With the Tennessee football season less than a month away, squad members hauled their heavy equipment through the sticky summer air to the practice field. For hours, they ran drills to sharpen their timing, fine-tune their formations and perfect their routes.
We're talking about the Pride of the Southland Marching Band, of course, whose music provides the soundtrack to Tennessee football Saturdays and whose traditions are woven into the fabric of Neyland Stadium.
Ahead of the first football game Sept. 5, the Pride of the Southland has spent nearly two weeks at camp rehearsing songs and preparing for another busy year. That includes plenty of repetitions of fan favorite "Rocky Top," which the band performed nearly once per day on average in 2025 during its many appearances representing the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.
The most recent band stats show 75% of its 415 members are non-music majors and hail from 27 states, though they give their all to Tennessee every football Saturday and every time their called to play in Vols country and beyond.
Michael Stewart is the director for the band, which is conducted by student drum major Sydney Flenniken.
"You see so much growth with the university, and the band is no different," Stewart previously told Knox News.
It's not just the marching band that stays busy. The basketball bands were on hand for men's games, Lady Vols games and tournament games in 2025, traveling 1,772 miles to provide a soundtrack across 44 appearances.
Knox News higher education reporter Keenan Thomas contributed to this report.
Ryan Wilusz is the business growth and development editor for Knox News. Email: ryan.wilusz@knoxnews.com; Cell: 865-317-5138; Instagram: @knoxscruff.
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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: How Pride of the Southland preps the soundtrack for Neyland Saturdays