Experiences visiting UCONN
Lots of parking for tailgating
Lots of M fans- probably 50-50 based on the tailgate and the stadium.
Not much hospitality from the hosts, and not too much vitriol except for the DB in back of my group.
Definitely a ton of piped in music, 3rd down music and "another UCONN! 1st down!- type shit.
September 22nd, 2013 at 11:03 AM ^
Advertisements all over. Kiss cams and baby cams. Cheesy kicking and throwing contests for things like a year's worth of Doritos. Pretty schmaltzy. Tons of piped in noise, so their band wasn't much of a factor. Glad we don't do crap like that. Takes away from the game.
Talked afterwards with some UConn fans. They were disappointed they didn't pull off the upset, but thrilled they played as well as they did. Much more concerned with their 0-3 start.
September 22nd, 2013 at 11:07 AM ^
September 22nd, 2013 at 11:10 AM ^
And who is this:
September 22nd, 2013 at 11:18 AM ^
September 22nd, 2013 at 12:03 PM ^
My wife and i attend all the road games. And UConn not that different from some of the other B1G stadia. Wiscy has every replay sponsored by some local business (over loudspeaker) and Iowa & Penn St traffic much worse. I WANT to see more OOC games scheduled around country, in BCS towns. Sometimes top tier soem mid-tier. Ijust want to see the Boys in Blue start to play like expected. UConn was fine host, my disappointment is with Brady, Borges, Devin and Fitz.
September 22nd, 2013 at 12:03 PM ^
My wife and i attend all the road games. And UConn not that different from some of the other B1G stadia. Wiscy has every replay sponsored by some local business (over loudspeaker) and Iowa & Penn St traffic much worse. I WANT to see more OOC games scheduled around country, in BCS towns. Sometimes top tier soem mid-tier. Ijust want to see the Boys in Blue start to play like expected. UConn was fine host, my disappointment is with Brady, Borges, Devin and Fitz.
September 22nd, 2013 at 12:11 PM ^
I drove out to the game from Providence and was pretty pleasantly surprised. Big props to the guy from the Hartford alumni club who gave very detailed instructions on the back entrance to the airfield tailgating lot. I headed there at 3:30ish, seemed to be at least 50% Michigan fans. Being on my own for the most part, I met some great fans from both teams.
The UConn fans I encountered tailgating were mellow and friendly as can be.
I've got to say that it's crazy to me that all these East Coast MI fans have so many tents, flags, etc.--have they just been sitting in their garages since 1995 or whenever? (I actually joked about this with of of the MI fans, and they explained that they took the tents to lacrosse games. Ah, the East.)
I bought a single seat from the UConn ticket office in row 11 of section 103--a great seat. The UConn fans around me were totally swell. We spent some serious time drunkenly debating whose team was worse at football. We did witness one fist fight between fans of the two teams a few rows in front of us; both guys were hauled out by security.
I could see the endzone of MI fans, but definitely thought the UConn fans were much louder. Though not especially impressively loud or anything. Too many Michigan fans wearing blue as well--hard to pick them out, and on a couple of occasions where plays were at the other end of the field and hard to see I will admit to being confused about which teams' fanbase was happy.
I did not enjoy the canned 'first down', the music, etc. I could see the scoreboard very well, but I didn't find the presentation of the relevent game numbers to be that great (this might have been due to the number of beers I had). But the stadium was easy to get around. I had remarkable amounts of room to sit.
After the game in the airfield lot some partying was continuing. One UConn guy had an entire bar he drug in behind his car and was cheerfully serving fans of both teams.
I had zero problems pulling in or out of that lot. On the way in and out I did not spend even a single second sitting in traffic. My ride back east was creepily deserted (and I left within 20 minutes of the game ending).
Not dying to go back for another game, but it was a pleasant tailgating experience, and I give UConn fans a thumbs up.
September 22nd, 2013 at 12:59 PM ^
UConn rocked. Nice fans! Great seats. Great views. They were pretty loud for the number of people and the large % of Michigan fans there...
September 22nd, 2013 at 1:06 PM ^
behind the flagpole, to the right and behind the screen in seats obtained through the M Athletic Dept. the stadium is small enough that we could see the field okay, but we could not see the screen at all.
the one place the down/distance showed was often late, so we got most of our info by watching the down markers. Incredibly, the clock never stopped when the chains were being moved.....not even for a few seconds. I thought that was the college rule, that the clock stopped briefly while chains re- set....I know the clock does not stop in NFL, but.....
the fans were mellow and didnt get chippy in general, but on line in the mens room, when they had me outnumbered, they tried to get snotty, but it was stuff like, "so how come you're not a 30 point favorite?"
I would give the crowd 40- 60 UConn, but U-M owned the children's division. Tons of kids in Michigan garb, UConn fans apparently dont breed. 95-5, Michigan.
Great tailgate across the street organized by an army of U-M alumni groups, lots of food and drink being shared.
the rawk music feels cheesey. their band needs to play more, and the stadiuim is small enough they should be a factor.
A disappointing game, but the defense only gave up one real touchdown, one on a 7 yard "drive". Actually pretty good considering the way the O kept turning it over.
September 22nd, 2013 at 3:49 PM ^
One thing I found to be weird was that the band would be playing and then they'd pipe in RAWK music over it. Stadium was small enough to hear the band all the way across the field, and it was just weird.
September 22nd, 2013 at 4:08 PM ^
Definitely seemed to be a 40-60 split. A lot of the blue in the crowd was for Michigan as well. A lot of people saying "Go Blue" to each other walking around the stadium. Aside from one UConn fan telling my husband "Michigan sucks", their fans seemed alright. The people working the concession stands were really nice and seemed genuinely excited for what was going on. Then again, my section was mainly a Michigan section so we didn't really have any big UConn fans with us during the game. We ended up tailgating in some weird small parking lot across the street from the INSANELY HUGE Michigan tailgate across from the stadium. It was pretty chill. After the game it was a bit hairy and we had to rush out of there, but that was more a domestic issue going on there.
I was in a pretty big Michigan section (241) and couldn't get people to start Hail to the Victors after the first TD. I realized then that the crowd would be super quiet since that was early in the game and the shock hadn't really occurred yet.
My husband and I did manage to get a few families around us to join in the chanting for "Go Blue" and "defense" and making noise for kickoff and when UConn was in 3rd down situations. Those people seemed to get more and more into the game because of that. But for the most part, Michigan fans were looking at us like we were crazy.
It was nice to see the Michigan crowds closer to the field behind the endzone really trying to start things up though. If anyone in those sections are upset that no one was joining in with your cheering, I just want to let you know that we saw you in the back and tried to start it in our section as well.
The Michigan crowds definitely got a lot louder during the 4th quarter though. There was a palpable shift in the atmosphere of the crowd.
It was an ugly embarrassing win, but it was one of the best live football experiences I've had in awhile. So a special thanks to those people that sat around the crazy Asian girl and her husband in just cheering for Michigan. It was my husbands first live Michigan football game and you guys helped make it special.
September 22nd, 2013 at 4:54 PM ^
The Uconn fans were generally pretty good, but there were a few really bad ones, including one who got thrown out in my section.
September 22nd, 2013 at 7:58 PM ^
hate how the Michigan fanbase tends to crap on teams that have small stadiums and stuff. THATS THE REAL COLLEGE FOOTBALL EXPEREICE! If a team isnt packing 85,000+ in, its like half the fanbase hates it!
September 22nd, 2013 at 8:00 PM ^
the times ive been to Michigan, OUR FANS HAVE ALSO BEEN ASSHOLES. ASSHOLES ARE EVERYWHERE! There are some for every team... We need to get off the pedastool
September 22nd, 2013 at 8:11 PM ^
Pedastool, huh?
September 23rd, 2013 at 12:26 AM ^
Better than pedostool.
September 23rd, 2013 at 1:30 AM ^
There were definitely some people displaying why the "no beer in on-campus stadia" rule is in place, including the guy vomiting his way down the stairs in the aisle between EZ 1 and 2.