Tennessee Football: Changes to Shields-Watkins Field

Shields-Watkins Field has gotten some updates ahead of the 2020 season as Tennessee Football brings some nostalgia while moving forward.

Tennessee football is getting ready to open Neyland Stadium this Saturday when Missouri comes to town for Tennessee’s home opener. There will be a limited capacity crowd inside the stadium for the 11 am CT kickoff, and they might notice a couple of changes on the field level.

The Tennessee Athletics Twitter account tweeted out a sneak peek into the game this week, and with that, we got to see a sneak peek of some changes to Shields-Watkins Field.

One of the renovations laid out in Neyland Stadium’s renovation plans is to move the brick walls behind the endzone back and to replace the brick with some padding. It looks like that has been completed in the video.

Tennessee has also used the padding to make a little extra money this season to help cover the money that will be lost from ticket sales. When you tune in to the game on Saturday, you’ll see ads across the padding behind the endzone.

The second thing noticed in the video is there will be an update to the field goal posts. The field goal post stanchions will no longer be white. Tennessee is bringing back the orange, which was last seen in 2002.

If I had to guess, Jeremy Pruitt focuses on the details. If you can get the little things right, then there’s a really good chance that you’ll be successful.

Getting the little things right when it comes to renovating Shields-Watkins Field, it won’t necessarily result in being successful like players getting the little things right on the field would result in success. But seeing the orange back on the goalposts does get me a little more pumped for the home opener. For the ads on the padding, not so much.