Taking out opposing players for the Vols now?
Morgan Wallen recently headlined two nights at Neyland Stadium, home of the Tennessee Volunteers. During the weekend, he set a record for the biggest crowd over a weekend of concerts at the stadium with 156,161 packing into the stadium over the two nights.
@wivk1077 It’s an ALL VOL walkout for night two of Morgan Wallen in Neyland Stadium!!!! Bru, Nico, Peyton Manning, and Josh Heupel. #vols #volfootball #morganwallen #tennessee ♬ original sound – WIVK FM 107.7
But of course another consequence of that is the toll that the shows took on the turf at Neyland.
We’ve seen it time and time again where a concert in a stadium ends up damaging the playing surface of the field. But in this case, Tennessee seemed to be ready for any damage, and after the concert the university actually replaced the turf at Neyland Stadium.
According to WVLT, the university began working on the new playing surface immediately after the Sunday, September 22 show. Luckily, with the Vols having a bye week on September 28 and playing on the road at Arkansas on October 5, that gave crews plenty of time to get the new turf installed before the team returned home for their matchup against the Florida Gators this past weekend.
And despite the rain from Hurricane Helene, it seems like they were pretty optimistic that they had the field in good shape, with associate athletic director Jason Baum saying there were no concerns:
“No concerns at all. Dr. John Sorochan on campus with UT Agriculture School, is one of the leading turf management consultants in the country, the field has been tested twice it’s a plus, ready to go in game shape, so it should be a fast track tomorrow night for the Gators and Vols.”
Well, turns out there might have been some concerns. Two players went down with season-ending injuries during the game on Saturday, including Tennessee linebacker Keenan Pili and Gators quarterback Graham Mertz.
Mertz left the game in the 3rd quarter after going down with a non-contact knee injury after throwing a TD pass.
Florida QB Graham Mertz throws the TD pass, but grabs his leg in pain after play, was visibly upset hobbling to sideline
That’s not good pic.twitter.com/nRMfAHIhGd
— Trey Wallace (@TreyWallace_) October 13, 2024
And last night, he announced to Gator fans that his season – and college career – is over after suffering a torn ACL:
Thank you, Gator Nation 🐊 pic.twitter.com/8pKEbwaos6
— Graham Mertz (@GrahamMertz5) October 14, 2024
Well, now fans are blaming Morgan Wallen – or more specifically, his concerts, for the injury and loss of their QB:
Neyland Stadium’s turf claims another victim. https://t.co/kxCEeoa6Wq
— Ryan (@DawgtrappedinFL) October 15, 2024
how do we sue Morgan Wallen for Graham Mertz’s injury https://t.co/UDRQsmlRWa
— Lucas Dolengowski (@LDolengowski) October 13, 2024
https://twitter.com/Davey_Hudson/status/1845863367287730303
https://twitter.com/delatorre/status/1845278963981033871
Brand new sod is the issue . Replaced recently after two Morgan Wallen concerts
— Jerry 🐊 🐬 (@UFGatorJer) October 13, 2024
Of course with the new turf you wouldn’t think that would be the problem, but it’s hard to deny when you have two non-contact ACL injuries in the same game.
Sounds like it’s more on the folks responsible for the turf than Morgan Wallen though…
