KNOXVILLE - There has been much talk lately in the wake of Coach Bruce Pearl’s great success with the rejuvenated University of Tennessee men’s basketball program and the seventh national championship for Coach Pat Head Summitt’s Lady Vols about how basketball has supplanted football as “the” sport on campus. Admittedly, I have gotten caught up in that talk, too, as I’m very passionate about UT basketball, but I remember that Coach Ray Mears, the greatest Vol basketball coach ever, always had a twinkle in his eye about Tennessee football as well, and he knew what it meant on The Hill. So when you make the trek to Neyland Stadium Saturday for college football’s greatest gameday, remember these things…

Tennessee football is the 30-year-old couple coming back to campus for the season’s opening game for the first time since they graduated together from UT, with both their little ones in tow. One of the kids wears her orange and white cheerleader outfit; the other wears his #16 jersey, even though he's too young to understand why.

Tennessee football is the 50-year-old man like me who hopes no one sees tears in his eyes when the “T” is formed by the Pride of the Southland Band. He is too choked up even to sing "Rocky Top." For a moment, he feels foolish, and then he doesn't care, and the tears flow freely down his cheeks, as he realizes how much he loves this place called the Tennessee campus and how special it really and truly is.

Tennessee football is the 60-year-old woman meeting her freshman granddaughter on campus, who now represents the third generation of UT students in the family. Despite her age, she'd strap it on Saturday and hit someone if it weren't for her gender and her blasted arthritis.

Tennessee football fans have always believed they are different, and they are. You can see it when you look up into the 100,000+ seats in the newly-refurbished historic stadium. Our Big Orange is not the same as Florida's or Auburn's. But the differences go much deeper than our colors.

Read the Tennessee football creed. What other school has one? We genuinely believe in those things. To be a real Tennessee man or woman speaks of character, not of geography. All are welcome to walk though our gates, not just the wealthy or the elite.

Georgia and Alabama may have their nations, but we have always been family. Make no mistake, we loathe losing, but even in defeat, we would rather be a Tennessee Volunteer than anyone or anything else.

Tennesseans are family, the sons of Majors and Neyland. We come from a long line of brothers whose names include White, Gault, Wilson, Manning, Shuler, Nash, and Mahelona. It is a great heritage.

So this Saturday, when the warm-ups are over, when the prayers and amen are spoken, something you rarely hear in stadiums anywhere else but always hear at UT, when you hear the thunder growing in the stands above you, when you stand in the tunnel and the smoke begins to form….listen for the Voice of Tennessee football when the gladiators, our players, run onto Shields-Watkins Field. Behind the frenzy of the shakers and deafening roar, Tennessee football’s Voice will tell you something in a whisper that you may miss. It will be telling us that we are its sons and daughters,  and that it is proud of us for the way we wear the Big Orange and White to the stadium and to work and to church and everywhere we go. It will be telling us that we are the beloved sons and daughters of Tennessee football and that we are loved for that.

Tennessee football is so much more than a state or a school or a team or a degree. It’s something that, once you have experienced it, will live inside of you forever and become a part of what makes up who you are.

It’s driving into town on gameday. You may have come from hundreds of miles away, but as you get closer and closer to the Knoxville city limits, you feel it rising inside of you, the emotion of it all. You will see other vehicles on the highway proudly displaying their Big Orange and White flags or magnets or car tags, and you honk and wave at them, because, for that one day, and indeed every day, you are all on the same team.

It’s the smell in the air and the ritualistic act of tailgating...catching up with old friends, making new ones, and the invitations from perfect strangers to try their ribs or watch their satellite TV showing all of the day's important match-ups...of course, all being secondary to the one that will occur in the great cathedral of Neyland Stadium later that day.

It’s the Vol Walk...where you might just see men weighing upwards of 300 pounds overcome with emotion and weeping with pride, because their fans have come there to cheer them on. As they walk by, you might exchange a glance with one or two of them, and you can see it in their eyes...it’s going to be their day.

It’s the students...dressed in their best, because going to a Tennessee game is like going to church for Tennessee people....you show the same respect you would as if you were in God's house. Those students remind us of the days when we were walking in their shoes and the Tennessee campus was our home...but then we realize that, in many ways, it’s still is, and always will be, HOME to us.

It’s that lump that rises in your throat when the band plays Rocky Top as the "T" is formed. That’s after the lump that you’ve already felt when the band marched through the entire campus and culminated that march with its traditional “Salute to The Hill,” before entering the stadium.

It’s walking around on "foreign" and sometimes hostile campuses on the road. We are easily identified, as Tennessee people always are, and the enemy jeers and shouts things at us to mask their feelings of intimidation. But just then we happen upon friends we’ve never met before. We know they’re our friends by the colors they wear or the shakers in their hands. We exchange a "Go Vols!" and a confident grin, because he or she knows what we know.

It’s when our hearts leap with every touchdown, field goal, sack, or interception...because those are our boys. And win or lose, they will always have our undying support. After all, it’s those boys that we’re really there for, not for a coach or a logo or a trustee or a president.

It’s the complete and utter exhilaration of walking away victorious over a worthy opponent...that feeling of pride and accomplishment as if it were our own feet that had crossed the goal line scoring the last points ourselves...that feeling of wanting to scream "Go Big Orange!" at the top of our lungs and hug complete strangers...and then that ultimate high of defeating our most hated foes from across the state or a neighboring state.

No words can truly describe what this feels like. The only ones that know the feeling are those that have really have experienced it themselves.

It’s the sheer agony of defeat as the last minutes tick off of the clock and we realize that all hope of a victory is gone. We feel like crying and maybe we do...then we hear the faint sounds of a cheer that grows louder and louder...."It’s Great To Be A Tennessee Vol!"

It’s knowing that year after year, no matter how things change in our hectic lives, we can always come back to the Tennessee River...the place where we all came from...our home. It will probably look a little different and there will be new names on the backs of the jerseys, but deep down, no matter what, it’s still the same. We still love it as much as we always have, because Tennessee’s as much a part of us as our arms and our legs and the Big Orange blood that runs through our veins.

And, finally, it’s the feeling we each have right now as we read these lines....the anticipation inside of us, because we know it’s almost time...It’s almost THAT time…It’s about to start all over again...but then it really never goes away, does it?

IT’S ALMOST FOOTBALL TIME IN TENNESSEE! GO BIG ORANGE!