Kentucky player claims Tennessee football had fake crowd noise at Neyland Stadium

Kentucky tight end Mikkel Skinner thinks Tennessee football pumped in extra crowd noise to Neyland Stadium when the Wildcats lost to the Vols on Nov. 7.

Skinner didn't believe Vols fans are capable of being that loud for that long. He claims stadium speakers played music and fake noise when Kentucky faced third downs on offense.

Pumping fake crowd noise is pretty wild. pic.twitter.com/OevTgUbFxx

— Steins Studs (@SteinsStuds) November 9, 2026

"I ain't going to lie, it was loud. But I started peeping what Tennessee was doing. The fans, when Tennessee scored on offense, that (expletive) was not nearly as loud. But when we were on third down, it was loud because the speakers was pumping fake crowd noise," Skinner said in a video on Instagram.

"So I'm like 'Okay, I see what's going on.' It's not real. ... If that was real, then I would respect it. ... But it was just loud for hella long. Fans cannot keep it loud for that long. ... It was just the speakers pumping fake crowd noise and music at the same time. It's smart though."

Kentucky, the least penalized team in the conference going into the game, was called for seven penalties, all on offense, in their 34-6 loss to the Vols. Just two were procedural − an illegal formation before a punt and a false start on a 3rd and two at the start of the third quarter.

Tennessee fans set the Neyland Stadium record for for the loudest scientifically verified crowd peak ever at a college football game by reaching 130.3 decibels in the third quarter of Tennessee's 26-10 win over Alabama on Oct. 17, according to UT Health Sciences Department of Audiology and Speech Pathology.

This isn't the first time Tennessee's been accused of pumping in fake crowd noise. Alabama radio play-by-play broadcaster Chris Stewart said the Vols were manufacturing noise during the Crimson Tide's 24-17 loss at Neyland Stadium on Oct. 19, 2024. Alabama committed 15 penalties, including three false starts, in the defeat.

A Tennessee spokesperson refuted the comment made by Stewart and athletics director Danny White also dismissed the declaration, writing on social media that the noise is "just 100K+ beautiful, booming, Big Orange voices!"

"I have been places where they do pump in the crowd noise," tight ends coach Alec Abeln said at the time. "It is 100% legit in that building.”

Knox News conducted its own investigation into whether there was fake crowd noise being pumped into Neyland Stadium later in the 2024 season and didn't find anything to support the claims.

Stephen Thompson covers Tennessee Volunteers men's basketball. Email him at stephen.thompson@knoxnews.com and follow him on X @stephenethom.

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Kentucky player claims Tennessee football had fake crowd noise at Neyland Stadium