First, I'm thrilled we won. I'll take it wherever and however we can get it. Nice to see the team not give in. Some musings from the game experience:
1) Attendance: As others have mentioned, I was actually fairly pleased with attendance, particularly student attendance. Wish more would have stayed longer than the first half, but showing up is a start. The only way to consistently sell out a stadium and keep folks there is to win consistently. But I think other things can help bolster attendance, too.
3) The Team and the Game: The game was devastatingly boring until the final minutes. Almost 4 hours exactly, 43 total points. You've got to really love IU or Illinois to stay for that chore. These games happen, but my concern is that this is the type of team CTA has built and that we will consistently see - low-scoring and boring. We'll see if the new offensive coordinator and his scheme settles in, but certainly was not an exciting brand of football in game 1. Style won't matter much if we win in bunches, but I've been an IU fan too long to expect that.
4) The O-line stinks. That's on Allen at this point.
5) The Band: The band was a little better than I remember with song choice in-game and during half-time. So happy we didn't get another Earth, Wind, and Fire halftime show. Not completely outdated. I hate to even mention it because I know the kids put their hearts in it, but I'm not sure I saw a single straight line in the band's formations. They were all over the place and sloppy. As usual, a little quieter than I'd like from them as well. I would love our Marching Hundred members to get the best direction, be valued by the fans, and put on a good show. They're not getting what they need from the University to deliver, and that's hugely disappointing. The band members deserve it.
6) The Stadium: I live several states away and hadn't been in a few years. I was disappointed to see that many of the stadium graphics outside were faded or taken down. The west side of the stadium is completely blah now. Also, those new LED lights should have included color - huge missed opportunity for these night games.
7) I sat in Henke and was excited for that. I've got to be honest, it was one of the least impressive premium seating experiences I've had. The seats were comfortable enough with enough leg room, and the Henke Hall space really is quite nice. It was nice to have room to get up and stand to watch the game outside of the Henke doors too. But the actual amenities - food and atmosphere inside, were super disappointing and don't match the experiences I've had at other football games and events. It felt amateur.
8) Virtually all of the piped in stadium music was from 2000-2010. Just absolutely outdated, almost comically. As usual, even our efforts to catch up with the times fall short. It's really not that hard to be somewhat current - get a few good student interns and you're set.
9) Easy traditions are missing: The athletic department's attempts to alter traditions have truly killed the mood. When I was at IU, the band played the fight song after a touchdown, as is typical, and the "first down march" tradition started. Now, there is no first down tradition/fan engagement at all, and we play a non-school song after touchdowns followed by the school song after the extra point. What happened to 3-4Q transition William Tell? I know the reasons for many of these changes, but they could have easily altered things without killing them. There was very little collective fan engagement. This was made clearer to me by a non-IU friend that came with that was surprised that we didn't do anything for much of anything. The athletic department killed the few things people actually participated in.
I also went to the OSU-ND game Saturday night. Of course, the environment was great and 106,000 fans is impressive, but each butt gets about 6 inches of seat, fans kept yelling at other fans to sit down, and the famed tOSU Best Damn Band in the Land, while precise, was really quiet in person and basically a non-factor during the game. The half-time show did include drones making various OSU images, which was impressive and caught folks' attention. They had nearly perfect coordination between the band, piped in music, announcer, and game, which we can't seem to get right at IU. They definitely used music to their advantage.
1) Attendance: As others have mentioned, I was actually fairly pleased with attendance, particularly student attendance. Wish more would have stayed longer than the first half, but showing up is a start. The only way to consistently sell out a stadium and keep folks there is to win consistently. But I think other things can help bolster attendance, too.
3) The Team and the Game: The game was devastatingly boring until the final minutes. Almost 4 hours exactly, 43 total points. You've got to really love IU or Illinois to stay for that chore. These games happen, but my concern is that this is the type of team CTA has built and that we will consistently see - low-scoring and boring. We'll see if the new offensive coordinator and his scheme settles in, but certainly was not an exciting brand of football in game 1. Style won't matter much if we win in bunches, but I've been an IU fan too long to expect that.
4) The O-line stinks. That's on Allen at this point.
5) The Band: The band was a little better than I remember with song choice in-game and during half-time. So happy we didn't get another Earth, Wind, and Fire halftime show. Not completely outdated. I hate to even mention it because I know the kids put their hearts in it, but I'm not sure I saw a single straight line in the band's formations. They were all over the place and sloppy. As usual, a little quieter than I'd like from them as well. I would love our Marching Hundred members to get the best direction, be valued by the fans, and put on a good show. They're not getting what they need from the University to deliver, and that's hugely disappointing. The band members deserve it.
6) The Stadium: I live several states away and hadn't been in a few years. I was disappointed to see that many of the stadium graphics outside were faded or taken down. The west side of the stadium is completely blah now. Also, those new LED lights should have included color - huge missed opportunity for these night games.
7) I sat in Henke and was excited for that. I've got to be honest, it was one of the least impressive premium seating experiences I've had. The seats were comfortable enough with enough leg room, and the Henke Hall space really is quite nice. It was nice to have room to get up and stand to watch the game outside of the Henke doors too. But the actual amenities - food and atmosphere inside, were super disappointing and don't match the experiences I've had at other football games and events. It felt amateur.
8) Virtually all of the piped in stadium music was from 2000-2010. Just absolutely outdated, almost comically. As usual, even our efforts to catch up with the times fall short. It's really not that hard to be somewhat current - get a few good student interns and you're set.
9) Easy traditions are missing: The athletic department's attempts to alter traditions have truly killed the mood. When I was at IU, the band played the fight song after a touchdown, as is typical, and the "first down march" tradition started. Now, there is no first down tradition/fan engagement at all, and we play a non-school song after touchdowns followed by the school song after the extra point. What happened to 3-4Q transition William Tell? I know the reasons for many of these changes, but they could have easily altered things without killing them. There was very little collective fan engagement. This was made clearer to me by a non-IU friend that came with that was surprised that we didn't do anything for much of anything. The athletic department killed the few things people actually participated in.
I also went to the OSU-ND game Saturday night. Of course, the environment was great and 106,000 fans is impressive, but each butt gets about 6 inches of seat, fans kept yelling at other fans to sit down, and the famed tOSU Best Damn Band in the Land, while precise, was really quiet in person and basically a non-factor during the game. The half-time show did include drones making various OSU images, which was impressive and caught folks' attention. They had nearly perfect coordination between the band, piped in music, announcer, and game, which we can't seem to get right at IU. They definitely used music to their advantage.