Regarding Autzen, Husky Stadium and almost every stadium along the rainy Pacific Northwest coast, the secret ingredient is rain shields. Similar to European soccer stadiums, the Pacific Northwest puts on the stadiums, large or small, a sloped metal roof covering just the stands. Along with keeping us (somewhat) dry, it reflects sound back down on the field.Okay, I have had the full weekend to organize my thoughts! Some notes I feel like typing, lol...
1. Wow. The postgame jazz has worn off, and I still feel like this is just SUCH a huge win for the trajectory of this program. To beat a ranked team in front of our first full house in almost a decade, with that many recruits in attendance and an impressionable new generation of fans there due to all of the promotions ... wow. Huge.
2. Lol at Kansas. I still have nothing against KU (I actually toured it as a high schooler and loved the campus/Lawrence, and I have NEVER shared this Bill Self-related hatred for the Jayhawks ... they're easily my favorite of the Blue Bloods), but their fans' psychotic behavior online makes it too difficult not to enjoy those tears a bit, lol. As others have said, they acted like it was practically their birthright to waltz into our house and win by 2-3 TDs. They've been a significantly worse program than Illinois historically, and they've not even really been better at all during this flash-in-the-pan renaissance that has given birth to this crazy, unfounded arrogance! I hope they enjoyed their ride home!!
3. On that note, I cannot help but notice that Illinois seems to evoke a weird and seemingly out-of-nowhere contempt from fan bases with whom we don't have regular interaction. Think of how Iowa State fans were talking about us with such undeserved hatred and even more undeserved contempt ... as if it were desperately important for them to convince themselves that Illinois was just this "nothing" so that there would be more room for their team among the crowd of "somebodies." I got the same vibe from KU fans before this game. What is up with this? I can KIND OF understand it in basketball, but you would think we would be totally inoffensive in football ... certainly not offensive enough to start gunning for our very fan support, campus, stadium, etc. My pet theory is that it (subconsciously) bothers fans of other programs that we are the state flagship school for by far the biggest state in the Midwest and because we have not properly taken advantage of that footprint historically to become a powerhouse (ala Georgia or Texas or Florida with their built-in population advantages), they see this "window" where they have to frantically degrade the Illini so as to never let that dynamic change, lol. Go read a college football comment section on Reddit of basic-a$$ bros talking about Illinois if we ever come up. It is NOT some indifference like they might give toward Wake Forest or Cal ... it's actual contempt and what seems like desperation to convince others of how pathetic and irrelevant we are. Can anyone honestly say KU fans would have been so antagonistically arrogant and mocking the mere fact that we had a sellout crowd "for them" if they were preparing to go on the road to face Georgia Tech, Syracuse or NC State? I highly doubt it. Well, joke's on all of them. It's high time Illinois lives up to its high ceiling in EVERYTHING, and last night was a monumental win as far as changing the perception for the next generation of fans. Keep building!!
4. I still hate the ILLINOIS font and especially how it reminds me of the philosophy of the Ron Guenther Era, but I have to admit ... there was an aspect of seeing those again that made me like them a lot more. I still really don't like the font, but I think I am realizing that the Block I looks too tall on our helmets, and I actually really like the more horizontal proportions of spelling out Illinois. As I said, I don't love the font, so ... I am officially all aboard the bandwagon to at least TRY the Script font on our helmets. I honestly think it would look amazing. Teams like Florida, UCLA and Ole Miss do it very effectively and have iconic helmets. Give it a shot here and see just how great it looks.
5. As far as all orange uniforms go, I am feeling very conflicted. On one hand, I still think it would have looked better with our white pants, and that is what I would always favor going forward (caveating that statement with the assertion that we would ONLY ever wear white pants with an orange jersey ... put those things away for road games!!!!). However, my thoughts are clouded by the fact that these all orange uniforms look ten billion times better than any orange uniforms we have ever worn in the past; as others have said, this is due to the matching B/W/B stripes on the helmet, jerseys and pants. It looks cohesive and stylish. As others have also said, playing at night really helped them pop, too. I would be more than okay with busting these out once per year on an orange out or night game, I just hope we don't randomly wear a different uniform combo every week like the Beckman and Lovie Eras ... we need to continue to establish an identity and a "look." But again ... they actually looked pretty great, haha.
If you skip everything else, at least read this:
6A. PROPS TO OUR FANS!! Great job, guys. Having grown up much of my life in Iowa City and getting to experience what an awesome gameday experience was (and being bitterly jealous of it for decades now), I have been as hard on our fans as anyone over the years. However, Saturday we were just simply the real deal. It sounded as loud as any other stadium of a powerhouse team during the game, and not just in reacting to big plays; the fans were ACTIVE and helped to rattle KU on multiple occasions. The students especially were amazing. Doesn't it give you shivers thinking that this could be the EXPECTATION of away teams as they travel to Memorial Stadium - a hornet's nest that they better damn well be prepared for?? It has not sounded that loud since the 2007 Michigan game, and I don't even think any game since then has come marginally close. On that note...
6B. Can someone knowledgeable about this subject explain why Memorial Stadium seems to have the capability to get why louder than 60,670 fans have any right to be?? It's famous at this point how the Big House is notoriously quiet for having 111,000 engaged fans due to the gradual slope of the bowl design. Similarly, it's famous how Autzen Stadium is super loud despite a smaller capacity than Memorial Stadium due to the acoustics. Those make sense, but I don't understand how Memorial Stadium can get THAT loud! Our south end zone (the Horseshoe) is more or less completely open, and there are very significant open gaps on either side of the north end zone stands (the student section), as well. It doesn't seem intuitive that we could effectively trap noise so well. I have heard people say that Memorial Stadium was considered one of the loudest in the Big Ten during the 1980s according to opposing coaches, and it would have had the same sound dynamics then ... is it because most of our fans are between the end zones on the west/east sides, and the noise bounces off of each side?? Really treading into a subject of which I know nothing here, lol.
Now you donāt have a rain shield at Memorial Stadium but you do have people willing to get loud and stay loud. Thatās all you really need. It was loud in the 1980s and it could be again. Believe.
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That kind of stuff just cannot happen. As my coach used to say, mental errors are unacceptable, as they are completely preventable.
