Tennessee football: Is Checker Neyland returning?
The last time Tennessee football played a Checker Neyland game, it left a bitter taste in everybody’s mouth on Rocky Top. UT, in its last game in the Smokey Gray uniforms as well, lost at home 41-0 to the Georgia Bulldogs, and at 3-2, Butch Jones was effectively done.
Two months later, Phillip Fulmer took over as athletic director and hired Jeremy Pruitt as head coach. Both guys are much more old-school and didn’t believe in gimmicks to sell the Vols as a program, and it showed over the past three years.
However, Danny White clearly thinks differently, and there could be a sign that Tennessee football will bring back Checker Neyland this fall. That sign is on the baseball diamond and what is set to happen as Lindsey Nelson Stadium returns to full capacity this weekend.
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According to UTSports, the Vols’ home series with the top-ranked Arkansas Razorbacks will include a Checker LNS on Saturday. The concept is the same as Checker Neyland, which is to make the whole stadium look like an orange and white checkerboard.
White is working overtime to bring new life into all aspects of the athletic program, and the Vols’ willingness to embrace this for baseball has to mean they may be willing to embrace it for football again. That could be very exciting for some people.
There is one big difference, though. The history and success of the football program could create the delusion that you don’t need any gimmicks or any new flare to win on that front. Fulmer and Pruitt certainly felt that way and acted as such. Baseball, though, is a different story. It’s painfully obvious the Vols need gimmicks to generate buzz in baseball given their mediocre history.
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We don’t know which way White will go on that front, but he seems to be aware that Tennessee football needs to be ahead of the curve on everything possible. That could mean bringing back Checker Neyland, and based on what’s happening with baseball, there’s reason to believe it will indeed take place at some point in 2021.