Okay, I am back from our trip to Chambana, and here are my thoughts for anyone who is remotely interested.
Memorial Stadium/Atmosphere
- It is literally crazy how high the "ceiling" is for the tailgating atmosphere we could have. We stayed at an airbnb west of the stadium and walked about a mile down Kirby to Grange Grove. As you walked down that tree-lined street and started to see the flags at the tailgates and the columns of Memorial Stadium appear in the distance, it was easy to envision what could be if we can keep this turnaround goin'. Grange Grove was fun as always, but I think the lot across the street to the west looked as good if not better! My one nitpick is they really should sell beer somewhere in there ... whether that's a beer garden or just a stand. I had three different people come ask me where I got my beer and if there was anywhere they could get one, haha. I think a lot of people walk over to that area with no set tailgate in mind.
- The atmosphere in the stadium was also pretty darn good for having long stretches where there was nothing to cheer about. The "orange out" went extremely well, the student turnout was fantastic and when we scored that first touchdown, it got genuinely loud! And that was only 49k fans. On that note...
- I'm fairly impressed with the attendance. All things considered, I could have seen our fans jump ship after the scare in week one and the beatdown in Lawrence and for us to have had an attendance even worse than Toledo.
- With that said, we sat in row 38 of 102, which is in East Main. We were in the shade for a little bit and then in the sun for most of the game, to ground you spatially. There were a LOT of fans seated behind us in those covered seats. It's just a shame we sell those tickets (and that those seats exist!), as if you redistributed that capacity to the East Balcony, the place would have looked perfectly packed for the national broadcast rather than have some sections fairly empty up there. Again, I'm massively team build the brick wall to match West Main!
Champaign
- I finally got to try Maize at the Station, and I have to say it was great! I was NOT picturing that much of a sit-down restaurant with a full bar and a pretty good atmosphere. I will be going back.
- Downtown Champaign was fun Friday night. We ate at Nando Milano, and it was fun to walk around and see all the people out and about in the beer gardens and the Taylor Street ped-mall-like area. I know this is just the general problem of the Midwest, but MAN is Champaign so much easier to "sell" to recruits when it's warm than when it's cold!
- I also finally went to Illini Inn just to say we'd been there and since it was a pretty easy walk from the stadium. I have to say, the outside looks so cool and the inside is
fine but kind of underwhelming by comparison. I was going to ask about that Mug Club thing, but I chickened out, haha.
Finally ... the Game/Team
- I came away from the game REALLY upset having watched it in person. However, after watching some highlights and reading what you all had to say here, I am much more optimistic. They scored 20 off of our 5 turnovers ... and we lost by 17. Clean up our game, and we could be playing to tie the game in the fourth quarter in front of a still-full and raucous crowd. I guess the frustrating AND encouraging part is the pieces are indeed there ... I'm incredibly glad that we didn't just get demolished from start to finish. On that note...
- IF Penn State is as good as the hype suggests, then we indeed have reason for optimism with this schedule. If we have our heads on straight, we should beat FAU without too much of a scare. Then I think the game at Purdue will REALLY tell us how many wins we can wrack up this year ... Purdue has not looked great so far and they've been a monkey on our backs the last couple of years, so we need to prove to ourselves we can march in and win a Big Ten West road game that we should.
fixed … When we lost Jones to Auburn … I don’t think we realized how much that would sting …
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