Vols Looking For Another Packed Neyland

Nov. 10, 2014

Lil Jon Visits The Vols

Starting game week was a little easier for the Vols on Sunday, and it had nothing to do with the week off. Musician Lil Jon, whose anthem "Turn Down for What" inspired the Vols' "Third Down for What," visited practice Sunday evening after holding a show in Knoxville Saturday night.

"It was pretty cool," senior linebacker A.J. Johnson said. "He came and spoke to us before we went out to practice. It was exciting to be able to meet him in person and stuff. He had that grill in his mouth shining, it was really shining like that in person. That was nice to see."

Jones said it was just another illustration of how special it is to play at Tennessee.

"It was great to have him at practice," Jones said. "I know our players enjoyed that. That's the power of Tennessee, he was in town and wanted to come over and be a part of practice and all of that. It was great to see."

The visit lifted the players, who have already felt the lift provided by his song and an inspirational video he recorded and sent prior to the Florida game.

"He said he'd show us some love in the flesh," Johnson said. "I know he did a video for us in the Neyland Stadium and he was in town, so he wanted to come by and holler at us and tell us to keep fighting pretty much, and get to a bowl game. That's one thing he said, we're close to making stuff happen so we might as well finish it off. He said our coach is a cool, cool cat. He liked Coach Jones a lot."

By Brian Rice
UTSports.com

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Butch Jones wants a packed house Saturday afternoon when the Kentucky Wildcats visit Knoxville.

Tennessee fans have responded so far, as just over 1,000 tickets remain for the game in 102,455-seat Neyland Stadium.

"We are going to need all of 102,455," Jones said in his weekly media briefing at Neyland Stadium. "I believe it will be our fourth sell-out, which is amazing. The fan base has been outstanding, the student body, and we are going to need it at 4 o'clock to make Neyland another great home field advantage for us."

Fans have poured into the gates at a pace this year not seen since the 2007 season, when UT hosted six crowds of over 102,000. Tennessee already has three sellouts, the most since that 2007 slate.

A sellout Saturday would be the first for Tennessee for an SEC opponent other than Alabama, Auburn, Florida or Georgia since 105,077 saw the Volunteers defeat Vanderbilt, 25-24 on Nov. 17, 2007 in Neyland Stadium's old configuration.

"It's been great looking up in the stadium and seeing every seat filled," linebacker Jalen Revves-Maybin said. "Coming down the Vol Walk and seeing 50,000 people, that's a great feeling to have knowing that nobody else in the country has that. It's amazing to have it here."

The key SEC matchup will pit two teams with the same goal - getting to a bowl game. Kentucky needs just one more win after a 5-1 start, Tennessee needs a win Saturday to get to five wins with two games left. The Wildcats have just one game remaining after facing UT.

Jones said the atmosphere will be appropriate for the magnitude of what is involved on Saturday.

"They understand what is a stake," Jones said of his team. "They look forward to playing at home. But you put yourself into position to play meaningful games in November. There is a lot this team is playing for. So I have liked our approach, but I have liked our approach all year."

Reeves-Maybin is ready for his team to show that it is up to the task.

"We have a mindset that we're not going to be denied," he said. "It's one of our program goals to win bowl games and we're going to get that this year."

University of Tennessee Athletics

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