My Penn State Experience

I traveled to State College for the game and thought I would share my experience with anyone who cared to read.

First, my party left Ann Arbor around 9PM Friday, and embarked on an epic 7 hour drive which featured a dead headlight, running over a deer, and almost drifting off the road multiple times (thank goodness for rumble strips).  We arrived at our host's residence at around 3:30 AM.

We ate breakfast at Denny's on Atherton street, decked out in our maize shirts and my silly foam wolverine hat.  Everyone here was very friendly and good natured about the game.  i guess they all felt really sorry for us, knowing what was in store.

We parked in lot 11, and received many boo's and nasty looks on the way to the HUB, where we were going to get our tickets.  Many calls of "App State!" "2-4" "Holy Toledo?" and my personal favorite, "...Michigan?" were heard.  Many would then say something along the lines of, "You have a nice hat, though."

We ended up walking around the campus, which is very nice.  We received many of the same remarks, but we noticed an alarming number of "welcome to State College!" and other unexpected gestures of good will and sportsmanship.

We headed to a Michigan tailgate at Lot 21 and hung around there for 3 hours until gametime.  Cries of "App State" were answered with "9 Straight!" but overall spirits were good and everyone was mostly friendly.  

Our seats were in section NL, row 31, which is in the right corner of the north endzone.  The stadium definitely seems more "NFL" than other college stadiums.  The Jumbo tron was much nicer than the POS they had at Notre Dame, considering this actually had a video screen, but still paled in comparison to Michigan's.

Penn State's student section is definitely more impressive than Michigan's.  They are able to keep the opposing team's fan out of the area, so the entire section is an unadulterated sea of white.  Everyone has pom-poms as well, truly a spectacular site.  Michigan can certainly learn a few things on what a student section should look like.  Oh yeah, the S was pink with a black background, as a tribute to the original school colors of Penn State.

As for the game experience, several things ruined it for me:

-Penn State may as well have not had a marching band.  They rarely played, and if they did, it was always "Seven Nation Army" or one of their fight songs.  Nothing else.  

-Prerecorded music played over the PA system really ruins the college game experience.  What's even worse is that they only played the same 3 songs over and over again.  I went from thinking "Zombie Nation" was pretty catchy during tailgating, to hating it with a fiery passion after the game.

-That GODDAMN FUCKING ANNOYING STUPID LION ROAR!  It's not intimidating, it's just really FUCKING ANNOYING.

-That GODDAMN FUCKING ANNOYING STUPID "WE ARE PENN STATE" Cheer.  What's even more annoying is that when we were up 17-10 and looking good, some of us started yelling "Ten Straight!" instead of "penn state." While that temporarily shut up and pissed off the PSU guys around us, it certainly made us feel like idiots at the end.

-I heard all this hype for how loud Beaver Stadium was, but it wasn't noticeably louder than the Big House.  In fact, the Big House was definitely a lot louder than Beaver Stadium during the second half of Wisconsin 

After the game, we returned to our tailgating area to find that some dickheads had overturned all of our table and trash bags and everything.  As we started to clean up, some very nice older Penn State Alumni helped us.  

Overall, I was pleased with the fans, as they were no more obnoxious or rude than we probably are, and many were very welcoming and hospitable.

I was disappointed with the stadium, as all of the prerecorded music, the lion's roar, and the 3 song library for the marching band contributed to one of the most repetitive and annoying shows ever.