Stadium Experience - Week 2
In my mind, many of the issues I had with the stadium experience in Week 1 improved in Week 2.
- The video board switched back to a blue background with maize writing (I presume Week 1 was for Maize Out purposes) and was much easier to read.
- I still wish the stats board was generally a straightforward set of stats like yardage numbers, TOP, etc., with occasional cut-ins on the deeper stats like TFL, completions, etc.
- The audio was better. The on-field microphones cut out less frequently, and the center channel audio worked much better (you could hear all of what Woodson said in the defensive hype video, unlike last week.)
- Pregame timing is still off, the helicopter flyover happened right during the first twenty seconds of the James Earl Jones video.
- Still too heavy on the reliance on the on-field DJ at the expense of the band. I understand this is an old man complaint, but you can balance those things better.
- I still miss the "Guess the Year" game, but the helmet shuffle was back, and the catch-a-punt was fine.
- The out-of-town scores were better because they focused on the Big Ten and Top 25 scores, which only had Week 2 data in it.
- I like Victor the Frisbee dog, I like it more that it upsets Michigan State fans for some reason.
I'm still hopeful this will continue to improve over the season, but it does seem like they heard some of the complaints of last week, or realized they were bad.
Next week with the new lights will bring new challenges/experiences as well.
September 10th, 2023 at 7:23 PM ^
I wasn’t at the ECU game but I generally thought it was good yesterday. I agree about the stats, could be presented better.
September 10th, 2023 at 7:37 PM ^
I appreciate that we're basically running all of the box score categories on a rotation, but I feel like there are some things I don't need to see on an every slide rotation. Then again, the first Michigan video boards just had yardage totals for both teams and I liked that just fine.
September 11th, 2023 at 10:17 AM ^
It seemed like every time I looked at the stats, it showed passing yardage. I almost never saw the rushing yardage and then back to the field for the play. Why oh Why can they just not take this photo as a template and put them both up at the same time? It was a struggle to find all the pertinent information at a glance. Like down and distance and time. I suppose I will get used to it but it really should not be this difficult .
September 10th, 2023 at 7:24 PM ^
Next week should be something with the new lighting.
September 10th, 2023 at 7:28 PM ^
I’m not a fan of the Michigan DJ the couple times I’ve seen/heard him.
Tangentially related, but I was at the USC game last night and at a point late in the 3rd, the ref had to admonish the DJ for playing music while the teams were on the line, told him to pay attention. Funny moment. Most SC fans don’t like their DJ either.
September 10th, 2023 at 7:31 PM ^
How'd the students do with the wave?
September 10th, 2023 at 7:35 PM ^
Better, waited until the second half, with Michigan on defense, with a three-score lead, and made it run clockwise. I can't remember what kept them from getting to the crossover, reverse, etc, but it was an improvement.
September 10th, 2023 at 7:53 PM ^
IIRC the crossover, reverse, slow and fast wave has not been a thing since the RR/ Hoke years.
Pretty hard to have fun with the wave when you’re up big… when you’re never up big
September 11th, 2023 at 10:21 AM ^
They did the reverse. There weren't a lot of folks left though LOL.
September 10th, 2023 at 7:42 PM ^
Better mix of pumped in music vs band this game. Still not enough band, but better
September 10th, 2023 at 7:45 PM ^
The block M flags that the band came out with had two different versions of maize. That bothered me more than it should have.
September 10th, 2023 at 7:51 PM ^
Still some of Dave Brandon’s highlighter yellow stuff around. Reason 18,465 to still hate the guy
September 10th, 2023 at 7:51 PM ^
I was wondering if I was the only one who noticed that last week.
September 10th, 2023 at 10:45 PM ^
This is one of the few perks of being colorblind
September 10th, 2023 at 7:47 PM ^
The camo-out in the student section worked really well. I didn’t see any students in the 4th quarter.
The home viewing experience was improved. CBS gets in and out of commercial breaks well. There were a lot of them, but most seemed to be 2 minutes with a little 15 second CBS promo. I can live with that. The players do have to get on and off the field.
Nessler and Danielson were less annoying than when they do SEC games. My only complaint was they don’t know what a catch is. But I think they do know and were just trying to create some controversy because the game was lacking in drama.
September 10th, 2023 at 8:00 PM ^
Some left at halftime and then after the Blue Brothers and Mr. Brightside there was a mass exodus
September 10th, 2023 at 9:05 PM ^
I'll add that CBS has a far better production quality. The director moved in and out of shots nicely, and the camera men and women were really quite good. There were some gorgeous aerials of the stadium. CBS made the effort to get video of JH at his son's game, and did a nice job presenting the story of JJ and Ryan Keeler, pausing to not talk over the play on the field. I think CBS sets the standard for production quality
September 11th, 2023 at 12:40 PM ^
I thought it was really something how Danielson got a little choked up at the Keeler story, especially as they talked, JJ lined up a 47 yard TD pass.
I mean you couldn’t write it any better with the amazing timing, so it’s understandable, but they do really well to interview and sell the personal side of the individual players.
September 11th, 2023 at 8:13 AM ^
I thought Nessler and Danielson were just fine. I really didn’t pick up any SEC stuff at all
September 11th, 2023 at 8:31 AM ^
Nice avatar. Mine has been in place since the RR years when things were a bit dicey around here.
September 11th, 2023 at 9:15 AM ^
Why would you, they are doing a Big 10 game and know they are going to do many more.
They even threw in a dig that the SEC might want to win some OOC games.
September 10th, 2023 at 7:48 PM ^
UM pays to have the DJ, so UM wants to gets its money’s worth. I don’t understand what the difference is with having a DJ and not.
Glad they played football during the 3+ hour commercial broadcast
September 10th, 2023 at 8:16 PM ^
I showed up to a commercial veiwing and a football game broke out.
September 10th, 2023 at 8:20 PM ^
CBS was a nice change compared to the commercials obsessed Fox.
Although, it was weird to see a Michigan game on CBS since they have been strictly SEC for so long.
September 10th, 2023 at 9:04 PM ^
There were a few times when they compared the B1G to the SEC, and I thought they liked what they were seeing from the B1G. They compared it favorably, anyway...
September 10th, 2023 at 9:19 PM ^
First time Michigan has played a football game on CBS since the 1986 Ohio State game when Harbaugh was playing.
I actually got goosebumps listening to the cool intro that they have not changed and have kept the same over all the years. I wish ABC would go back to the intros they had in the 1990's.
September 10th, 2023 at 10:29 PM ^
I’ve been raving about CBS’ production for years.
September 10th, 2023 at 9:19 PM ^
First time Michigan has played a football game on CBS since the 1986 Ohio State game when Harbaugh was playing.
I actually got goosebumps listening to the cool intro that they have not changed and have kept the same over all the years. I wish ABC would go back to the intros they had in the 1990's.
September 10th, 2023 at 10:31 PM ^
The 1999 game against Syracuse at the Carrier Dome was on CBS.
One of the ugliest games I’ve ever witnessed but Michigan won 18-13.
September 10th, 2023 at 10:38 PM ^
The DJ sucks. Playing stupid bar mitzvah party stuff from 15-20 years ago. We don’t need a DJ. It’s like a human halo.
September 10th, 2023 at 10:47 PM ^
I’m of the strong opinion that the smiling Asian lady actually controls everything and the other guy is just there for show. She just hits a play button, it’s actually a sweet gig
September 10th, 2023 at 7:48 PM ^
Oh, I forgot to mention! They restored the Media Timeout countdown to the scoreboard. It was very very very tiny by the interim score box they put up during the media timeout, but it was there.
September 11th, 2023 at 6:30 AM ^
I did notice that, but it wasn't synced with the time out clock on the field. That was weird.
September 11th, 2023 at 12:06 PM ^
And it wasn't always displayed. There were at least several instances where the scoreboard time-out keeper either wasn't displayed or didn't display the time remaining in the timeout at all. I felt sorry for that guy in the red hat on the field being required to carry the timeout clock on and then off the field, not to mention remember to display it so everyone can see it somehow. Even if it is light-weight, it just doesn't make sense when the scoreboard can be used and everyone can easily see it (as it has been the last few years).
And what happened to the sideline marker that was always planted where the drive starts?
September 10th, 2023 at 7:51 PM ^
Overall much better. Not a fan of the southern country music.
September 10th, 2023 at 7:57 PM ^
More of a northwest county music fan?
September 10th, 2023 at 8:23 PM ^
Haha no.
but these lyrics seem ill-fitted for the big house:
”Well, I was raised up beneath the shade of a Georgia pine
And that's home, you know
Sweet tea, pecan pie, and homemade wine
Where the peaches grow
And my house, it's not much to talk about
But it's filled with love that's grown in southern ground
And a little bit of chicken fried”
September 10th, 2023 at 8:47 PM ^
I get it with the lyrics but it was played during a sing-a-long and the crowd sung the song. Last game was a pop song and the crowd sung that one also
What’s your opinion on playing Mr. Brightside with those lyrics
I’m just hope Rock and Roll All Night by Kiss never takes off
September 10th, 2023 at 9:44 PM ^
i for one appreciate the closed captioning so that i could verify that the lyrics were “skeet skeet skeet” during a song.
September 11th, 2023 at 1:02 AM ^
How about a Frank Zappa medley sing-along for most games but saving the song "Illinois Enema Bandit" for the next visit by our big rivals, the Fighting Illini?
September 11th, 2023 at 10:24 AM ^
Every morning, Greggery drives his little red Volkswagen to the ugly part of town where they keep the Government Buildings..
September 11th, 2023 at 12:39 PM ^
Love that song!
Studio Tan is such an overlooked Zappa album but definitely in my FZ top 10.
September 10th, 2023 at 10:06 PM ^
Missed opportunity to play cheeseburger in paradise with jimmy buffet passing away and Harbaugh being suspended over cheeseburgers.
September 10th, 2023 at 10:41 PM ^
We don’t need the fried chicken song either. That was worse than the t-shirt toss and Anthony bellino telling fans to say let’s go blue.
September 10th, 2023 at 11:57 PM ^
Well suited to me...
September 10th, 2023 at 8:38 PM ^
Awful DJ yesterday. Didn’t even cut the music off for Mr Brightside at the right time.
September 10th, 2023 at 9:11 PM ^
I thought this same thing, but I’m not much of a country fan. The lyrics didn’t fit the scene
September 10th, 2023 at 8:01 PM ^
My first game in 7 years. The Wisconsin game, 14-7 win in Jim's second year.
Seemed like there was a lot more action during the tv timeouts. Way better than the empty field I felt like I was staring at too often last time.
The energy in the place was great I thought.
I was happy watching on TV, but after yesterday I am back on wanting to go at least once a year. Gotta be mid September to mid October with the solid weather. But I loved it yesterday. And will be excited to go again.
It's super informative reading the details brought up by the people who attend more.
I want to say also I like the DJ because it's clear the students like the music. I think them being super into the game makes the atmosphere.
September 10th, 2023 at 8:14 PM ^
The 3rd and forth down graphics on the scoreboards are going to cause issues for BG this coming weekend and possibly cause an epileptic episode for some. But the LED lights are going to be awesome at night!