This was the most fun my wife and I have had at Aggie Stadium in a long time. The announced crowd was 9500. The new UCD students ran onto the field before the start of the game and, I swear, they were coming out of the tunnel for 5 minutes...must have been several thousand!
Now if we can only get them to come back. I think we should have an Aggie Pack stampede every game...let the students lead the team onto the field.
The two teams combined for 1102 yards of offense: 651 for the Ags and 451 for the Fighting Hawks. We need to shore up the D because, if we don't, we're going to have to score 45-62 points to keep pace with a team like EWU.
UND wasn't down 12 players, they were down 15 players! This included a corner and a safety that Hawk said could be the best playet in FCS according to a ND paper.
A few people have wondered how Maier was so low profile. Apparently in his early high school years his team was decimated by players leaving the program. Maybe coaching roulette, too. So he played with no talent, and had no real receivers. I think his Soph and Jr year they had maybe 2 or 3 wins.
Quickly scanning back the last five or six years, I see several 1-4, an 0-5, and a couple 2-3 records after 5. Nice to see 3-2 with a relatively healthy team. After EWU it's a bye week and 5 games where we have a good chance at a win. Fun to be a fan
Was it my imagination, or did it look like half the season ticket holders were absent? Tough to imagine with Maier and Doss, Hawkins, new offense, food and even beer on a perfect night.
Reading the press release from the game last night, most yards of offense in a single game since 2001 against New Mexico Highlands and we were only 46 yards off the school record. If anyone would have said at the beginning of the season that we would whoop on UND people would have thought they were crazy. Injuries are really hurting the Hawks, but this is still a good win for the program.
The west stands had a lot of empty seats. We sit in section 120 and I think it was 40-45% full at best. So it seems to me that a lot of season ticket holders were missing.
UND limped into Aggie Stadium decimated with injuries and I think we need to keep that in mind when we look at the final score. Nevertheless, I thought the Aggie offense was really firing on all cylinders. Maier's quick release and accuracy was impressive and our receivers running were nice routes and they catch balls in traffic. I thought our RB's churned up some tough yards too and our O line did a good job protecting Maier. So the execution on offense was excellent overall.
You've got to love the open playbook on offense too. It's quick, creative and bold. What a breath of fresh air that is after what we've seen in the recent past!
We continue to give up the big play on the ground and we are vulnerable to getting burned on the deep passing routes. The D bent a whole lot but didn't break. We caught a break when they got that big pass called back on a hold and we got away with a face mask on a sack that forced a 3 and out.
We had a really nice pick by Culberson and another DB had very athletic leap to break up a potential TD pass at the goal line. We also dropped a pick six and another potential pick. So our DB's were getting themselves in position to make some plays on numerous occasions.
Overall, I think the D is a work in progress. Parenteau was in street clothes so there must still be some concerns about his concussion at Weber. The D needs to stay healthy and just keep getting a little better each week. They'll be severely tested next week against EWU.
It was a good win with a lot of positives especially after coming off the loss at Weber State.
That's true. I know when moved our season tickets to section 120 this year there were quite a few seats already taken which I assumed were season ticket holders...more than what showed up last night.
Don't forget that student attendance should count for something. Most of us were undergrads or grad students at one point. Students showing up to see winning games = higher attendance and enthusiasm for later games = higher revenue as donations and tickets sold after they graduate.
I heard the number of season tickets was much higher than recent years but lower than 2007 levels. Many of those are out of towners who might come up once or twice but still renew. Hopefully we'll get more and more of the more local folk using their seats. Or turn them in so someone else can fill the good seats. Make it loud
I don't disagree, but I think the percentage of season ticket holders is still on the lower end of the spectrum.
It is great that folks buy season tickets and come up for a game or two but there should be some sort of established secondary market/fan exchange for those seats if they choose to not make the drive.
It's a win-win for everyone. If you can't make it, put the tickets on (insert vendor here) and the STH is able to recoup some of their money and butts are in the seats. As you said drmike, more people = better environment and greater demand for tickets.
I know that demand hasn't been that high outside of the first few seasons at Aggie Stadium but with 9,500 against a virtually unknown opponent to the majority of our fan base means demand is ticking up.
I think it will take several years of consistent sellouts, a large increase in sustained donations, and several large individual donations to expand. I'd rather see support facilities built than an expansion.
9,500 is darn good, considering the capacity is 10,700. And while there were empty seats, the end zones were loaded. Not long ago, even after move in day, the student section looked like a ghost town. And the entry of the Aggie Pack onto the stadium seemed to go on forever. If it takes giving the students a free T shirt every game, make the investment.
The game day experience has taken a huge step in the right direction. There's a good crowd welcoming the arrival of the players, the Band-uh is actually there playing the fight song (remember the recorded version not long ago?), and there is a new area for single game day tailgate passes.
The students running onto the field was really impressive and the fans loved it. Why not make that an Aggie football tradition. Let the Aggie Pack run onto the field before every game. The players loved the mob scene outside the tunnel and Maier made specific mention of how the big crowd motivated the team.
If anyone has some connections with the Athletic Department, how about suggesting this to them? I think it would be a great tradition along with the kids stampede that just makes everyone smile.
A couple more suggestions that would help pump the atmosphere:
1) The Aggie Pack needs someone on a mic to coordinate them and help make them a dominate presence and deafeningly loud. I didn't see that happening very much last night.
2) The big screen is awesome and the videos of the players dancing and telling "bad jokes" had the fans in stitches. However, the fan cam that they put up at times needs to be used over on the Aggie Pack also. The students would eat that up and make a lot of noise. Seems like they haven't quite worked out the kinks of using the fan cam yet.
Shout out to Ethan Hicks and Ryan Martinez for contributing tackles, I am assuming on special teams ... and true freshman Jaylin White had 2 tackles at DB.