One of the many reasons that I love to go to buckeyes games is the electricity of our crowd and how loud/fun the fans are. The games that I chose to get tickets for this season are Cal and scUM. I know there has only been three games and they were not huge games, but what has been up with the crowd enthusiasm? I was at the Cal game this weekend and noticed that we were not loud and most of the time the crowd was sitting. I guess I really noticed the change because I have watched the last couple of seasons from the student section and have only sat in other sections during more anticipated games like Michigan/USC/Texas. I was lucky enough to sit in the club seating on the home side for the Miami/OSU game in Columbus, and I was really disappointed because everyone was sitting, acting reserved and only cheered if there was a big play.
UCF head coach George O'Leary was quoted saying "I tell you what, it's like Michigan. It’s not a loud stadium. I mean, they sit on their hands in that stadium. I've been there before, and you take Wisconsin, you take Iowa, you take UCF... it's much louder than that stadium. It really is as far as the noise is concerned, because it is so far away from the field. But a lot of stadiums are a lot louder than that place."
Watching during the UCF game Joey Galloway was commentating and said that the shoe was quiet, but he also said that he could hear Braxton's hand claps, which makes sense due to the fact that it was an offensive play.
There have also been comments from Urban saying that he wants the crowd to be louder. The Department of Athletics also tried to do a scarlet and gray thing, where you would wear either scarlet or gray based on your seat assignment during the UCF game, but unsure if this was a direct attempt to try to amp up the stadium.
I also heard that Cal said the shoe was quiet and wouldn't be an issue in conversation with someone, but not sure about the source.
I just hope this doesn't become something that happens regularly. I know a crowd cannot possibly cheer for the entire time of a game, and that is not what I expect. But I have heard Ohio Stadium at its best and it is amazing.
We had a thread about this when O'Leary first opened his mouth. The general concensus was that the fans get pumped for certain games, like scUM or Wisky; Cal certainly was not one of those games.
"Attack the Strong, Trample the Weak, Hurdle the Dead!"
-Former OSU S&C Coach Lichter
I absolutely second everything you said in there. I actually was a little frustrated with the lack of crowd noise in the second half. I know it was a noon kickoff, but by the 4th quarter that game was incredibly close and lose-able.
In fact, the only time the crowd really woke up was when our offense had it at the 1 yard line and Devin Smith inexplicably started pumping up the crowd and, of course we got a false start.
Even the students outside of Block O need to be louder at times. Heck, the ones I was sitting by left at halftime.
The only reason its frustrating for me is, like you said, I have heard the Shoe at its loudest and its amazing. I just wish we could get it up to 75% of that for the not as big games.
Yep 75% would be great I felt like if I had to put a number on it the game on Saturday was only at 25% lol.
"Without winners, there wouldn't even be civilization."
I'm sure this will make someone mad but it is true. Some of fans are "fair weather" fans. When things are going great, they are loud and cheer and act all crazy. But when we aren't have such a great year, which lets face it this is a rebuilding year, they aren't as enthusiastic. However, we do have the best fans in the country so fan appreciation still exceeds what other schools have.
Said it before a few times... if you talk to college football fans (non Buckeye fans) who travel around to different stadiums, the majority of them will preach about SEC stadiums and atmosphere over Ohio Stadium... I think the Noon kickoff complaint is just an excuse. When I was at Ohio State, had a few friends travel up and come to some games with me, the only time I got a 'WOW' response was the 2009 Iowa game. I was at the 2009 USC game and it was spectacular, but I dont care who we play, stand up and cheer or you might as well go home and watch it on TV.
I wouldn't go as far to say that our fans are fair weather but if its not a good game we just won't be loud. Between last year and this year I heard there was a huge change in student seating. Via another student, the students are no longer peppered throughout the stadium and are grouped together which could explain why it's not as loud. Having students in pockets of sections stading the entire game, makes the general public stand during the entire game and get into it more. I'm not sure how true this is but if so the athletic office needs to go back to the old way of doing things.
Ohio State's band SLAUGHTERED Michigan's band. If this were a football game, it would have been Florida State vs. Savannah State. - SB Nation following OSU vs. UM 2012
Anyone who thinks that the game on Saturday did not get loud "A Lot" either has a hearing problem, has only been to big games, or has never been out of the student section before. Nothing compares to the student section, not by a long shot.
I don't mind some fans who want to sit and watch. That's their choice. As for me, everyone I take with me tells me that I am the loudest person in my section and I have never been told to sit down or be quiet and I have been to every home game in 4 years. I have noticed that some people wait for me or someone else to get loud before they jump in. Followers I guess.
There are a few things that bother me:
1. Fans who want to vent their frustration with the team by complaining that the home fans are not loud enough.
2. The jackass who regularly sits in front of me and tries to coach from the stands. Everything out of his mouth is negative and you would think he hated the Buckeyes. I have stopped myself several times from heckling his nonsense. Does he scream when the opponent is on 3rd down? No. Does he yell at Brax for not making the correct read? Every time. F8ckst!ck
Kevin
OH!!!!!
Proud parent of a Senior at The Ohio State University
The scarlet and grey thing was just a bad idea. Considering the massive amounts of second hand ticket sales I don't think people were going to be making their decisions on ticket purchases based on the color of shirt they were going to be wearing that day. Yeah, it could be louder and more "electric" in the 'Shoe though.
As far as the "fair weather" thing. I find it's the opposite of the crowd only getting loud when things are going good. The crowd only starts getting loud when they start to sense the outcome of the game is in danger. When we were up 20-7 on Cal it was dead and quiet...when it was tied at 28 (they had just scored a long TD run and we gave it right back to them again) and Cal had the ball the place was most definitely at its loudest point of the day. I think people want to cheer and be loud when they think they'll make an impact when it's a close and exciting game. When we're up comfortably I think that's when fans just try to sit back and relax.
@KLFECK
Not trying to vent my frustrations on the team by this post, just something I noticed. I guess I have been spoiled with big games and being able to have student tickets. I have sat outside of the student section for some non-conference games, but maybe never put much thought into it because the games were usually over within the first quarter due to the overpowering buckeyes. Thought maybe it was something more than that when people who went to the game with me were saying the same thing and other reports that said we weren't loud.
"Without winners, there wouldn't even be civilization."
I'm with Bolt and Kfleck here. Saturday was my first game as an alum, and I scored some pretty good seats in 17A. Unlike the student sections, people didn't stand all game--but that shouldn't imply that the crowd was ambivalent. Like it or not, not everyone in the stadium wants to stand all game. It doesn't make them any less of fans, and they want to tear their hair out every time Jordan Hall runs into the teeth of a 6 man rush just as much as any student does. But, during the times that Cal was facing third downs or lining up in either red zone, the crowd did their damnedest to make the confines of Ohio Stadium anything but friendly. Sure, the crowd isn't going to be as pumped for a bad Cal team at noon as they would for Michigan at 8pm (I can always dream, right?), but when the crowd wants to be heard, rest assured they will be--I can recall at least two occasions where the crowd directly caused a Cal false start on third down.
On the whole, "I can hear Brax's handclap" that's because the cameras used for filming the game have audio feeds from very sensitive directional microphones designed to pick up the sounds of the game. I didn't hear Brax's hands at all.
O'Leary's comment ruffled some feathers and sparked the media. Because of such, it's become a hot topic and has become a self-fufilling prophecy: whenever the stadium is quiet (offense trying to snap the ball/opponent far behind or not driving toward endzone), announcers immediately pick up on it--thinking that it's further proof that Ohio Stadium is quiet--whilst simoutaneously ignoring the noise whenever a big play occurs or the third down bells chime. Sure, the stadium could be louder; but to suggest that it's quiet is sheer delusion. When Ohio Stadium gets loud, it's amoung the loudest stadiums in the nation; it just doesn't get as loud as often during games against bad opponents (because we're either blowing them out, or are freaked out that they're keeping it close).
@ Hodge - I am glad you wrote that so I didn't have to. I was in 10B, only my second time in B deck, and I was worried that I would be sitting by a bunch of fossils who don't cheer. I was sitting next to a guy who was the spitting image of James Carville who was there with his grandkids. With the children around I kept my swearing in check but he was yelling and they were yelling and all the fans around us where yelling most of the game. I feel the stadium was quite when we were up 20-7 but otherwise, we were loud when were we supposed to be. My voice is still shot and anytime Cal even approached the red zone or if it was a 3rd down my little section was rocking.
"Because the rules won't let you go for three." - Woody Hayes
THE Ohio State University
The student section is literally the only rowdy part of the whole stadium. It pisses me off. When we did stadium O-H-I-O last week, nobody in the south stands could hear the "I" ... even the second "O" was REALLY weak.
I wouldn't cheer for Michigan if they were playing the Taliban.
Because a stadium cheer is a great way to judge the fanbase's passion? Badowl, I can tell you that I was sitting closer to the North end of the stadium and it was pretty damn loud there during third downs and Cal trips to the redzone. Sure, the student section's about the only place that gets into the stadium chants and the "Buckeye Bounce", but that shouldn't suggest that the stadium itself isn't rowdy when it needs to be. I mean, just look at the Wisconsin game last year, how crazy was the whole stadium then? How crazy did the whole stadium get during big plays on Saturday?
Besides, during the three years I spent in the South stands, even the almighty student section would stay seated for extended periods during "slaughter" games. Admittedly, Cal wasn't that kind of game, but I don't think that the rest of the crowd was prepared for a close game; psychologically, they were ready for Braxton to run wild, and the defense to roll in a blowout. People were shocked into silence, and nothing kills fan momentum like that third quarter.
You're never going to get the sheer level of collective energy in the alumni audience (that makes up ~70% of the fans in attendance), but I also will counter that they can get close to that level (~85%) when they want to. Unfortunately, small teams at noon don't draw that kind of enthusiasm: as a fanbase, we're conditioned to watching OSU roll in these kind of games, which is why they don't carry the kind of electric atmosphere that comes with marquee matchups--where the stadium does get absolutely batshit crazy and sustains that intensity all night (I remember during the USC game, the announcers said it was as if the crowd expected OSU to falter, and was trying to will them to victory themselves). The real way to fix this problem is to schedule more night games (and do it into November), schedule better opponents, and distribute more students throughout the stadium.
Just as a voice from the south stands...when we are playing badly, most people talk about WTF is going on as opposed to being enthusiastic. Just my experience from the games.
Also the noon pre-conference games are notoriously dull, and Herbstreit even chimed in on his radio show today that the band could be part of the problem because the music they've played (non-fight songs) has been pretty boring...which I found interesting and true. Playing music that gets the crowd going will probably help.
Well we do have a huge alumni and if I had to guess on the 105,000 that are paying to watch this game. I would say a lot of them are old! Old people are not going to get all crazy and yell there lungs out. I think that has a lot to do with it!
"We have always had the best damn band in the land, now we have the best damn team in the land"- Jim Tressel 1-03-03
Define "old" please.
A writer from the SF Chronicle who was in the press booth said that the booth floor shook everytime Cal was on 3rd down. Enough of this noise nonsense anyway. I can't believe how much time has been spent discussing this due to an opposing coach making a ridiculous comment.
@PAM - Thank you. Amen, sister.
http://www.sfgate.com/collegesports/article/Buckeye-football-the-only-game-in-town-3869022.php
"At Memorial Stadium, Cal fans might get ear-splittingly loud three times a game. On every Cal third down at the Shoe, the entire Ohio State crowd rose like a red wave and roared. If you're up high in the press box, you can feel the floor shiver.
"This has got to be the loudest we've heard," said Marshall, who travels to one road game each year with his friends. "Rocky Top is close."
Thanks for the link Pam. I wasn't able to go to the game (walking pneumonia) but the crowd definitely sounded loud on the television.
@PAM - That article deserves a BuckShot.
It always cracks me up to hear the "fans" in California rationalizing the lack of interest in their teams. "Oh, there's nothing to do in Ohio. That's why they're so obsessed." It's culture, and Ohio State will forever be a part of it here, just like football is similarly ingrained throughout the plains of the Midwest to the kudzu of the Southeast. You could put the entire population of Columbus in L.A. for a year, and they'd still tune in every Saturday to watch their team, and if the population of L.A. swapped with Columbus for a year, you could bet your ass that they wouldn't be spending their Saturdays in the 'Shoe. Their culture just isn't as football-centric as ours, and I love listening to how people who don't understand it try to cast it as a negative.
@WILLIAM - Here's to a speedy recovery.
Man, OSU fans have first world problems.
"A coach said our 100,000 plus person stadium isn't loud and now people worry it might not be"
"We scored 35 points in a win but don't like how it looked"
4-6 seconds from point A to point B and when you get to point B, be pissed off
@HODGE I have said the same thing for years. The "there is soooooooooo much to do in SoCal" to explain their crappy attendance is BS. A fan is a fan whether it be LA or Cols. There is isn't a beach in the world that would trump the Buckeyes playing. If I'm in Cancun, I am finding a bar with a TV. Hand to God.
So as far as the noise in the 'Shoe goes, we good?
Can we just let this go.
I was in 11aa and it was loud as well
I was working for student radio on Saturday and from where I was at, the stadium did get pretty loud in the second half. It was certainly the loudest I had heard the stadium this year. I spoke with the Cal student broadcasters and they said it was one of the loudest stadiums that they had been in. I honestly wish that the first 4 homegames this year weren't all noon kickoffs. I think that would have made at least a small difference.
It's true... We really are a bunch of nuts!
Go Bucks!
On a related note, I thought the CAL fans represented themselves pretty well. They too made themselves known and I didn't see or hear anything negative.
Kevin
OH!!!!!
Proud parent of a Senior at The Ohio State University
One other thing that I would like to remind some on here before I get off my soapbox.
That 65 year old guy down in the lower red section may not stand as much as you or cheer as loud as you do but I can almost guarantee that he has given a hell of a lot more to the University than that rabid kid in the south stands. More than likely he is an alumni and has been giving thousands and thousands of dollars for many years just to be able to get those seats. That money is invested in the team, the facilities and in the student athletes that we adore so much. Remember that before you tell him to stay home and watch the game. Just my .02
Kevin
OH!!!!!
Proud parent of a Senior at The Ohio State University
I don't know where everyone who says it wasn't loud was sitting, but I was actually pleasantly surprised with the noise level this Saturday. It got loud as hell in the 4th quarter, not Michigan or Wisconson at night loud, but not bad for a 12 pm start...loudest it has been all year; at least on the East side of the stadium, opposite the club seats.
The Ohio State University Class of 2001
BS Aero & Astronautical Engineering
@ KLFECK -- couldn't agree more. My grandfather was as rabid a Buckeye as I knew and had been through and seen more with that university and football team than probably everyone standing combined. He wasn't able to stand and go apeshit the whole game but he is definitely someone I considered to be deserving of attending any game he could make it to. I'd never seen an old man so excited and giddy as him walking out of the '97 Rose Bowl, but he certainly wasn't able to go nuts to the same extent during the game that my dad, brother and I could but I can assure you he cherished being a part of that as much as anyone else possibly could've.