My Thoughts From the Stadium (Penn State 2022)

[abw0004 10,104]

Good morning all,

I hope this post finds you well and that you have had time to better process Saturday's game.  As always, I will continue to try to find the positives but at the same time tell you what I saw during the game.  Let's go.

Weather:  Finally, no rain!  I am glad this game did not experience weather issues like the first two games or even threaten bad weather.  That would have really put a damper on things.  The high was 85 degrees with a slight breeze coming in.  It really was a nice day for some football.

Marching Bands:  As always, our marching band did not disappoint.  If you attended the season opener, the band did the same show featuring one of the police K9's in training that Auburn's program is known for across the country.  Being a dog-lover, I really enjoyed it.  Penn State's full band was there and I am glad they did.  Just like HBCU's bands have a different marching style than Auburn's, Penn State's was also different.  This was expected as a lot of bands from the north march like this, but even when it was expected, it was fun to watch.  I reminded me of the style from the 1950's.  I am not sure when we will host another team like this again, so I enjoyed the moment as it arrived.

Auburn Crowd:  I was really hoping the crowd would turn out in all orange this game.  The university did a really good job getting the word out all week so I felt fairly confident the fans would rise to the occasion.  I am not sure how it looked on TV, but everyone was wearing orange.  No only this, but our fans did absolutely everything we could to do our part to help our team win.  We were standing up and loud all of the first half.  It felt like our fans wanted Penn State to know their stadium was not louder than our was.  The second half we were noticeably quieter (for obvious reasons) and by the time the game was over Penn State fans were louder than we were.

PSU Fans:  I think their fans traveled really well to the game.  There were a good bit of them in the stands as well.  I would also venture out to say they were very well-behaved and we easy to host in our stadium.  In my sample-size, no one was obnoxious.  They certainly were cheering very loud and by the end of the game, like I said above, took over the stadium.

Recruiting:  This is the one thing I want to mention due to the importance of it.  As expected, this was a huge recruiting weekend for Auburn, not only in football but basketball as well.  The recruit section was jam-packed.  We really needed to impress some of these kids.  Since 2009, I have only missed two home games.  I have never seen as many recruits leave the game early as I did on Saturday.  I could not have been more embarrassed.  The recruit section has not been full before, in fact this is common.  But I have never seen 80% of the recruits that did attend a game flat out leave.  Not even in 2012.  This is unacceptable.  Below is a picture from the third quarter.  That section was packed out the first half.

SEC Play:  Like Owen Pappoe said in the post-game radio show, the team's goals are still ahead of them.  The Penn State loss does not affect their SEC Championship goals.  We start on this path this upcoming Saturday against Missouri and man, I sure hope we beat them.  We need this win for many reasons and I hope Harsin takes it seriously enough.  You never know how this season will turn out.

Looking Forward:  I know Saturday was a tough pill to swallow.  For me, I wasn't even mad.  I was more sad for our seniors that have given us so much and embarrassed that our potential future generation of players left the game early.  BUT, I have maintained all year that this season will be our path to greater things and a step in the right direction.  Harsin will either rise above and get us on the path we need to go, or he will be fired and we will get the right person.  Either way, it will be a win for Auburn.  I am still excited to be in Auburn for next Saturday's morning game and would not miss it for the world.  

[Auburn 6 101]

34 minutes ago, abw0004 said:

PSU Fans:  I think their fans traveled really well to the game.  There were a good bit of them in the stands as well.  I would also venture out to say they were very well-behaved and we easy to host in our stadium.  In my sample-size, no one was obnoxious.  They certainly were cheering very loud and by the end of the game, like I said above, took over the stadium.

 

You had a very different experience with the visiting PSU fans in the stadium than I did.  We had multiple PSU fans at our tailgate and they were fine, respectful and happy to be here.  No issues with them.   But the ones in our section during the game were absolute trash.  Loudly talking during national anthem, booing the war eagle, cursing out the eagle handlers while parading the eagle around the stadium, constant stream of vulgarity throughout the game, personal attacks and making fun of those around them, yelling at wives in front of their children.  This started from the opening kick off and only got worse throughout the game.  I realize I'm talking about a small sample size, but of the 20ish PSU fans around me they were among the worst I've experienced in JHS. My wife's brother is a PSU graduate and she was embarrassed enough by their behavior to let him know about it.

Edited September 19, 2022 by Auburn 6

[abw0004 10,104]

3 hours ago, Auburn 6 said:

You had a very different experience with the visiting PSU fans in the stadium than I did.  We had multiple PSU fans at our tailgate and they were fine, respectful and happy to be here.  No issues with them.   But the ones in our section during the game were absolute trash.  Loudly talking during national anthem, booing the war eagle, cursing out the eagle handlers while parading the eagle around the stadium, constant stream of vulgarity throughout the game, personal attacks and making fun of those around them, yelling at wives in front of their children.  This started from the opening kick off and only got worse throughout the game.  I realize I'm talking about a small sample size, but of the 20ish PSU fans around me they were among the worst I've experienced in JHS. My wife's brother is a PSU graduate and she was embarrassed enough by their behavior to let him know about it.

Out of curiosity, were you near the away team section?  I am sorry to hear your time in Auburn was ruined on top of everything else.

[Tigers77 281]

First game I’ve attended in 5 years and other than the score we had a great time. 

Had our pic taken with Bo beforehand so that was a high point for us.

Enjoyed the pre game atmosphere outside the stadium.

Most of the State fans we encountered were nice and polite although there was some incident where security was called nearby and it appeared a rowdy PSU fan had riled up some Auburn folk. 

 

Edited September 19, 2022 by Tigers77

[Auburn 6 101]

10 minutes ago, abw0004 said:

Out of curiosity, were you near the away team section?  I am sorry to hear your time in Auburn was ruined on top of everything else.

No, we're in Section 1.  NW corner end zone on the AU side.  It's all good, always a roll of the dice with opposing fans.  We've had season tickets for a while now so we've seen the good and bad of visiting fan bases.  Ironically enough I had talked to some of these guys before the game and they were excited to be here and said great things about the AU hospitality.

[CoffeeTiger 5,082]

Thanks for the thoughts and a spark of optimism/positivity. 

 This game on paper has no real impact on our season since we weren't going to compete for a natty either way, but It's very disappointing that our team  laid an egg on the biggest recruiting game we'll probably have this year. Recruiting is what we desperately needed a boost in, and unless we just had an out of this world pre/post game experience for these kids, I don't know that this weekend helped up out much on the recruiting trail.