39,000 + come out and watch the Volunteers for their first open practice

What started out as Peyton Manning'sidea, was a smashing success on Saturday night as 39,000 fans came out to the Vols open practice at Neyland Stadium.

Butch Jones led the Vols through its normal practice including scrimmage situations, one-on-one drills and even the three-man weave."First of all, thank you for coming out," said Jones. "I think I would be remiss if I didn't start by first thanking the best fan base in the country. That was evident today. You have a practice, and the way the crowd comes out was a gameday-like atmosphere."Jones was quick to give credit to where the idea was originated.

"Peyton Manning suggested this open practice," said Jones. "We spoke about it, and talked about some situations we would do and then we planned everything out as a staff of what this football team needed."We needed to play football, we needed a one-minute drill, we needed a last second clock situations, we needed to get some of our younger kids some reps. Also, I wanted to have some practice. There's nothing like having your name called out on the loudspeaker and having to perform 1-on-1 against the other guy. Again, I thought it was extremely productive."