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Non-Team Complaints from Saturday
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6 CommentsSince we’re going to seemingly be in complain mode for a while with the way the football team is playing, I’m going to quickly share a few non-team-related complaints stemming from this past Saturday’s game.
1. To all students, don’t start the wave during a close game. As soon as I saw some students trying to start the wave while the defense was on the field with a not-so-big lead, I knew it was a bad idea. It turned out to be a really bad idea when Purdue quickly took the lead a few minutes later.
2. This was only a source of great debate when Michigan was winning, but I’m going to bring it back up again: The piped-in music sucks. It’s not the presence of the piped-in music that sucks, but the way it is being presented. First and foremost, the person in control of the music needs to learn how to fade out when stopping a song instead of it just coming to an end in one instance. Also, the timing of when some songs were played was terrible on Saturday. A couple times songs were started too close to a play and had to be stopped after only a few seconds. That just came off as really cheap-sounding, especially when songs were stopped before they even got to the good part (i.e. Lose Yourself).
The other big issue that I’m starting to have with the piped-in music is how often some songs are being played. Seven Nation Army, for example, should not be played more than once a game. Aside from the fact that nearly every stadium in the country seems to play it, schools like Ohio State and Penn State already use it quite a bit. I believe at Ohio State it is played before every kickoff, so I’d like to see it cut down at Michigan Stadium. The same goes for Sandstorm, which really doesn’t need to be played more than once or twice a game at most.
3. I don’t know if he was just having an off day or what, but man, Carl Grapentine did a terrible job as the PA announcer during this game. He failed to mention that a Purdue player fumbled (probably because it was quickly recovered by the same player), initially said an interception was incomplete, and also initially said Michigan’s missed extra point was good. I know it’s not an easy job to have to immediately say what happened, especially since Grapentine was originally only the band’s announcer, but come on, these mistakes were issues with just not paying attention.
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I can guarantee that if Michigan was winning games and we didn’t need to complain about the team, there would be a lot more complaining of this nature going on (see September and the piped-in music debate). Even so, these complaints are just things that bugged me on Saturday. Feel free to add your own complaints to the list.
Since when does the game situation have anything to do with the wave?
Traditionally the wave is executed during the third quarter of a blowout. It never works during a close game because people are focused on the game.
My complaint:
The awful rock music intro during the players’ entrance needs to go. The “Let’s Go Blue” chant gave me goosebumps and it was unique to us. Now it looks like we have a generic and inferior Virginia Tech entrance. Also, announcing the starters needs to comeback. The excuse was something about not having enough time to do it but that’s a lie. I go to every game and there is dead air every time they scroll the starters on the video screen.
I agree. The fact that Thunderstruck is also played during MSU’s entrance should be reason enough for Michigan not to use it.
When it comes to the piped-in music, the Athletic Department appears to operate in a vacuum. It seems to not know (or particularly care) about other teams, who we play on a regular basis, staking long-time claims on the RAWK we blast in our Stadium. Seven Nation Army is a long-time Penn State thing, and has also become an OSU staple. And never mind that MSU has used Thunderstruck (and associated LASER EYE GRAPHIX!!11!1!) for their on-field entrance for like 15 years. Now Sandstorm?
It takes a certain amount of dogged persistence and disregard for the traditions of your University to not only sell out your band like that, but to also be so damn inept as to allow your game-day atmosphere to be, well, the opposite of everything it has ever been. This stuff isn’t Michigan, and I resent that Michigan is becoming just another school when it comes to game-day. Also see: the Victors Walk.
This was my first game at the Big House in 20 years sooooo, take this with a grain of salt. The only complaints I have about the experience were:
1. where the hell are all the ATM machines? I found one tent with a couple machines way outside the stadium structure by the fence. It took me the better part of the second quarter to find it. Come on, this is 2009. Get them in the halls of the stadium, or better yet, have the concession stands take plastic.
2. The piped in music was barely audible from section 43, row 60. It might as well have been left off.
Still, all in all, I was able to take the kids to their first Michigan home game and they (and I) loved every minute of it, win or lose. Seeing my little 7 year old girl jumping and pumping her fists on every HAIL! HAIL! was great. Even the angry granny behind us smiled at that.
All I can say is Boiler Up!