KNOXVILLE – For a few minutes Saturday afternoon, the scene inside Neyland Stadium recalled the good ol’ days of Tennessee football. The really, really old good ol’ days.
There stood the vast majority of the University of Tennessee football team, serenaded by UT’s marvelous Pride of the Southland marching band. Beyond that, the mood of almost every one of the 85,462 sitting in the facility not clad in Mississippi State maroon was at least momentarily lifted by the Volunteers winning their first Football Bowl Subdivision game of the season in their fifth try by beating the Bulldogs 20-10.
Throw in that earlier victory over Football Championship Subdivision member University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, and UT is now 2-4 for the season heading into next weekend’s visit to No. 1 Alabama.
But that’s not what was most memorable about this. Instead, it was the Big Orange football team standing before the band, gently swaying to and fro, along with the cheerleaders, all of them soaking in the perfect playing of “The Tennessee Waltz,” even if this win was anything but a waltz.
“We just keep putting younger guys out there, and we have a young football team and they have so much to learn,” said second-year UT head coach Jeremy Pruitt. “(But) it’s a great win for our program. It’s great for these guys who are working their tails off to have some fun with it.”