10/4 #1 NDSU at WIU

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Western_101
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I will say it. Mr Tommy Bell your video screen is inadequate and far too small. I am so very tired of being disapointed.
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Western_101
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Weird, don't know why that posted twice.... Sorry I sounded so douchey. Guess that's what happens when my Bears blow a game they should have won. (obviously completley non relateted to Western....but try telling that to my 10 caveman brain cells)

I do think NFS71 is right about this team being good next year.
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sealhall74
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Back home now in Va after a very long weekend (too long as flight out of ORD was delayed six hours last night but on the positive side, United ended up reconfiguring the Bears charter plane for us after they got back from Charlotte and man-o-man was that a comfy ride (767-400), but I digress as usual).

It was a cold day for sure. I showed up at 7am for the Stompin' Ground run and had to make immediate use of a Q Lot Porta Potty. That plastic seat was bone-chilling ice cold but I would not have traded it for anything at that time. The race starter (Gil ?) said we would be a lot warmer during the run than all the folks standing around the race course doing their good deeds and he was right. I was near back of pack and in no real hurry so I tried to thank each of them for their service as I lumbered by to finish my totally pain-free 31'50" with emphasis on pain-free cause they don't always end up that way. Next year, need to get more alumni in this event as it seemed the townies walked away with all of the hardware. After warming up in the Union with a little breakfast and coffee, I headed up to the square to watch the parade. I guess I got there after the Marching Leathernecks went by. For some dumb reason I was thinking they would save the best for last. I was mistaken (parade not concert) - and not the first time in my life.

My thoughts about the game. Yes, we could not get anything going on offense in the 2nd half and that caused the defense to wear out as the game went on. But the defense also had some of their own issues during the game failing to stop the Bison on 3rd down. You hate to see a QB run for 10+ yards on 3rd and long right up the gut and that prayer Wentz threw 50 yards across the field after scrambling far to his right really hurt the cause when a game so often boils down to who gets control of field position. I also think NDSU out-smarted us in the play-calling department, not by a little but by a lot. They came back with different options (some tricky ones) on the same plays that we were stopping and when they needed that something special, they knew exactly when to pull it off.

That said, we had some guys put together career games on the field. I was standing very near Baker's parents a few minutes before game got underway. JC came over to get a good luck hug/kiss and you could just see the light (and fire) in his eyes. I had a sense right then that he was going to have a great game.

The game day atmosphere was pretty good. Those speakers were effing awesome. Forget about silencing them when the band plays! I say work on the timing issues and put a microphone near the band so they can take advantage of them. I agree with Bob L that more and louder fans could have made a huge difference in the outcome of this one. Once again, the fans were loudest when the pizzas came out early in second half. It was at an appropriate time but I hate to see that as it distracts the fans from the action on the field. If you did not know when to stand and cheer during this one, you should have stayed home. For a large part of second half, I was in north end zone. I can't believe I missed getting a picture of that Baker TD run heading my direction but I got into the moment as they say. The crowd down in that area grew as the game went on. Even @StudentPres spent some time down there and that was good to see. People there were definitely hoping that they could hop those metal gates and get onto the field but it was not to be.

The record may not show it, but the attraction on the field is trending way up this year over the last few. It may take a couple years to get where we want to be but until then, fans and students just need to hang in there and do their jobs.

PS. Track and Field team needs a new brand of hotdog, different way of preparing them, or something as mine were totally tasteless. There is always something to improve on, no matter what. ;)
Embrace the pace of the race.
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WIU0812
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Great breakdown Seal, Did anyone snap a picture of the flags on the grandstand? I did not get to go to the game =[. As for the food I definitely agree that it has gone down hill and now has a smaller selection. My Fiance does not eat meat, so we went to the stand hoping for some nachos or a slice of pizza and they did not have anything she could eat that was a worthwhile meal. I was pretty sure last year they had slices of pizza. I can not believe they would not sell nachos though that is like a fan favorite at games!
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sealhall74
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WIU0812 wrote:Great breakdown Seal, Did anyone snap a picture of the flags on the grandstand? I did not get to go to the game =[. As for the food I definitely agree that it has gone down hill and now has a smaller selection. My Fiance does not eat meat, so we went to the stand hoping for some nachos or a slice of pizza and they did not have anything she could eat that was a worthwhile meal. I was pretty sure last year they had slices of pizza. I can not believe they would not sell nachos though that is like a fan favorite at games!
I am no photographer but I have one from a distance in this album below. This album also has the flag pole area. What are the plans for that? Seems like a statue or something is needed in front of the flag poles. I could picture a small-scale Iwo Jima memorial right there. As I have said before, the Power Plant building in background is opportunity knocking for something really big and bold. Even the south hillside could be spruced up with some sort of "W" or "WIU" landscaping stuff and still make is useable to hang out with friends there. Oh, it is fun to dream.

https://plus.google.com/photos/10063671 ... 2665407553
Embrace the pace of the race.
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WIU0812
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Just need a wind screen like the soccer field has up there near union parking that would really stand out nice!
wiu712
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YouTube video from Andrew Bacon featuring the "Sights and Sounds" from Western Homecoming:
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ST_Lawson
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Wanted to wait a bit to toss in my comments...been a rough week for my teams (I'm a Bears fan) and even though I had fun at Homecoming (outside of the last half of the 4th quarter), had kinda a "football funk" going on.

Attendance - 5k?....really? That was 5k? I've seen crowds like that at Hanson Field reported as 15k. I know it wasn't that big, but 5k sounds really small to me (my own personal guess when I was there was ~9k). Did they just stop counting at kickoff or something? It wasn't as large of a crowd as the last home game (couldn't beat that weather), but it should have been larger....seriously people...it's Homecoming.
Also, seemed like the Bison fans didn't really show up "en masse" quite like they have in the past. I was expecting a bit larger turnout from them.

Band - Yea, they do need to work on coordinating between them and the scoreboard, but they also need to work on when they need to be loud and when to be quiet. One of the earlier home games, we were on offense and the opposing team's fans started getting loud. Some of the band members got up and pretty much where like..."oh yea...well, we can be louder". I was just sitting there shaking my head. There were instances of being loud and starting cheers when we had the ball this weekend as well. Loud on defense, silent on offense...at least, once the QB goes under center. You should not be making noise when your own QB is trying to call out plays and snap the football.

Music/Audio (related to previous) - whoever is running the music needs to be queued into what's going on with the game much better. By now, people should realize that our offense will occasionally go "hurry up" and move down the field very quickly. Norvell will get up there and snap the ball right away. There were a couple of times where the ball would be snapped, Norvell would step back and hand it off to Baker...and JC would be 5 yards downfield before they'd shut off the music. Also, know your opponent...or more specifically, if they have something that is "their song"...something that gets them and their fans pumped up....DO NOT PLAY IT...especially when they're needing a solid drive down the field to come back from being down. NDSU has been playing AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" for as long as I can remember, likely since before they joined the conference. So what do I hear in the second half, when the Bison have the ball getting ready to drive down the field....Thunderstruck. The NDSU fans got up and got loud, and the Bison put together a solid drive (I can't remember if they scored on that one or not specifically, but it didn't help our field position battle at that point).

Morning 5K - Seal, what were you wearing? I was running with my sister-in-law (it was her first 5k) and we finished in 32:08, so I was less than 20 seconds behind you. You're right, it was pretty darn chilly. Last year I ran that race in shorts and a short sleeve running shirt. Not this year.

Circle area on the south side - personally, I've always thought that a great thing to put there would be something like a 4 foot tall pedestal with a life-sized statue of Coach Hanson himself on top of it. I mean, it's Hanson Field, why not have the man himself standing there...bow tie and all....overlooking the field from the South side of the stadium.

The game - defense did great at times, especially against the run...offense did great at times, especially with the run (and a career day for Baker)...but again, just didn't finish strong. Seems like we can do 2-3 solid quarters, but when it gets to the end of the game, we start playing sloppy and letting the other team get away with stuff.

The good:
Baker - 175 yards (career best) and 1 TD
Ground game overall - 253 yards total, averaging 6.0 yards per attempt.
Knuffman - looked confident in easily hitting the one FG he was called upon to make (a 30-yarder) and made the 1 XP.
Rushing Defense - again held a great RB to a substandard performance...NDSU's John Crockett...had been averaging 122 yards per game...had only 80 against us. And rushing overall...NDSU put up 302 yards against Iowa State...280 against (at the time #4 ranked) Montana...we gave up 149, the lowest for the Bison this season. Kitzel had 8 solo and 8 assisted tackles (16 total), Rollins had 6 and 3 (9 total), and Venegoni had 4 and 5 (9 total).

The bad:
Pretty much anything involving throwing the ball on either side.
Norvell had a QB rating of 35.4 (10 out of 21 for 68 yards with 1 INT). Borsellino caught 4 for 34 yards, Scott caught 4 for 20 yards, Lenoir caught 1 for 11 yards, and Baker had 1 catch for 3 yards.
Our pass defense gave up 256 yards (8.5 yards per attempt) and a TD, although they (specifically Marquette Privott) did have 1 INT.

I think the thing about this game that hurts the most for me is that we could have won this one. One or two plays that happened a little differently and we would have. We were expected to be blown out...some places favoring NDSU by 30 points. I mean, it's great that we weren't...we put up an amazing effort against one of the best teams we'll play against this year (honestly, I think NDSU on a good day could take down both Wisconsin and Northwestern)....but to come that close...to be beating the #1 team in the country with less than 12 minutes left in the game...it's just a tough one to take.

I think we did get some measure of respect from some of the people that know FCS football, but it doesn't seem like a lot of our current students really fall into that category and for them...we lost...at Homecoming...against a team that probably many of them haven't even heard of ("I mean...it's not like they're Alabama or anything"). And we probably won't see more than 3-4k at any of the rest of the home games. Which really pisses me off.

Anyway, sorry about the negativity. Apathetic students make me angry too. Rant done.
Scott Lawson - Board Admin
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Member of the Marching Leathernecks - 1996-2000
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WIU0812
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Sounds like you had about the same feeling as I did throughout the game. I agree that the stands looked more like ~9,000 instead of 5,000. I think they stop taking count after a certain point in the game and that is probably why. I know after halftime it is free entry and you do not need a ticket since I forgot mine one time and just waited around rather than doubling down the money for me and those with me. As for the music, this is usually controlled from a press box, but as of right now it is controlled from the ground right next to the scoreboard which I would assume makes it very difficult to tell when to start and stop the music. I would assume that once new stadium goes up the connections will be made and all of the scoreboard and sound system will be integrated in to the new press box somewhere. Most likely this will also be the location where they broadcast the video from.
wiu712
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ST_Lawson wrote:Whoever is running the music needs to be queued into what's going on with the game much better.
We were very lucky that we were not penalized because of that loud music from the north endzone speakers. There were multiple times when that music was still blaring when the North Dakota State offense was snapping the ball.
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