University of Tennessee football players sing “Rocky Top” with the band after the Orange and White game Saturday at Neyland Stadium.KNOXVILLE – They came from every corner of the state, from Bristol to the Bluff City of Memphis. Flags with the trademark power “T” flying from their cars, wearing orange and white caps and T-shirts, the second-largest group of fans to watch a University of Tennessee spring football game poured onto the campus Saturday.
Renewed hope, as bright as the blue sky under which the game was played, brought more than 61,000 people to Neyland Stadium for the annual Orange and White game. Many came as much for a glimpse of energetic new Volunteers head coach Butch Jones in action as for the game itself.
“To me, he’s brought more excitement into the program than any other coach we’ve had,” said Soddy-Daisy resident Thomas Wood, who loaded the family’s Toyota Tundra at 6:30 Saturday morning and drove his eight-months-pregnant wife, Katie, and their 3-year-old son, Murphy, to the game.
Wood, who has been attending UT spring games for 20 years, fondly remembers coming with his father, soaking in the atmosphere of fall Saturdays that included the Vol Walk and watching the band play “Rocky Top” as it marched toward the stadium before games. And now, like so many others in the state who pass along their devotion to the Vols like a family heirloom, Wood brings his family to UT home games every weekend.
He even persuaded his wife to switch her allegiance from Vanderbilt to Tennessee.