About the Fans
I'm probably going to be negbombed to Bolivia, but I have to get this off my chest.
I am a Michigan alum, and a rabid Wolverine for the past 8 years. I did not grow up rooting for the Wolverines, but I live & die by the Maize and Blue with the rest of them. Hell, my first game in the Big House was The Horror, and I'm still here so that has to count for something.
I was at The Game today. Honestly I can't blame the coaches and players too much. They are operating within the constraints forced upon them by situations outside of their control. They gave it their all, and for that they should always have a special place in the heart of Michigan's Faithful.
The biggest element I found lacking was the fanbase. From the start, the stadium was at least 25-35% Buckeyes. I know it's Thanksgiving weekend, but you won't see Ohio selling that many tickets to us when we're playing in Columus.
But even worse to me was the fact that the atmosphere just plain wasn't there. You could hear a pin drop on most Ohio downs. When they were running tempo, you could clearly tell that our fanbase was not prepared and had no idea about when to get loud. In full honesty, when they annouced the Slippery Rock score there was a bigger reaction than on Ohio third downs when our defense needed it the most. Not to mention the fact that the stairs were fully occupied with Michigan fans leaving from the beginning of the fourth quater onward at full tilt.
I don't mean to denegrate our fans, I honestly don't. But to put things in perspective, I went to the Alabama-LSU game this year and the difference is night and day.. If we ever want to be a "Great Team" we need to secure our home field advantage. It's one thing to have a great team, a great coaching staff, great traditions, a great campus. But if we can't turn the Big House into a place that strikes fear into opposing teams' hearts we will never truly be elite.
I hate people pointing out issues without proposing solutions, so I will propose a few. First, we need to stop selling tickets to opposing fans. How we do that in the age of Stubhub is a difficult task. The Mgoblog ticket list is a good start, but we need to do so at a larger scale. Maybe the Athletic Department could work on a fan-to-fan sales system where they could take a cut but still ensure tickets end up in the hands of Michigan fans.
I also agree with Woodson -- The Game needs to be moved to 3:30 or a night start to encourage fans to get rowdy. The atmosphere shouldn't be like an afternoon picnic. It needs to be fierce and intimidating.
Lastly we need to take measures to get people loud when they're in the stadium. Encourage the people next to you to yell! There are times for talking (TV timeouts, halftime) and there are times for yelling (every down on defense). If we can't make use of the largest crowd in America then we are throwing away a vital advantage for our boys in Maize and Blue.
I may be preaching to the choir, or I may be pissing people off. Regardless, this is a message that needs to get out and be discussed seriously. It blows my mind that we can have a better atmosphere for a Penn State night game last year than we did for our most hated rival in a meanginful situation and Harbaugh's first year. Let the Team work on the X's and O's, but let's make sure we bring the heat and get back up our defense with the best damn home field advantage in all of sports.
Honestly our fanbase should be ashamed at the support we provided the team today, and we need to get real about fixing things.
-GS
November 28th, 2015 at 6:03 PM ^
The 12pm kickoff is to blame. 330 games have much more energy.
The band could be a bit more imposing too... Lose Yourself and 7 Nation Army can pump you up for only so long.
November 28th, 2015 at 6:05 PM ^
sits on his hands, waits for his team to be up two touchdowns, looks around in enormous surprise and announces, "yes, yes, now I am roused!"
It's pathetic.
Way too much of an attitude of "first you show me, then I cheer." There are fans of other teams who come ready to be part of the equation, ready to help will a team on, ready to back a team from whistle to whistle, and then some.
I know it's been a brutal stretch of years. I am suffering as much as anyone out there, if not more. It eats at me, it makes me want to tear someone's head off.
But that doesn't excuse not being behind the team with full throats and full support.
November 28th, 2015 at 6:53 PM ^
I can't honestly say how the crowds differ now from when I was in school though. We do need to avoid that "back in the good old days" trap, because in my experience, people always remember the old days as much better than they were. That being said, I do agree with the other posters who want more audience participation. To me, a great perk of being at the game is trying to do everything possible to help the team win. I don't know how much it truly helps, but I always have loved the idea that we can be so disruptive as to make things better tough on our opponents.
November 28th, 2015 at 7:16 PM ^
not.
Is this "I'll only cheer for you if you prove to me it's worth my while" thing recent or was it like this 15-20 years ago? Seems like it was different back then.
I'll say this - I was in the student section for 1997 OSU, and I fucking guarantee we made a difference in that game. OSU couldn't run their last set of downs we were so loud. The fact that they were under the student section for their last series basically guaranteed that the game was over.
November 28th, 2015 at 8:33 PM ^
On October 4, 1969, we lost to MSU 40-17.
The next time we lost a home game by 20+ was in 1991, 51-31 to Florida St.
Then Iowa in 2002.
That's three times in 38 seasons, through 2006. There weren't a lot of opportunities for the fans to be bludgeoned into silent submission.
Then it starting happening on the regular; we had more blowouts in the next four years than we'd had in 38. Oregon in '07, Illinois in '08, Penn State in '09, Wisconsin in '10.
I'm guessing if the crowds 30 or 40 years ago had ever been tested, they'd have responded like today's. They weren't, not ever.
November 28th, 2015 at 9:05 PM ^
Your point is well drawn, but we all have stories of being shushed or tut tutted at or told to sit down. That stuff *does* seem to be an outlier vs. other fanbases.
And honestly, if I were a coach or a recruit, it's the sort of thing that would make me think twice about joining the program. Fortunately, there's a lot of other stuff to recommend Ann Arbor, but I would think this sort of thing breaks the heart of every player and every former player out there.
November 28th, 2015 at 10:53 PM ^
People like to say that this isn't the 1970s with obvious accuracy.
Yeah the crowd was different, but today's crowd actually felt closer to that, in my estimation. With the lack of constant RAWK there was more conversation, and more yelling at the field. Hell, you can't go back in time, but sometimes people want to. With good reason. But we don't need to go back, we are regaining the best stadium experience of NOW.
November 28th, 2015 at 6:56 PM ^
Normally yes I would agree with you, but not today. The fans brought it in the 1st half and the beginning of the second half. The defense has to do their part though. If you think it was the fans that lost the game today...I don't know what to tell you.
November 28th, 2015 at 8:20 PM ^
it sounded reasonably loud to me on tv in the first half, too.
My complaint is much more far reaching than just this game.
November 28th, 2015 at 6:04 PM ^
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November 28th, 2015 at 6:04 PM ^
November 28th, 2015 at 6:08 PM ^
Could you almost FAINT?
Amazing that someone thinks people should cheer for more than just third downs. /s
What the hell is wrong with our fanbase?
It's THE GAME. If you're not screaming from kickoff at least until hopelessness, you gotta seriously reflect on what is and isn't running through your veins.
November 28th, 2015 at 6:16 PM ^
November 28th, 2015 at 7:20 PM ^
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November 28th, 2015 at 6:05 PM ^
Read the thread "selling tickets" and you will see what we are up against. I agree with you whole-heartedly, but there are people who would rather recoup a quarter or more of their seasonal cost by selling tickets to this one game. It sucks and it ruins the Michigan experience. 1st class fanbases would not accept the amount of red in the stadium.
November 28th, 2015 at 6:06 PM ^
People will be louder. It's science
November 28th, 2015 at 6:11 PM ^
and keep cheering until the very last embers of hope are put out.
Not rocket science. Just what it is to be a loyal fan.
November 28th, 2015 at 7:44 PM ^
And when exactly did this occur?
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November 28th, 2015 at 8:22 PM ^
I think that was probably the point of no return.
November 28th, 2015 at 10:00 PM ^
Around then is when people gave up, as far as I saw.
November 28th, 2015 at 6:20 PM ^
November 28th, 2015 at 7:56 PM ^
November 28th, 2015 at 6:07 PM ^
November 28th, 2015 at 6:27 PM ^
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November 28th, 2015 at 7:51 PM ^
Get your own tickets? There's no waitlist--plenty of availability. Easy.
November 28th, 2015 at 9:21 PM ^
If we get an empty seat in our group, I hope MgoBlog makes it possible for users to contact users because you could come sit next to us and have a great time. I'm old, but so are a lot of other people in the vincinity, and we are on our feet a lot.
Remember, people who say they can't stand... once you stand, so does the row behind you!
November 28th, 2015 at 6:08 PM ^
November 28th, 2015 at 6:08 PM ^
November 28th, 2015 at 6:13 PM ^
November 28th, 2015 at 6:42 PM ^
November 28th, 2015 at 8:28 PM ^
unless you're old and therefore have a perfectly reasonble excuse, anything less than participating in making The Big House an intimidating place to play is not good enough.
What the hell you think they're doing at Spartan Stadium???
November 28th, 2015 at 6:08 PM ^
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November 28th, 2015 at 6:13 PM ^
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November 28th, 2015 at 6:15 PM ^
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November 28th, 2015 at 6:21 PM ^
Have you been at the game before when half the people in your section are buckeyes? It sucks major balls, especially with our current streak of not winning.
November 28th, 2015 at 6:22 PM ^
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November 28th, 2015 at 6:14 PM ^
If I had to guess, I think it is more the way you went about saying that than your actual reason. You did it in the worst way possible. Now you want to complain about it, which will probably get you negged further. Might just want to call it a night.
November 28th, 2015 at 6:16 PM ^
You would've had a different reaction if you had stated things this way the first time. I get why you sold your tickets...I just wish they wouldn't get into the hands of the enemy fanbase. I really hope this gets fixed.
November 28th, 2015 at 10:32 PM ^
There was less red in the stadium today than the past 3 home OSU games, but not so much less that they couldn't do their insufferable "look, we can spell a four-letter word" cheer. When that happens, I just seethe, but there's not much to do about it when our D is getting ripped to shreds.
Most blocks of red were in the south end zone, but there was an unusual block of red in the north end zone. The athletic dept sent a few reps from marketing to look into how those people got their tickets - all the OSU fans bought them from season ticket holders. That is an utter disgrace.
November 28th, 2015 at 6:08 PM ^
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November 28th, 2015 at 6:11 PM ^
we need to bring it better
November 28th, 2015 at 6:11 PM ^
Cannot argue about the abundance of Buckeyes, when Michigan is winning these games again that will stop.
November 28th, 2015 at 6:11 PM ^
November 28th, 2015 at 6:11 PM ^
November 28th, 2015 at 6:14 PM ^
As for OSU buying up a bunch of tickets, you can't do much about that besides start winning games and make these games against OSU mean something. And honestly, this year was a lot better than 2013. I honestly believed that year it was maybe 40% OSU fans. We were just lucky that game was close.
It's easy for OSU to start gobbling up tickets when they're winning 11-12 games a year and will drive three measly hours to go see a winning product. They have a huge fanbase and their team wins. OSU always has a towering home field advantage over us in Columbus because we've sucked for the better part of a decade, so no one wants to go watch a loser.
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November 28th, 2015 at 6:18 PM ^
Yep pretty much this too.
November 28th, 2015 at 6:16 PM ^
November 28th, 2015 at 6:16 PM ^
This take is absolutely 100% feelingsball nonsense.
The fans were fine. The players didn't execute.
And of course the OSU fans were more noticeable after our fans started to bail because, as mentioned, the players didn't execute. Can't stop the run, can't stop the fans heading for the exits. Thus, the OHIO chant is going to be heard.
November 28th, 2015 at 6:34 PM ^
November 28th, 2015 at 6:54 PM ^