a result. On his show earlier this week, Klatt named the top five hardest places to play in college football. And his list was a bit suspect. A couple of the […]
Fox Sports' Joel Klatt completely disrespected Neyland Stadium and the Tennessee Vols fan base this week.
And he looks like quite the fool as a result.
On his show earlier this week, Klatt named the top five hardest places to play in college football. And his list was a bit suspect.
A couple of the programs in his top five make perfect sense — LSU, Penn State, and Alabama (when fans aren't leaving games early), for example.
(Note: Former Vols quarterback Joe Milton, who started his career at Michigan, once said that Penn State was the toughest road environment he's experienced.)
The other two teams in his top five are Oregon and Clemson, which are certainly challenging road venues. But I'm not sure either comes anywhere close to being as tough of a venue as Neyland Stadium.
I know these types of rankings are subjective. But come on, Joel — there's a laundry list of ex-college football players who have listed Neyland Stadium as the loudest venue they've played in.
Notre Dame's Brady Quinn and Oklahoma's Baker Mayfield are among the non-SEC quarterbacks who pointed out Neyland as one of the loudest places they've ever played.
Here's a quick sample of some of the comments that have been made about Neyland Stadium by former players/coaches.
"I swear to God the ball was moving, it was so loud. It felt like I had speakers right behind my left and right ears blaring. If I go hard of hearing, I might be suing the University of Tennessee." — Former Notre Dame QB Brady Quinn
"Last year when we went to play Tennessee in Neyland Stadium, that was probably the best game experience I've had and probably will ever have. That's a different type of loud. I can't even describe it. It was unbelievable." — Former Oklahoma QB Baker Mayfield
"Jeff Klein, God rest his soul, I love you Jeff, rest easy my friend, turns and throws an uncovered check, first play of the game. Deon Grant intercepts it, takes it back and that right there, folks, that moment is the loudest I have ever heard any stadium in my entire life. And I remember Ben Leard was standing next to me — because we were both hurt for that game — I turned and I was like 'man that's loud'….I kept yelling at him as loud as I can. He couldn't hear me, like just nothing. That is a volume that's intimidating. Because it gets to the point where it cuts off your communication. It legitimately does." — Former Auburn offensive lineman Cole Cubelic
"As a coach, I've been a part of teams that traveled to LSU, Florida State, and Texas and almost every other place in the country that could be considered one of the toughest places to play as a visiting team……But when I was at Notre Dame, we went down to Knoxville for a night game in 1999 and the Tennessee crowd that night was the most impressive that I ever faced. Neyland Stadium was just electric. Not only was there a fever pitch, but the crowd was educated. They knew that they were a factor, particularly when you were on offense and trying to change a play at the line of scrimmage. The Tennessee crowd can flat take you out of the game."– Former Notre Dame head coach Bob Davie
Klatt either has something against Tennessee or he's terribly misinformed. Either way, not naming Neyland Stadium as one of the top five hardest places to play in college football is easily one of the most doltish takes you'll see all offseason.
