Penn State Fans/Game comments.

[awag777]

My friends and I made the lengthy trek to Penn State this past weekend, and here's a few thoughts on Penn State Fans.

Penn State Fans are by far the classiest in the nation. By far. Every fan we talked to, bar none, gave us a "good luck!" and commended us for coming out that far. They didn't even want to give us light-hearted prodding. Nice nice people. Tailgaters gave us drinks, invited us to play tailgate games, talked Big 10 football with us. We parked in a residential area about 2 miles from the stadium, and a woman came outside and offered to give us a ride to the stadium upon realizing we'd come from Minnesota. After the game, everyone wished us well the rest of the way, talked about how classy the Gopher program is and how they think we're a team heading in the right direction.

That being said...

"Best Student Section in the Nation" status (per ESPN, others) is only a valid label if they show up in all weather. I'm not sure how large their student section is, but I'd be hard pressed to say that their section was half full at any point during the game. And plus, making it even more unacceptable, it's homecoming. I was enormously disappointed by the crowd (I really don't give a rip about what the weather was like). We came to Penn State hoping to see, feel, and hear what a 110,000 seat sold out stadium was like, thinking it'd be the loudest sporting event we'd ever attended. The two decks above the student section were sparsely filled at BEST. Extremely disappointing. Gorgeous stadium though.

Not a ton of enthusiasm by the non-student section fans. Was there a standing ovation at any point in the game? Again, not sure if it was the weather, but not a single time where I was remotely concerned about crowd noise. TCF has been louder on a number of occasions than Beaver Stadium was at any point during the game.

The only grumpy fans we came across were the ones pissed at our mini-Gopher student section for standing. Ho-hum.

Thought their indoor concert inside the basketball arena by the Blue Band was nice. Not sure if that was just for homecoming, or if it's a weekly thing, but it was nice.

Disappointed the band wasn't able to march on the field for pregame or halftime. I understand why, with the natural grass/weather, but ugh. 2,000 mile round trip and I feel like I didn't really even experience a Penn State gameday.

I will also add to the chorus calling for Grey. I understand partially the "not in a hostile environment" argument, but this was HARDLY a "hostile" environment. This was not typical Penn State. The guy has to get experience eventually, and us being down 20-0 with 7 minutes left feels like as good an opportunity as any.

A sweep to the left on fourth and one? Not a great play call. Wish we could've at least scored a touchdown.

 

[Gopherprof]

"Best Student Section in the Nation" status (per ESPN, others) is only a valid label if they show up in all weather. I'm not sure how large their student section is, but I'd be hard pressed to say that their section was half full at any point during the game. And plus, making it even more unacceptable, it's homecoming. I was enormously disappointed by the crowd (I really don't give a rip about what the weather was like). We came to Penn State hoping to see, feel, and hear what a 110,000 seat sold out stadium was like, thinking it'd be the loudest sporting event we'd ever attended. The two decks above the student section were sparsely filled at BEST. Extremely disappointing. Gorgeous stadium though.

Not a ton of enthusiasm by the non-student section fans. Was there a standing ovation at any point in the game? Again, not sure if it was the weather, but not a single time where I was remotely concerned about crowd noise. TCF has been louder on a number of occasions than Beaver Stadium was at any point during the game.

Funny how winning football games seems to alleviate those "concerns." I'm just guessing, but 90% of their message boards probably aren't dedicated to ripping each other.

Glad you had a good time. I envy those that can make the road trips.

 

[howeda7]

I can second your comments. Thier fans are great. Every single one I talked to over the age of 30 simply welcomed us and hoped we were having a good time. A few of the younger ones tried to razz us, but even that was half-hearted.

Because of the snow, they pretty much scared everyone into thinking there would be no parking available and we were able to drive right into a lot right at the stadium at 12:30 and get a spot no problem. We tailgated next to a group led by an 80-year old guy who's been to every game since the 40's. He had lots of great stories and seemed to know everyone from Jo Pa on down. He also had the greatest assortment of tailgate gear I've ever seen.

As for the stadium itself, it's only really impressive in it's size. Other then that, it's not remarkable. It's kind of like Rupp Arena in that regard. With all the rain/snow there was water leaking everywhere and lots of puddling. The student section was probably 80% full by the second quarter, but half-empty at kick-off. There were also lots of empty seats in the endzones. I was disappointed in not seeing a sell-out as well. It only really got rocking once, when they scored the 2nd TD.

 

[wait!what?]

Sweep to the left was the right call, but Whaley needs more weight/strength to push the defenders across the line. Executed well.

 

[PlayHosea]

Sweep to the left was the right call, but Whaley needs more weight/strength to push the defenders across the line. Executed well.

We watched the play several times. Whaley appears to slow up as if he's going to stroll into the endzone. If he goes all out from the moment he touches the ball, he scores. Freshman mistake.

For anyone that was there, was there a big problem with fans throwing snowballs?

 

[Schnauzer]

One note on those Penn State fans... watching their weather people scuttle around prior to the game... the weather there was being treated and and talked about like a 20+ inch snowstorm would be here. The weather terrorists won. If we got a repeat of the great Halloween snowstorm this Halloween, I think you'd see the same thing here.

 

[howeda7]

We watched the play several times. Whaley appears to slow up as if he's going to stroll into the endzone. If he goes all out from the moment he touches the ball, he scores. Freshman mistake.

For anyone that was there, was there a big problem with fans throwing snowballs?

Not really. There were a few snowballs in our section, but those people pretty much got glared into submission. There was a lot of it in the student section, but I think that's the type of thing that should go on in the student section.

On a side note, I didn't notice thier fans standing for much of anything including 3rd downs. But I don't know if that's normal, or simply because of the weather and the fact that the game was never in doubt.

 

[Gophers09]

We watched the play several times. Whaley appears to slow up as if he's going to stroll into the endzone. If he goes all out from the moment he touches the ball, he scores. Freshman mistake.

For anyone that was there, was there a big problem with fans throwing snowballs?

A minor problem - mostly students just threw them at each other but a few went in the direction of the players. Also one of our cheerleaders got nailed and the fan was ejected.

 

[Gophers09]

One note on those Penn State fans... watching their weather people scuttle around prior to the game... the weather there was being treated and and talked about like a 20+ inch snowstorm would be here. The weather terrorists won. If we got a repeat of the great Halloween snowstorm this Halloween, I think you'd see the same thing here.

I too was disappointed with how great an effect the weather seemed to have on the turnout and subsequent atmosphere. I did here from someone though that a number of nearby hotels were without power from the Thursday/Friday weather and told people not to come. PSU draws a lot more fans from further away than us given the location of the school, so I can see how this would have some impact.

 

[Zales04]

For anyone that was there, was there a big problem with fans throwing snowballs?

I got hit with one in the shoulder and got the collateral damage from another one. It might have been from 4 fat Penn State fans that we convinced to move somewhere else rather than in the middle of our group. They were the only real assholes we encountered. A few "minnesota sucks" or "gophers suck!" blasts that weren't originial came from some younger people. Other than that, most PSU fans were asking us about Favre and whatnot.