Well, today was sucky.
Flew into Seattle late on Thursday, and stayed with my brother in Sammamish. Been here a million times so wasn't out and about too much, but Friday we went to lunch down near Pikes. Turns out the CU cheerleaders were at the same restaurant. Also, lots and lots of CU gear out and about downtown - which I suppose is to be expected the day before a game.
Friday night I went to Everett to watch a WHL hockey game. Got to see Avs first round pick Duncan Siemens playing for the Saskatoon Blades. He's good. Think Adam Foote style of play. Also had to put up with quite a bit of trash talk from some UW guys. It was mostly in good fun, and they tended to STFU when I brought up their 0 - 12 year... at that point they sympathized with us. They were all pretty excited about the changes to the Pac.
Gameday today. Unfortunately, couldn't really find anything organized going on. I ended up taking a Park n Ride shuttle to the game with my brother. We were pretty much clueless on where to go, so we ended up in the stadium far earlier than I liked. Didn't get to experience the tailgating scene first hand, but from what I could see, it lacked character. In fact, that could describe almost everything that I felt on gameday. There isn't a fun campus vibe like you get at and around Folsom on gameday. It feels a little more NFL, and a little less college.
Fans pretty much treated all the CU folks as invisible. They weren't mean or rude - but for the most part they didn't go out of their way to be nice or cordial either. It probably helps that they (like all the Pac teams now) see us as a doormat, so we don't inspire much emotion outside of pity.
The stadium has one thing going for it - it gets loud very easily. Their fans did a good job contributing to that. Stadium was mostly full, and their fans were into the game the whole time. Almost all of them stayed to the very end.
The stadium itself is trash. Rusting steel, chainlink fences, cracked and crumbling concrete, ancient wood benches, narrow aisles..... a real dump IMO. I was right at the bottom of the visitor section in 4, about 15 rows up or so, and the seats were terrible. It was basically impossible to figure out what was going on when watching the game live. One of the reasons for this is because of the obnoxious track that goes around their field. The entire crowd is completely removed from the action, and it is even worse for the visitors who have to sit waaaayyyy behind the endzone. The other issue is that because of the track, and because of drainage design, when you're sitting about as low as I was, your viewpoint isn't that far up from the field itself. This make it difficult to have any depth of vision with the game, and thus it was hard to follow the game.
As I said, their crowd did a good job of getting into it. They had some nice loud cheers - although nothing particularly original. Some obnoxious things were their hand gyrations. I think all the school gang signs are lame, but theirs was particularly bad. I couldn't figure out what they were doing half the time - it looked like they were doing a rendition of itsy-bitsy spider. Also the barking dog stuff was super lame. I'm sure our UW posters love it, but from my perspective it was stupid to a) pipe in a sound loop of a barking dog and b) to bark like a dog after big plays. Just IMO there. Also lame was the giant helmet that they have driving around the track while the game is going on. WTF
Their dog mascot was pretty cool, but they didn't do anything with it. It looked to me like it might have had some hip problems, as it walked very stiffly, so maybe that contributed to it.
They had lots of hot cheerleaders and students. Very good talent. In fact, their cheerleaders were hotter than ours almost across the board - which isn't too exciting since most of our talent is found on the dance squad IIRC. But, regardless, good eye candy.
Kind of annoyed me that during half time that some of their band and cheerleaders came over to our band and cheerleaders and gave them snacks and ****. Nice gesture by them, but we were getting our ass handed to us, and I'm tired of everyone being all nice and friendly when they're raping us. I wish someone at CU would get mad.
Our band does put out a lot of noise, even when they're just a small contingent. Unfortunately they, and our cheerleaders, were mostly disinterested. Chip wandered around and was amusing, but again, not interested in the game really.
I was looking forward to a big CU contingent based upon how well it sounded like we've traveled to some of the other games (Cal, Hawaii, Stan) - but ended up pretty disappointed in the turnout. I don't know how many we had, but it wasn't much. The CU crowd (including me) was also disinterested. Of course it didn't help that they scored a TD on 5 straight possessions. We got up and cheered every once in awhile for big plays, but it was a pretty quiet for the most part. The biggest cheer from our sections came when we stopped them for a punt in the second half. That got a loud, sarcastic standing ovation.
Now, I don't go to many road games, but the other thing that irked me was that our section got zero attention from the players and coaches. Maybe this is an unrealistic expectation, but we didn't even get a GLANCE from anyone the entire game. Not when they came out at the start, not before our after half-time, and not after the game. Not a wave, nothing to pump us up - nothing. When you watch visiting teams and Folsom, you will notice that the visiting players often get really involved with their section. Yes, the crappy layout of Husky stadium had an affect on that today, but we got no acknowledgement from the team - pretty lame considering we all paid large sums of cash to watch them **** down their leg again.
I also now see why we can't win a road game. I've seen the Buffs come play scared in a few road games. They weren't scared today, they were dead. They had no energy, no urgency, to passion. It seemed like they felt the game was hopeless from the second they stepped on the field. They didn't care. It seemed to me that they just wanted to get back on the plane and head home. Harsh, I know - but there was pretty much no pride out there today.
They looked like a team that had already played Ohio State, Hawaii, and Stanford on the road. They looked like a team that had 2 gut-wrenching losses at home. They are worn down physically and mentally. They've only played TWO ****ING GAMES in the confines of Folsom. TWO. They are on planes and buses every week playing top notch competition. They badly need a break, and they aren't going to get one this season. It is going to get ugly. Cash or no-cash, nice scheduling Bohn.
I gathered all of this from their body language. For example. UW runs out on the field, and they run off the field. CU walks out on the field, and walks off of the field. I've never seen a team with heads hung so low as I did when they walked off the field at 1/2. I'm concerned that Embo has lost them for the season already.
Anyway, it was a depressing day. The silver-lining was the fact that we are so completely irrelevant to our new conference foes that no one bothered talking smack to us after the game.
Here are my ultimate conclusions from today
1) Buffs are terrbile
2) UW has a really nice offense
3) Gameday experience at UW is meh
4) Mike Bohn should be fired. Thanks for getting the house in order and getting us to the Pac, but you haven't built competitive athletic programs. Time for you to go.
Flew into Seattle late on Thursday, and stayed with my brother in Sammamish. Been here a million times so wasn't out and about too much, but Friday we went to lunch down near Pikes. Turns out the CU cheerleaders were at the same restaurant. Also, lots and lots of CU gear out and about downtown - which I suppose is to be expected the day before a game.
Friday night I went to Everett to watch a WHL hockey game. Got to see Avs first round pick Duncan Siemens playing for the Saskatoon Blades. He's good. Think Adam Foote style of play. Also had to put up with quite a bit of trash talk from some UW guys. It was mostly in good fun, and they tended to STFU when I brought up their 0 - 12 year... at that point they sympathized with us. They were all pretty excited about the changes to the Pac.
Gameday today. Unfortunately, couldn't really find anything organized going on. I ended up taking a Park n Ride shuttle to the game with my brother. We were pretty much clueless on where to go, so we ended up in the stadium far earlier than I liked. Didn't get to experience the tailgating scene first hand, but from what I could see, it lacked character. In fact, that could describe almost everything that I felt on gameday. There isn't a fun campus vibe like you get at and around Folsom on gameday. It feels a little more NFL, and a little less college.
Fans pretty much treated all the CU folks as invisible. They weren't mean or rude - but for the most part they didn't go out of their way to be nice or cordial either. It probably helps that they (like all the Pac teams now) see us as a doormat, so we don't inspire much emotion outside of pity.
The stadium has one thing going for it - it gets loud very easily. Their fans did a good job contributing to that. Stadium was mostly full, and their fans were into the game the whole time. Almost all of them stayed to the very end.
The stadium itself is trash. Rusting steel, chainlink fences, cracked and crumbling concrete, ancient wood benches, narrow aisles..... a real dump IMO. I was right at the bottom of the visitor section in 4, about 15 rows up or so, and the seats were terrible. It was basically impossible to figure out what was going on when watching the game live. One of the reasons for this is because of the obnoxious track that goes around their field. The entire crowd is completely removed from the action, and it is even worse for the visitors who have to sit waaaayyyy behind the endzone. The other issue is that because of the track, and because of drainage design, when you're sitting about as low as I was, your viewpoint isn't that far up from the field itself. This make it difficult to have any depth of vision with the game, and thus it was hard to follow the game.
As I said, their crowd did a good job of getting into it. They had some nice loud cheers - although nothing particularly original. Some obnoxious things were their hand gyrations. I think all the school gang signs are lame, but theirs was particularly bad. I couldn't figure out what they were doing half the time - it looked like they were doing a rendition of itsy-bitsy spider. Also the barking dog stuff was super lame. I'm sure our UW posters love it, but from my perspective it was stupid to a) pipe in a sound loop of a barking dog and b) to bark like a dog after big plays. Just IMO there. Also lame was the giant helmet that they have driving around the track while the game is going on. WTF
Their dog mascot was pretty cool, but they didn't do anything with it. It looked to me like it might have had some hip problems, as it walked very stiffly, so maybe that contributed to it.
They had lots of hot cheerleaders and students. Very good talent. In fact, their cheerleaders were hotter than ours almost across the board - which isn't too exciting since most of our talent is found on the dance squad IIRC. But, regardless, good eye candy.
Kind of annoyed me that during half time that some of their band and cheerleaders came over to our band and cheerleaders and gave them snacks and ****. Nice gesture by them, but we were getting our ass handed to us, and I'm tired of everyone being all nice and friendly when they're raping us. I wish someone at CU would get mad.
Our band does put out a lot of noise, even when they're just a small contingent. Unfortunately they, and our cheerleaders, were mostly disinterested. Chip wandered around and was amusing, but again, not interested in the game really.
I was looking forward to a big CU contingent based upon how well it sounded like we've traveled to some of the other games (Cal, Hawaii, Stan) - but ended up pretty disappointed in the turnout. I don't know how many we had, but it wasn't much. The CU crowd (including me) was also disinterested. Of course it didn't help that they scored a TD on 5 straight possessions. We got up and cheered every once in awhile for big plays, but it was a pretty quiet for the most part. The biggest cheer from our sections came when we stopped them for a punt in the second half. That got a loud, sarcastic standing ovation.
Now, I don't go to many road games, but the other thing that irked me was that our section got zero attention from the players and coaches. Maybe this is an unrealistic expectation, but we didn't even get a GLANCE from anyone the entire game. Not when they came out at the start, not before our after half-time, and not after the game. Not a wave, nothing to pump us up - nothing. When you watch visiting teams and Folsom, you will notice that the visiting players often get really involved with their section. Yes, the crappy layout of Husky stadium had an affect on that today, but we got no acknowledgement from the team - pretty lame considering we all paid large sums of cash to watch them **** down their leg again.
I also now see why we can't win a road game. I've seen the Buffs come play scared in a few road games. They weren't scared today, they were dead. They had no energy, no urgency, to passion. It seemed like they felt the game was hopeless from the second they stepped on the field. They didn't care. It seemed to me that they just wanted to get back on the plane and head home. Harsh, I know - but there was pretty much no pride out there today.
They looked like a team that had already played Ohio State, Hawaii, and Stanford on the road. They looked like a team that had 2 gut-wrenching losses at home. They are worn down physically and mentally. They've only played TWO ****ING GAMES in the confines of Folsom. TWO. They are on planes and buses every week playing top notch competition. They badly need a break, and they aren't going to get one this season. It is going to get ugly. Cash or no-cash, nice scheduling Bohn.
I gathered all of this from their body language. For example. UW runs out on the field, and they run off the field. CU walks out on the field, and walks off of the field. I've never seen a team with heads hung so low as I did when they walked off the field at 1/2. I'm concerned that Embo has lost them for the season already.
Anyway, it was a depressing day. The silver-lining was the fact that we are so completely irrelevant to our new conference foes that no one bothered talking smack to us after the game.
Here are my ultimate conclusions from today
1) Buffs are terrbile
2) UW has a really nice offense
3) Gameday experience at UW is meh
4) Mike Bohn should be fired. Thanks for getting the house in order and getting us to the Pac, but you haven't built competitive athletic programs. Time for you to go.
