Talking Points: Where Bruce Pearl Happens

I mean, I understand that WKU is more ‘northerly’ than UT, but why not bring in somebody who’s used to cold weather to sit and fry in that sauna?

I nominate Bowling Green…

…we almost got beat by UAB in ‘05. This does mean, however, that we’ll get to watch Georgia/Oklahoma State and Alabama/Virginia Tech that evening.

On when or what season you’re talking about really. I’m sure the Swamp has been very, very loud in recent years, but my ears rang for a solid week after Wilhoit hit that 50-yarder to beat you guys in Neyland in 2004 (I believe).

Not meant as a dig, just that Neyland has been a little on the quiet side recently.

Much of stadium noise is perception and much is apocryphal. About half a dozen stadiums claim to have been the loudest ever, for example. And each stadium has its own hot spots where the sound energy gets focused. (That’s probably the key behind Autzen, particularly with that insanely large sound reflector.)

I wish they’d put decibel meters on the hats of the head referees at all games for a year and get some good data on the field levels. I have a suspicion that the levels near the quarterback can be very different from the sideline levels (and the levels at various locations in the seats).

As for Neyland, if there’s any problem with volume, it’s the fans. There’s a reason we all were surprised when O was able to get a bunch of bluehairs jumping and yelling in that video that Joel posted recently – we haven’t seen them do that in years.

For my money, I’d bet that if UT was the one winning NCs and UF was the one struggling for 3rd in the East that the effect of crowd participation would reverse.

Neyland many times and the Swamp in 2007. Both are loud, and saying for sure which one is louder is a guess until they do something like sound level deals on the field, as was suggested…

I’ll put it this way: I sat 3 rows from the top of the Swamp and it was comparable in sound to being in the UT student section, so I can imagine how loud it gets on the field.

Another theory of sorts is that I would assume that the average age of Gator fans is slightly younger than UT and younger fans are more prone to make more noise. To add to that, UF has a larger student population and it takes up nearly half the place, whereas at UT they stick some of us in the corner and the rest in the upper deck. Just some thoughts…

… as a counter-point (mainly to Holly,) is navy blue really “drastic changes in the basic color scheme”? The Tarheels have had navy in their uniforms (granted, as an accent color,) for as long as I can remember.

As for Oregon, I tend to doubt that a lot of athletic departments look toward them as role models. I think most people see Oregon’s ever-changing uniforms as somewhat of a joke. And they have a pretty unique relationship with Nike because of Phil Knight, so I doubt we need to worry about other schools following suit too much. I know that a lot of schools have allowed Nike to bastardize their unis already (UF and Virginia Tech are the first that come to mind for me,) but I see Oregon as an extreme of the present, not a sign of the future.