'We Could Not Hear Each Other': Oklahoma Ready to Contend With Neyland Stadium Noise

Standing on the field at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tennessee, the outside world seems non-existent.

The stadium’s walls rise from the banks of the Tennessee River, seemingly to the clouds.

Only five stadiums in college football are bigger than Neyland Stadium, where No. 18 Oklahoma visits Saturday (6:30 p.m., ABC) to take on No. 14 Tennessee.

But perhaps none are as loud as Neyland.

Zack Sanchez remembers.

The former Sooners’ cornerback’s ears have finally stopped ringing, but the memory of the noise — and the Tennessee spin on Lil’ Jon’s “Turn Down for What” — remains.

“When the offense was on the field, I remember there were times we couldn’t even have defensive meetings because we could not hear each other,” Sanchez said of OU’s last trip to Tennessee.

Sanchez played a big part that night, pulling down the game-ending interception in double overtime to give the Sooners a wild, 31-24 win.

The Sooners have played at Temple and at South Carolina this season. They’ve also taken on Texas at the Cotton Bowl, a stadium that can feel like a road environment on the Longhorns’ end of the field.

The noise they’ll have to contend with in Knoxville will be different.

“In any game, communication is key,” OU offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle said. “But anytime you’re somewhere like Neyland Stadium, where it’s known across the country to be an unbelievable environment, with passionate fans, your communication has to have an urgency. “There’s different mechanisms you can use. I’m not going to totally get into all of that, but there’s different mechanisms that you can use to make sure the operation is clean and efficient as possible.”

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The Sooners figure to rely more on signalling than anything else Saturday.

“It takes discipline, from us, from our players, and it takes a heightened sense of urgency to make sure that you run the play clean and efficient and get it off,” Arbuckle said.

John Mateer has played in some loud environments before, but there’s little doubt that has stepped up this season after he transferred to OU from Washington State.

“Just keeping your poise, knowing that it’s still the game,” the Sooners’ quarterback said. “You’ve gotta play the game. You can’t get all caught up in how loud it is and momentum swings because of the crowd. It’s still football, first-and-10, 11-on-11. You’ve just got to go up to each lineman and really be clear and make sure everybody knows. It’s not NOT a challenge, but it’ll be fun.”

There was plenty of lead-up to the 2015 involving OU and the SEC.

Then-Sooners coach Bob Stoops made ways a couple of years before, calling the SEC’s supposed dominance at the time “propaganda that gets fed to you.”

Eric Striker, Sooners — Then-OU linebacker Eric Striker made waves before and after the Sooners' last trip to Tennessee. | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

Then leading up to the game, OU linebacker Eric Striker had some choice words about the league.

“I don’t know what people blow gas up their ass all the time,” Striker said.

Sanchez, Striker and the Sooners fell behind 17-0 by early in the second quarter in that game, then the legend of Baker Mayfield began to be unearthed.

The Texas Tech transfer led the comeback, hitting Sterling Shepard with a touchdown pass in the final minute to tie it, running for a score in the first overtime and then finding Shepard again for a touchdown in double overtime before Sanchez’s interception sealed it.

Now, of course, the Sooners are part of the SEC, and the hype around the game centers around two teams looking to keep alive their playoff hopes and the two head coaches who are plenty familiar with each other.

“That’s an incredible place that they’ve got up there, man,” Sanchez said. “All football aside, just being a fan of the game and things like the atmosphere was just incredible.”