Tennessee Vols fans should take comments from Alabama WRs coach as a challenge

Tennessee Vols fans were incredibly loud during UT's win against the Florida Gators this past weekend, even causing a delay of game penalty at one point in the second half.

You can see ESPN's camera shaking in the above video during the crowd shot when spooky Rocky Top was playing. It was one of the louder environments that you'll hear in college football.

Alabama wide receivers coach JaMarcus Shephard, however, said this week that Tennessee's crowd noise shouldn't have any effect on Alabama's offense.

"The crowd noise, to me, is the same thing as if it was raining or thunderstorming out there," said Shephard . "It should have no effect on you. The defense has to adjust to the crowd noise just like we have to adjust to the crowd noise. We gotta do our job the way that we're supposed to do it regardless of the environment. The environment should not affect us as an offense. And if it does, then we're not clearly focused on doing our job."

I don't think Shephard was throwing shade at the environment at Neyland Stadium. In fact, I think he's sending the right message to his team -- if you're going to win a big road game, you have to execute your job at a high level regardless of crowd noise or any other factors that are out of your control.

But at the same time, Vols fans should see Shepard's comments and be like "alright, wanna bet". Tennessee fans should take those comments as a challenge to be as loud as they've ever been in an effort to disrupt Alabama's offense.

And based on what we've seen from fans at Neyland Stadium over the last couple of years, I have no doubt that the oranged-out Tennessee crowd will deliver.

Shephard, by the way, has coached in Neyland Stadium before. In 2013, Shephard was an offensive quality control coach at Western Kentucky when the Hilltoppers visited Neyland Stadium early in the year.

The atmosphere for that game, which was a noon kick-off in Butch Jones' first season as the head coach at UT, wasn't anywhere close to what Shephard and the Crimson Tide will experience this upcoming Saturday in Knoxville.

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