Inside the Midnight Yell, a College Football Tradition Unlike Any Other

Eighteen hours before kickoff 40,000 people filled the stands at Kyle Field for a Texas A&M tradition, the Midnight Yell.  Last night I was one of a few hundred visiting fans who witnessed the tradition for the first time. A glorified pep rally, it's difficult to truly capture the scale of the Yell.  Kyle Field is a coliseum.  Like the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, it's impossible to capture the magnitude of the stadium and the fans in the stands with pictures. Fans began gathering around 11:30 local time to get the best seats in the house.  Once the clock struck midnight, an A&M Yell Leader began with a cheer, followed by a little corny trash-talk. "We'll show Kentucky what a football school looks like!"  Most of the mocking was directed toward the "basketball school," before the A&M basketball team was introduced to the crowd. When they weren't taking jabs at the basketball school, they were calling out Benny Snell.  "They're a one-trick pony.  He's good, but he's never played against a defense that slowed down Clemson and Alabama." It was odd to hear fans cheer about losses, but I can't blame them for enjoying the moral victories.  Of course, they also brought up the Bear.  "We beat Kentucky so bad on their own field, Bear Bryant had to leave UK for a REAL football school!" The "real" football school had some really bad jokes. "What's the difference between a UK diploma and toilet paper?  The diploma doesn't flush as well." Even though the mild-mannered taunts were pretty lame, the yells were impressive.  To see 40,000 people in sync is quite the sight to behold. https://twitter.com/RoushKSR/status/1048442218170781696 https://twitter.com/RoushKSR/status/1048438094213632000 A&M's chants were fine, but that wasn't the best chant.  Whenever the crowd quieted between cheers and exclamations from the Yell Leaders, a small group of UK fans near the top of the stadium screamed, "C-A-T-S, CATS, CATS, CATS!"  They were the Real MVPs of the Midnight Yell. [mobile_ad]