CCR was a great call.

I think they need a new “pump up” video, with some more Last of the Mohican’s-type music (think: the end of “Requiem for a Dream”)

I don’t mind all the extra songs…i think it’s cool when 107,000 + people are singing the same song. I bet it sounds pretty awesome just outside the stadium.

Who cares if we copy Boston?…people copy us and no one, except us, says anything about it ……which is because no one cares. Plus Boston is a great sports town and they have the same kind of fans we do. They also have been through what us PSU fans have in the past…….DISAPPOINTMENT.

I want more crowd involvement…….i want the crowd to be as involved as possible. Don’t you remember the early 2000s when no one has EVER heard 107,000 fans be so quiet? Maybe if we had Zombie Nation, Seven Nation Army, Journey & pump up videos then the crowd could’ve been more into the game.

I think you’re wrong……..WHAT THEY SHOULD GET RID OF, is all these check presentations and little awards they give out in between quarters. Not only did it kill my buzz, but it was the only thing that i saw that killed the crowd’s mood. Do those presentations during the lacrosse games or during the Coastal Carolina game when someone might actually give a shit.

that was ONE OF my most enjoyable times in beaver stadium and i have been going to games for 25 years (DWill helped that out just a little bit).

Right on the money, RUTS. I couldn’t agree more, especially with this statement: “In an attempt to modernize the Beaver Stadium experience, it’s been turned into a professional basketball arena.” And believe me, that’s not a good thing. It’s a primary reason why I generally dislike the NBA but love college basketball. The marching bands are a big part of what make the college athletics atmosphere special — let’s hear more of them! Personally though, I’m fine with the “Let’s Go PSU!” chant, largely because the Blue Band plays it. If it was piped in as well, it’d have to go! As fans, if you can’t get pumped up and cheer so loud you’re hoarse after the game unless you hear “Sweet Caroline” or “Don’t Stop Believin’,” I’m sorry but that’s totally pathetic.

Less piped in music. Don’t get me wrong, I love how Zombie Nation gets the students pumped, but all that separates CFB from the pro’s is being slowly taken away from us.

More ad’s, more music, less actual music from the band….Guido is an unstoppable rebel force.

After trying to figure out where to start, I guess it should be with the fact that Saturday was the first time I ever sat in an upper section (my girlfriend’s parents’ tickets) and I couldn’t believe how much of the pumped in music I never had to pay attention to until I sat up there. It’s amazing how much more musical some of those things are which you can never hear unless you have a 10 million dollar speaker system right behind you. Needless to say, most of the 109,000+ don’t hear those parts anyway and most of them I feel should go.

I love the Blue Band and I’m currently a member of the volleyball and basketball pep bands and the thing we hear more than anything else is that people want to hear more of us and less of the “canned” music. In fact, the President of Nittany Nation for the men’s basketball games actually said in a meeting with the people in charge of these things that he would prefer it was ALL Pride of the Lions Pep Band (I think there were concessions made for Seven Nation Army and a few other things).

BUT there’s one thing that one cannot deny… the average person loves it. The students love it, the section where I was sitting (which are mostly people who were students not too long ago) ate it up. In fact, unless I’m sitting where my parents’ tickets are (where I’ve been for 12 years as a kid) and the average age has finally crept up over 55, everywhere I go people love it. I, personally, think it takes away from the game, from the crowd, from the band, and there really isn’t PURE adrenaline any more.

The most amazing thing, which usually doesn’t happen, was when Sweet Caroline came on and then they had to cut it out before the chorus, play a little football, and then start it again. There were more people interested in Sweet Caroline than there were for football. That should never, ever happen.

There were numerous plays that went to official review, including the Clark fumble and the special teams punting mishap that were both eventually overturned in PSU’s favor.

Anyone know why they do not show the replay on the big screen like they do in many other venues? Is it so that the crowd does not influence the ref’s decision?

Personally, I hate that I don’t get a chance to take a second look at what just happened.

What about moving the Blue Band out of the student section and into the other end zone? I think that it would be pretty sweet to have the team have to choose between going toward our student section in the fourth quarter or our band.

Or would that be totally against the rules of college football?

Agree on the CCR being a good call. There’s nothing like 110,000 people singing a classic like that.

That being said, don’t play it twice!

The problem is that all of these things get run into the ground. Could I handle Zombie Nation and Song 2 once a quarter? Sure! Could I maybe handle “Sweet Caroline” once a season between quarters? I probably could! (Note: I’ll still sing ’F—- this song!" when everyone sings along). For some reason, “Shout” after halftime has even grown on me.

The scary part is the speed with which this all happened. I remember the experience in 2002/2003, and in 2004 you could really feel a different vibe in the whole stadium. As a former Blue Band remember, I remember being so pissed when we’d score a touchdown and Zombie Nation would play over us playing “Fight On State.” The part about those fight songs is that, for the most part, they are ours. Anyone can bombard you with Neil Diamond.

It’s not just the music. It’s the whole transformation into a professional experience. It’s not even always a good professional experience. It has this level of minor league baseball tackiness to it at some moments. I’m sure a good compromise could be reached… but I doubt it will. This is a slippery slope.

Not only do I detest it as a Yankees fan, but it’s just a terrible addition to the already crowded song list at Beaver Stadium. I love Zombie Nation, but whoever is controlling the music clearly does not understand the tempo or rhythm or momentum shifts in college football. Zombie Nation should be played for huge, game-changing plays. This does not include a Stephfon Green 18 yard first down run against temple. This does include, however, a tremendous feet up in the air sack/forced fumble caused by Tamba Hali. By playing Zombie Nation less and reserving it for only the most special plays makes it unique and can be much more effective in creating the wildest atmosphere in college football. Less is certainly more in this case

Piped-in music doesn’t bother me as much just because I realize it’s far easier for speakers to hit all parts of the stadium loudly than it is for the band. It’s the selection that sucks — Zombie Nation is a straight eurotrash band — and it’s really disappointing compared with Virginia Tech’s use of Metallica’s Enter Sandman. Lane Stadium is insane prior to a night game. This Kernkraft song always makes me think of Sprockets and the Technoviking which are considerably less exciting. America has produced a ton of great rock bands, use them.

I have been to many, many PSU games both in my time as a student, and in the 6 years (ugh, I feel so old writing that) since I graduated. I think this was, by far, the best PSU game experience I have even been a part of.
Could I do without Sweet Caroline…sure. But Seven nation Army and Zombie Nation type songs are what make people like Musberger compare us to a “European soccer crowd,” which should be taken as a huge compliment. CCR was just perfect timing, and gave me chills listening to 110,000 singing together.
I was at the OSU game in ’05 and the ND game last year, and this was taken to another level this weekend. I say well done to both the organizers and the fans who made this a great experience.

Since my company sales and analyzes sponsorships in sports, I feel my opinion should hold some weight.

When we added the LED banners this year (end zone) they told the public it was for showing statistics and out of town scores. The real reason you spend millions of dollars with ANC Sports for the LED is to provide more advertising inventory for your current and potential sponsors. Every arena and stadium is doing it. It is a way to generate more revenue for the school. The property that sells sponsorships makes a gurantee to PSU on how much revenue they will get them every year. The rings help them make some money back from this. The reason they thank the sponsors is because a verbal mention carries a higher weight then a logo. They want to mention the sponsor so in the sponosorship recap they can say it was mention X amount of times during the season and this is the value for those mentions.

Sweet Caroline needs to go away. It should have never started. What are we going to do next, steal Jump Around from Wisconsin?

Maybe I’m just trying to be the contrarian here, but I think the piped in music is fine. It gets a little cumbersome to hear Zombie Nation so much, but the student section reaction is so overwhelming it’s hard not to get excited (obviously, an exciting play just happened, so that makes it even better). When “Zombie Nation” and that “We Ready” song are piped into NFL games, that reaction isn’t there. I can’t listen to ZN in any other setting than inside Beaver Stadium with the students hopping and yelling.

I attended every game as a student from ’98 to ’03 and witnessed many distressing stadium scenes that I am extremely glad have gone by the wayside:

1) Students not having anything better to do to celebrate big plays except throwing any trash around them, including full water bottles and giant soda containers filled with pepsi (thank the corporate sponsor alert). Awful times, and this was before the team had their down years.

2) One of the male cheerleaders leading people in worthless cheers, like “When I say Nittany, you say Lions” and “When I say JoePa, you say Terno”. I don’t know why they started pre-game so early to allow these bozos a chance to yell into a mike.

With those two things gone, I can deal with the corporate sponsors and a little too much Zombie Nation.

Thoughts:

GOOD: Based on four games, I have to say the Blue Band seems more prominent than they were last year. (I could not hear them at all in 06-07.) They may have moved the Blue Band down slightly so that they are not as under the club seats as much. More likely, the tech guys have figured out not to step on their toes so much. They clearly need to let them play.

“In the Air Tonight” before an 8PM game get’s me going in a Let’s Take Care Of Business sort of way.

Creedence!

BAD: Singing along to “Have You Ever Seen The Rain?” was awesome. Screaming my head off when Illinois has the ball near the goal line when everyone else is singing “Sweet Caroline” – not so much.

UGLY: What was up with “Ride of the Valkyries” and the not-“Apocalypse Now” footage for the defense? 1. That should be for the offense. 2. Don’t cheap out. Use actual “Apocalypse Now” footage or don’t bother.

Final Thought: “That horrifically lame "Let’s Go P-S-U!” chant to the lamest of lame stadium anthems, “Rock and Roll, Part 2”?" More than ten years old. It’s tradition!

It looked like there were only bout a 1,000 of them.

and just about all of their “night” games – yes, I remember when they used to bring in the temporary lights – and that was a lot of fun Saturday night.

I guess we all have our “peeves” be they pet or not…

1. The band should be in the endzone (don’t care which one) – it’s a little better this year – but, thanks to Joe’s “no marching on rainy turf” rule, we could barely hear the halftime show (i missed the piccolo solo);

2. Defensive cheers – okay the wave – and “songs” (we will rock you) during offense is asinine;

3. the “new” song for the PSU ads is worse than the horrible one they had before;

4. the east side cheers “we are” the west side cheers “Penn State!” (watch the cheerleaders people, they make it easy for us;

5. the alumni association should have “donated” 100,000 pompons not 40,000 (luckily I brought mine from home);

6. Zombie Nation is a band – not a song;

7. The Lion (costume, btw, is in major need of a makeover) needs to just cheer; but be aware that,

8. there is no cheering when there is an injured player on the field.

I don’t mind the music – it’s kind of fun

I was at the game and loved the SLOW wave. Still trying to figure out how we did that. Did someone hold a sign up that said do a really really slow wave, followed by a wave that was so fast it made the slow wave better?

I would rather have pumped in music occupying the crowd so that there is no more throwing. Someone already mentioned trash and water bottles. I remember having marshmellow fights when I was in school. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to get soggy marshmellow out of your hair?

I am, however, sad that they “I say…you say” cheer is gone. I still do that one in the car with my 4-year-old.

I’d have to agree with almost everyone above.

1. Zombie Nation (Kernkraft 400) is one of the greatest things to happen in Beaver Stadium. Save it for big plays to keep up the hype.
2. The cheerleader over the microphone at the beginning has to go
3. The new screens are BS. Yes they put some good stuff up there but overall its extra ad space. Change the contract next year. Also, you can’t even read all the stats of the other games before they disappear. Leave them up for more than 2 seconds!
4. Please, please, please learn to clap with the band during pregame (buy a metronome if you need to practice)
5. Freshmen… you are a part of the “We Are”… not the “Penn State”…
6. The slow motion wave followed by the fast is one of the coolest additions this year (my favorite part is the BOO and then YAY as we pass through the opposing team’s section)
7. Agreed: there is too much music and advertisements being pumped into the stadium. I’m glad you love your corporate sponsors but I paid a ton to get into this game to watch football. Stop playing music during big plays and shut up once the offense is out of the huddle (this goes for the Blue Band as well)
8. Thankfully we haven’t gotten into those stupid hot dog race ads or anything of that nature (and it better stay that way)
9. The Rain was a great song the first time around… and then you killed it
10. Someone needs to take out that TV time out guy – how does it feel to be the most hated person in football?
11. The not replaying of the close calls was infuriating… calling the refs out on bad calls is part of the game

Also, can we just set a number of “WE ARE”s before we go into “THANK YOU, YOU’RE WELCOME?” (I recommend 4) Seriously after yelling it for like the 10th or 11th time I kinda can’t do it anymore. On the plus side the cheerleaders finally realized that we know how to do it and stopped breaking the cheer in the middle to tell us what to do.

I was in my freshman year for the ’05 game. While no game since then has quite lived up to that game, I have still had some amazing experiences in the Beav for the past 4 years. I have only been going to games since becoming a student, but I have already noticed changes since my freshman year. That being said, I do agree with some of the above comments about things that need to change or stay the same.

1. The cheerleader with the mic is taking his title way too literally. Someone needs to take the mic out of his hands and just make him do backflips, or whatever they do. I personally feel the cheerleaders are pretty worthless since they don’t actually, you know, lead cheers.

2. Control the number of times the WE ARE chant is used, and how many iterations of WE ARE we go through before the THANK YOU.
      2a. Freshman, for the love of God, you are part of the WE ARE section.
      2b. Alum in the northwest corner, if you try to start the WE ARE chant one more time, so help me…
            2bi. The WE ARE chant is not used while Penn State is on offense and definitely not while there is any player injured.

3. I do agree the piped in music is getting to be a little much. Save Zombie Nation and WooHoo for big plays. Let the band entertain us. I would have less of a problem with Sweet Caroline had it been the band playing it. And can we please move them back to the end zone? The senior section cannot hear them at all.

4. Much like the WE ARE chant, the wave should be used sparingly, and ONLY while PSU is on defense. Though I must admit the slow and fast waves were pretty cool, and I have to give major props to the Alumni for playing along too.

Overall, I love the gameday experience at Beaver Stadium. I think it could be refined just a little bit. My overall complaint is that each successive freshman class seems to have less and less of a clue as to what is going on. I would like to see a class about proper football game ettiquite. And students definitely need to start learning the fight songs. I’m proud that my friends and I always sing along to Fight On, State after touchdowns, and I can sing the Alma Mater without reading the words off the damn scoreboard.

I started here in ‘04, and have had student tix every year (thank you, super senior year)…
1) Seven Nation Army is terrible. I like the actual song, and there’s more to it at times than just OOOOH OHOHOH OH OH. It gets old in a freakin hurry.
2) The band got moved, in my opinion, because their sound is now directed across the field so its now louder for more people…and screw the students, they pay as much for a season ticket as the alums do for one (oops, channelling my inner athletic dept.)
3) Dean drives me nuts. Can we find a less football-sounding announcer?
4) We need a moratorium on the “Fuck Blah-blah-blah” chants in the student section. Can we at least pretend that we’re getting educated?
5) I completely agree that everyone- not just the marketing people- have been trying to duplicate ‘05. I’ve told my parents after every night game since OSU- there’s just something missing…the stadium seriously feels like it’s trying to recapture that rather than just being loud and doing it.
6) The lion this year seems to be off his game- he’s good, but the stuff he’s been coming up with hasn’t been as crazy as years past- such as the evolution of dance a few years back
7) How many times is the North End Zone going to start a “We Are” when someone’s injured? That shit ain’t right.
8) Who ever does the music just needs to be more exposed to music. Stop with the four song playlist. I could give you about 300 songs you could play at anytime. So could anyone else here. Try stuff out, and see if something sticks, rather than killing what does work (or, if you find something, don’t kill it like the CCR this weekend).

We’d all stay after the game, win lose or draw, and sing The Nittany Lion.

My job has allowed me to visit a lot of college football stadiums and experience quite a few games, on top of going to one PSU away game a year. All told I’ve been to about 18 different venues and had full press rights to most of them.

Perhaps I’m biased as an alumnus, but there is no experience I’ve seen that’s quite like PSU. It’s all about the knowledge of the fanbase, the size of the student section, and the fact that students celebrate. I’ve watched in disbelief as the student section in some schools have a “we’re too cool too cheer to football” mentality and use the occasion to look good and potentially hook up.

I want to vomit in my mouth when I hear Journey at any time, and Sweet Caroline is horrible – but it beats the Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine they used to pump into the stadium during pregames in the ’90s. The stadium is a cauldron of sound, I say crank it when you have the opportunity.

I thought Saturday was the most “fun” atmosphere ever, with Ohio State being the most intense. I agree, there is no way that game from 2005 (and really, that entire season) will ever be recreated. Too many circumstances about that game can’t be duplicated.

But, it really comes down to what happens in the game. I loved CCR and all the songs, but that’s b/c I was loving the game too. This team is fun to watch. The Ohio State atmosphere was so intense because that’s what the game was. I hated the music last year against Ohio State, but that’s because the game sucked. If the game is fun, they could play Celine Dion and I’d probably be singing along, then downloading it the next day.

adopt some type of “local” rock music…as in PA music something that identifies with the University. I know PA isn’t exactly the Seatle area in terms of the music scene but there has to be something that could give gamedays a “local” flair.

1 More Zombie Nation
2 Less WoooHooo
3 Louder and more Blue Band
are some requests

Did anyone notice that the annoucer during the Blue Bands pregame ritual changed his lines for the transition of the floating Lion. (He inserted the bold formation words into his lines

pick up the beat and clap along and sign along to fight on state.

Then they showed the lyrics on the scoreboard.

As for the variations of the waves
 Slow motion and Accelerated variations have been performed there back in the 80’s. It was great to see the crowd to be that involved to allow them to continue as long as they did. Pregame, for a wave to make 7 trips arounf the stadium was great.

During the “We are- PS” chant, when did they stop doing the TY-YW responses.

I don’t necessarily think the goal is to “recreate” the 2005 Ohio State game. I just think they realize how great of an atmosphere Beaver Stadium can be when the crowd is involved and having a good time. So they’ve tried some different things. Sure, they’ve made some mistakes and overplayed some things. I think they did some really cool things on Saturday, but again-all that really matters is what’s happening down on the field. I remember at the Ohio State game last year they played some weird song/noise when we were on D and I hated it. But if they hadn’t been crushing us I probably wouldn’t have cared.

Why has that tradition stopped?

I loved seeing that in the 80’s

…we’ve become like the SEC: buying ESPN’s hype about us. Herbie talked about how organized our student section is, but has anyone seen a Texas A&M game?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3Xjrs2mqqE

Musburger compared us to a World Cup soccer stadium. But they don’t bounce to piped in music. They make up unique and innovatave cheers.

http://www.fanchants.com/football-songs/manchester_united-chants/park-park-wherever-you-may-be/

I understand the argument that the game is becoming too “professional” but what concerns me more is that PSU is losing its identity. Fight On State has been around for a long time and its one of the ways we collectively identify ourselves. Nothing disappointed me more than attending the 2006 Michigan game, waiting all game for a TD, and then, when Tony Hunt finally scored and I jumped up to sing and clap along to Fight On State and instead heard Zombie Nation. There’s nothing wrong with creating new traditions, but Zombie Nation isn’t unique to PSU. Go to youtube and search for Zombie Nation and you’ll find about 1,000 posts from any number of teams. More importantly Zombie Nation wasn’t here 50 years ago, and it probably won’t be 50 years from now. In short, there’s nothing about it which binds the generations of fans together.

On a final, related note, I’m always a little suprised at the lack of ingenuity among students at football games all around the country (not just PSU). We have Paternoville, that’s great. Why not decorate your tents? Why not have a theme each time, or maybe get some local businesses to donate some cash as a prize for the best tent? After what Illinois did to the Paterno statue last year, why not set guards around the statue like we used to do for the lion statue against Syracuse? Why not designate “yell leaders” for different sections of the student section and have them lead cheers similar to army marching cadences?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJO4fVbAXiM

There are lot’s of ways to make the gameday experience both fun and unique to PSU without relying on the sound system.