Tennessee is known for having one of the best home crowds in the country, and the Big Orange faithful definitely helped the Vols knock off Alabama last weekend.
However, one Alabama person thought the Tennessee fans had some artificial assistance. At one point during the Vols’ 24-17 win, their second in three years over the Crimson Tide, an Alabama offensive lineman committed a false start to put his team into a 2nd-and-long situation. Following the penalty, Crimson Tide Sports Network radio announcer Chris Stewart accused UT of pumping in fake crowd noise to make Neyland Stadium louder.
“Second-and-16 is not what you’re looking for, especially with the noise level being what it is here,” Stewart said. “You’ve got 100,000-plus and they also pipe in crowd noise as well.”
Stewart’s not alone with this accusation either. Former Alabama quarterback A.J. McCarron claimed in a social media post that Tennessee “100%” utilizes artificial noise during games.
Not surprisingly, Stewart and McCarron’s allegations made their way back to Tennessee athletic director Danny White, who vehemently denied them on X/Twitter.
“No, we don’t! Just 100K+ beautiful, booming, Big Orange voices! #GBO,” White tweeted.
Pumping in crowd noise would be a violation of NCAA policy, but it’s possible Stewart and McCarron just have sour grapes.
After all, the crowd at Neyland did not affect Alabama in the seven games it won in Knoxville during the program’s 15-year winning streak over Tennessee from 2007-21.
With the win, Tennessee moved to 6-1 on the season and jumped up to No. 7 in the AP poll, while Alabama fell to 5-2 and down to 15th.
Related: SEC Punishes Tennessee After Field Storming Following Alabama Upset