Lane Kiffin and the Chimera are pumping new life into the Tennessee football program in a variety of ways. Whether it's an innovative model for a superstar coaching staff, trash-talking to well-established opponents with better track records of success, or throwing every position but one open for competition to all-comers, they're infusing energy into a program that had become stagnant.
Kiffin unveiled the latest trick yesterday when he suddenly blasted hip hop music through the loudspeakers just before the last goal line drill at yesterday's practice. This is probably not all that inventive for a lot of programs out there, but for stodgy old Tennessee, it's doing cartwheels on the moon, and according to Chris Walker, the intensity level immediately jumped 10 notches. An offense that had been beaten 6-2 on the day once again refused to end practice and won the next three snaps.
The enthusiasm of the coaching staff is infectious, affecting even sedate bloggers:
We still don't know if these guys can coach or win games, but it is becoming increasingly clear that they will continue to be interesting. I mean, can you imagine [the CRUNK incident] happening on the sideline during a Florida game at Neyland Stadium? The crowd might actually become electric again. Those cheering on and adding to the bootstrapped enthusiasm might actually drown out the tsk-tsking of the sundress and down in front crowd. The players might actually dance and skip and sprint onto the field in anticipation of something fantastic happening.
. . . .
Can you imagine six Bruce Pearl clones -- it's not just Orgeron, apparently -- standing on tables all over campus pumping life back into Tennessee football? I can, and it's making me want to rip off my Van Heusen Wrinkle Free RIGHT NOW!
We were quickly, and rightly, brought back down to earth after that post, though, with this comment from jimvols:
It's hard to get crunk when the only music we ever hear at Neyland Stadium is Toby Keith, some clone of him or some awful new age "hard rock". Although I do remember at one point in the beginning of the Alabama game last year they did play "Put On" and players started dancing and the student section went wild. That was fun. Anyway they seriously ought to talk to the guy who picks the stadium music, at least show him some youtube videos of Virginia Tech playing Enter Sandman…that whole place starts jumping up and down. Seriously most of the videos and music they play during football games put me to sleep . . . .
That sparked an entire conversation about the choice of music and video at Neyland during games, which I want to revive due to Kiffin's energy-inducing song selection at yesterday's practice.
So here's my question to you:
With the new era of Tennessee football commencing this fall, what new songs should The Pride of the Southland Marching Band add to its repertoire? What should it get rid of once and for all? What would you like to see on the JumboTron, and what do you never want to see on the JumboTron again?
A few ideas to get you started. First, I would absolutely love to hear the PotSMB play Tradition. We used the song first to recap the 4OT game against Kentucky in 2007 and again as a video tribute to Fulmer (shown below), but it would work in just about any Tennessee football context. Ignore the video if you'd like, but imagine the possibilities of the quicker portions of the song being played during timeouts at Neyland:
What else? Frankly, I don't know.Consider this your opportunity to brainstorm.
Detroit Rock City? Apart from the makeup and costumes, this is actually a very good song. ("Get up! Everybody's gonna move their feet. Get down! Everybody's gonna leave their seat.") Back in my rock band days, this was consistently one of the most well-received songs of the night, mostly due to the instrumental portions.
Or . . . a re-working of this, at least the chorus, maybe, may be a natural choice in light of the crunky UT/Wild Boys routine:
So . . . what do y'all got?