Leatherneck Nation

Random observations from today's game:

The student section (now called "Purple Platoon") has been moved to the west side this year and is located in Sections F and G. There was a big crowd there.

One mistake that needs to be corrected: Western had the ball in the Red Zone in the 3rd qr driving for a score. The Western cheerleaders started handing out the free pizzas. That caused the crowd to get loud. But we had the ball. The Western players were on the sideline motioning for the crowd to quiet down. The pizza give-away needs to be conducted when the other team has the ball.

The bathrooms under the west stands were not open. Ohhh people were not happy.

I must not be a good judge of the crowd number. The attendance is posted as 6,732. I would have guessed that it was much higher than that.

wiu712 wrote:Random observations from today's game:

The student section (now called "Purple Platoon") has been moved to the west side this year and is located in Sections F and G. There was a big crowd there.

One mistake that needs to be corrected: Western had the ball in the Red Zone in the 3rd qr driving for a score. The Western cheerleaders started handing out the free pizzas. That caused the crowd to get loud. But we had the ball. The Western players were on the sideline motioning for the crowd to quiet down. The pizza give-away needs to be conducted when the other team has the ball.

The bathrooms under the west stands were not open. Ohhh people were not happy.

I must not be a good judge of the crowd number. The attendance is posted as 6,732. I would have guessed that it was much higher than that.

Student section - yea...they were a great crowd...hopefully that can continue throughout the season

Pizza handouts - that's something they've done for years and they almost never do it at the right time...outside of once or twice, it seems like they always do it when we're on offence...annoys the crap out of me and doesn't help the football team at all. I was planning on emailing Matt Tanney about that issue specifically.

West stands bathrooms - um...20 years I've been associated with WIU football and I didn't know there were west stands bathrooms. You learn something new every day I guess

Crowd - that has gotta be off, I would have guessed twice that. Do they not count students, since they don't actually buy tickets? The only way I can see under 7k is if they didn't count the entire student section.

ST_Lawson wrote:West stands bathrooms - um...20 years I've been associated with WIU football and I didn't know there were west stands bathrooms. You learn something new every day I guess

Crowd - that has gotta be off, I would have guessed twice that. Do they not count students, since they don't actually buy tickets? The only way I can see under 7k is if they didn't count the entire student section.

The west side bathrooms are underneath the stands--located between the two stairways that go up the backside.

In past years, the ticket-takers had "clickers" to record people as they entered. I entered through the north (main) gate. And I didn't think that the 2 people stationed there had them.

Since the "Purple Platoon" is now on the west side and the band is still on the east side, maybe they can get together and do some of the back and forth chants between sides - like "GO" and "WESTERN" or "PURPLE" and "GOLD".

yokedneck wrote:

vatusay wrote:That hit on the kick return tho, wow.

I was in the south endzone... total decleater. Glad the kid appeared to be OK.

Tom

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Here's the video from it (and just FYI, you can't see much from the angle, but from the other side, it looked absolutely severe). As I said before, he walked off under his own power and was walking around the sidelines later in the game. Wasn't really like an "injury" like you usually see where it's a rolled ankle, twisted knee or whatever...he probably had whiplash like he just got hit by a bus...that feeling where everything just aches for a while.

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Great game, great opponent.

There is no way in hell there were less than 8,500 people inside the gates at the start of the 2nd quarter. I remember games back in like 2004 where reported attendance was in excess of 13,000 people, back then I thought that was over reported, but for sure reported attendance today was just flat out plain wrong.

Actually all bodies in the Stadium I would put closer to 10,000 before Half time. I other note if reported attendance is 6,700 and change than the advertised capacity of Hanson Field being 16,000+ is false. Perception, is reality, it hurts WIUs perception if we are perceived to be not supported.....i.e. small attendance figures. Yes, I came in through the North Gate, students came in with no tickets and Neither of the young ladies their had clickers.

On another note, travel is expensive, but, I love OOC games with BigSky, hope it continues. I enjoyed this game quite a lot.

Thank you to our friendly NAU visitors that contributed to spirited and sportsman like discussion.

Another observation: Northern Arizona had 5 big fans on their sideline. They had flown on a private charter into Peoria on Friday. Then they bussed over.

wiu712 wrote:Another observation: Northern Arizona had 5 big fans on their sideline. They had flown on a private charter into Peoria on Friday. Then they bussed over.

Thats cool, I guess, but, Obviously NAU and their whole staff flew up on a private charter. I Imagine they flew into Peoria on Friday. Youngstown State flies into Peoria when they come to Macomb last time they where in Macomb I happened upon some of the assistant coaches at Hoops Pizza across from the Marriott in Downtown Peoria. Not sure why Peoria is more desirable to fly into, Moline is almost the same distance.

I should have been more clear - my fault:

The 5 big fans were actually air-blowing fans (not people). There were prepared for a hot & humid day.

And I meant that the team had flown into Peoria--not the 5 fans. Though the big "Air Fog" fans had to be on there as well.