Troy State

Southerners blew them totally off the field in every conceivable way when the series briefly resumed 1995-2001, and the SOTS has been trending downward sharply since then.

Johnny's retirement was part of the problem, but they haven't been able to rebound.

I saw them last about 5-6 years ago, and they were embarrassingly bad... and that was at their Homecoming performance, with hundreds of SOTS alumni watching.

They're solidly behind Southerners, UNA, Bama, and Auburn when it comes to in-state bands now. They could be lower... I just haven't seen the rest.

Even then, their volume is nowhere near what it used to be.

I remember my first experience with the SOTS in 1986. They were LOUD AS BALLS. Even louder than Southerners. (Not as good. Just louder.)

Flash forward to 1996. I was coming out of the tunnel onto the field to watch the postgame battle of the bands. The SOTS were right next to me, maybe 10 yards away. Southerners were in the holy corner in the southeast part of the stadium, about 75 yards away.

Southerners were warming up by playing "Trash Can" ... just a simple chord progression that starts soft and gets loud. They were about 1/3 of the way through it. It's all I could hear. I turned to see the reaction of the troy state kids, and to my surprise, they weren't watching at all.

They were playing.

I couldn't hear a damn thing coming out of their horns, but they were playing. Brass players were turning purple. Drummers were obviously pounding on their drums. Dr. Long was conducting. But all I heard were long tones from a band 75 yards away.

And the amazing thing was, the Southerners hadn't even gotten to the LOUD part of "Trash Can" yet. Not even close.

It was freaking surreal. When I and the other alumni realized what was happening, we started cheering. I wish I had that moment caught on video. (That '96 Southerners band was young as heck, but they were crazy loud.)

Flash forward to 2014 and that homecoming game in the house of the enemy. (I was there with a church youth group.)

It had been a couple years since I'd seen Southerners, so I was looking forward to that rib crunching power from ANYONE, even if it had to be the SOTS. Once I realized they were performing for their alumni that day, I felt pretty good about it. They'll be at their best.

Halftime began and ...

Well, let's just say my ribs were unmoved. 

The kicker was when I saw MDB at a Bama game in 2016. Even in that massive stadium, in 100 bazillion degree heat, the MDB was louder than SOTS.

When I finally got to see Southerners again at the kickoff classic in 2017, I figured I'd established a good baseline for what kind of power to expect from a college band in a large stadium. It was the Southerners' first performance of the year, it was HOT, and I was sitting in the back row of the Cramton Bowl, far, far away from the field. It wouldn't be the same as listening to Southerners in Burgess-Snow in late October, but maybe I'd get some idea of their relative power compared to those other in-state bands.

They hit the first big note of their show and ...

Let's just say my ribs were moved... crushed... rattled... tumultuated... discombobulated...

Yeah. I needed that.