Crowd Noise

[Blumpkin Souffle]

Reminded me of Dwag fans, gonna kill themselves when they are losing, want to spit in your face when they take the lead. 2 Gsu guys next to me just kept cursing to themselves about every other play in the 1st half when they couldn't stop us then were up cheering in my face in the 2nd. Then when we scored to win they wouldn't look at me. All in all a good day.

Every other week of the year they are dwag fans.

 

[Whiskey_Clear]

Most due hard GSU fans don't like UGA much fwiw

 

[Whiskey_Clear]

@Milwaukee .....Now where did that face palm gif go?....you make noise, or should, at those times for two very important reasons. 1. Make so much noise it's hard for opponent O, in huddle and at los, to communicate. 2. Fire your own damn team up. Many in the stands felt as you did however.
BDS can really rock n roll at times. Those times are just getting more and more infrequent. Same peeps sitting on hands at games probly like to ***** about recruiting too. End rant...

 

[Russellm0704]

It's up to the school to fill up the student section. They need to find some incentive for going to the games. I think they should just shrink the student section since it is almost never full. Biggest joke ever.

 

[Oldgoldandwhite]

Sounded pretty damn loud when Hill trotted in for the game-winner.

Yes it erupted when Hill scored.

 

[poodleface]

It's up to the school to fill up the student section. They need to find some incentive for going to the games. I think they should just shrink the student section since it is almost never full. Biggest joke ever.

There are some existing threads where we talked about this, but one of the problems is the way the student season tickets work. Tickets are tied to your student ID, so if you can't go for some reason that ticket goes unused. If you don't have a student season ticket you have to stand in the South end zone (this past week they were checking wristbands in the North side by the band).

Basically, it is impossible for students to just walk up and fill in the empty seats.

This is not just a problem for GT. Nick Sabam was chiding Alabama students for their lack of dedication recently. Alabama.

 

[Ash]

This is very true, if you look hard enough on any given fall Saturday you can find a group of these students with the look of "where are all the people going" on their face. Also have to many Greek students hanging out at the frat house watching on the flat screen, especially the noon kicks. This however has become a problem at other schools in the past couple of years with just about every game being televised via TV / Web.

My tailgating friends and I have a little game we play called "Spot the confused student". During the course of the day if one of us sees a kid wandering through the tents grills and coolers with a backpack and a confused look on their face we will say "That's one" and nod towards the kid for confirmation. The next is "That's two" and so on. Saturday got up to 3.

 

[Dave.S]

AD needs to make a change in student tickets, first come first serve!!!

 

[Whiskey_Clear]

The student section actually isn't the problem

 

[Josh H]

I have to disagree. No amount of cheering would have led to a defender taking the QB on the pitch, not allowing a long completion downfield (into single coverage), or generally not allowed Southern to march up and down the field. Southern went on a 27-0 run due to bad execution. No amount of crowd noise fixes that.

On offense, you are *supposed* to be quiet, unless the offense makes a big play. Didn't see any of those in the 2nd half until Thomas' pass to Hill.

 

[wuzjrbuzz]

Every other week of the year they are dwag fans.

Wrong, many are Tech fans and can't stand UGA.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

I have to disagree. No amount of cheering would have led to a defender taking the QB on the pitch, not allowing a long completion downfield (into single coverage), or generally not allowed Southern to march up and down the field. Southern went on a 27-0 run due to bad execution. No amount of crowd noise fixes that.

On offense, you are *supposed* to be quiet, unless the offense makes a big play. Didn't see any of those in the 2nd half until Thomas' pass to Hill.

Crowd noise is not a magic cure all but there is evidence that it helps keep a team focused and fired up. Tech players have been quoted in the past as saying that a quiet stadium "feels like practice" and not a real game. There are several big time college football programs that we could name, starting with LSU, who have very very difficult stadiums for visiting teams to play in. I believe crowd noise helps a team keep their edge. The second half was mainly about a team and a crowd getting kind of lazy and complacent. The two feed off each other.

 

[wuzjrbuzz]

Been making noise at Tech games since the early 70s. Agree with another poster, it's gets really old when 3rd down after 3rd down is converted. If the defense steps up just a little, the noise will return, it's a two way street.

 

[Whiskey_Clear]

I have to disagree. No amount of cheering would have led to a defender taking the QB on the pitch, not allowing a long completion downfield (into single coverage), or generally not allowed Southern to march up and down the field. Southern went on a 27-0 run due to bad execution. No amount of crowd noise fixes that.

On offense, you are *supposed* to be quiet, unless the offense makes a big play. Didn't see any of those in the 2nd half until Thomas' pass to Hill.

So no such thing as home field advantage. Wow. This mentality is the problem IMO

 

[Josh H]

So no such thing as home field advantage. Wow. This mentality is the problem IMO

There is a such a thing as home field advantage. It can disorient an opposing offense and feed the home offense. Home field advantage in the NFL is valued at 3 points in the spread. It can make all the defense against an evenly matched team or against a superior opponent (VT 2009, Clemson 2011).

Lack of home field advantage does not explain how a 35-10 lead evaporates. Momentum might (which I fully believe in).

 

[Whiskey_Clear]

I'm not blaming the 2nd half meltdown on the fans. Not even close. But when the going gets rough...it really helps to have fired up and loud fans. A cliche for cheese...our fans didn't have our team's back vs GSU.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

One thing on the student section though is that everyone there packs in closer together like sardines. They really bunch up a lot and so I would think that throws off the perception of how filled in it gets. I am not saying it explains all of it but if you have a section that sits 50 but they all bunch up then they will cover a space meant for 35 people, yet you would have all 50 seats accounted for.

 

[ClydeBrick]

I think that the students (most of the time via their parents) pay too much in fees to not get free, game-day admission to Grant Field. Most of the students pay $49 to sit in the lower north stands. The band works their asses off and gets in for "free". The student "Swarm" section, right next to the band - mostly wearing gold tee shirts, costs $69 a season (although it does include the t-shirt). The south stands have a "free" section for students but I think that they have to get their ticket the week of the game.

However,



That is about an hour into the 2013 GT-UGAg game. Our Big Rivalry. Look at the western side of the south stands. We are up and looking good (at that moment) and the "free" part of the student section is not full. Tickets to GT-UGAg were distributed ahead of the games back in the 1980's too and you had better have gotten over to the ticket office early in the week if you wanted to be able to get in.

So money aint the reason the students are not at the games. Although I still think that $49 is way to much for a "reserved" seat in the north stands when you consider that the Athletic Fee is already $127 and that the Institute exists for the students primarily, not for a football program. BTW that makes that "season ticket" $176, Gold Zone season tickets were $170 this year and North Stands nose-bleeds were $99.

While agree that there are lots of international students and students who don't get it, the percentage of them is probably less today than in was in the past. Overall enrollment has nearly doubled since my day and there are many more undergraduate programs that are not engineering beyond the M-Train & Psychology that were available back in the 1980's.

My daughter's boyfriend - who has gone to most home games in the Swarm all of his years - says, "GT - good enough to disappoint." If we cannot get student butts into the seats when (some of) the seats are "free" (already paid for) and you can walk to the game, what are we going to have for a fan base in future when the Dodd years are only something the season ticket holders could read about?

On the other hand, look at Texas A&M: In 2013 they committed to spend $450 million dollars so they can seat 102k at Kyle Field after their first 10+ win season in nearly 20 years. And they hadn't won a national title since 1939. Or Auburn; after going 3-9 in 2012 they got a packed house at their 2013 Spring game. Likewise Tennessee; they have been in the wilderness 2008-now, and they still pack in the fans.

Go figure.

The problems that, when taken together, are unique at the Institute in getting people to the games are legion; the national/international student base, being in the ACC while being located in the heart of the SEC, the ATL is populated by transients, the proximity of a (so-called) NFL team, the proximity of other (again, so-called) professional sports teams. Add to that our win/loss issues.

Winning will bring some fair-weather Tech fans back into the fold, and certainly make the tried and true ones happier. It certainly worked for the Braves for a few years.

Crowd noise will improve when we get more Tech fans to attend the games - students, alum and sidewalk. When we have big crowds now it is usually because the opponents are coming in - usually at a discount for what they would pay to see their team at home. Then our players have to put up with the opponent's crowd noise - at home.

 

[JKMSJ]

When opposing fans start getting really loud we need to have a player on the screen start the yellow.... Jacket cheer like they used to a few years ago. It was embarrassing in the second half for it to sound like a home game for GS in our stadium.I understand we were playing terrible but we need to do something to counter opposing fan noise.

 

[GTpdm]

I think that the students (most of the time via their parents) pay too much in fees to not get free, game-day admission to Grant Field. Most of the students pay $49 to sit in the lower north stands. The band works their asses off and gets in for "free". The student "Swarm" section, right next to the band - mostly wearing gold tee shirts, costs $69 a season (although it does include the t-shirt). The south stands have a "free" section for students but I think that they have to get their ticket the week of the game.

However,



That is about an hour into the 2013 GT-UGAg game. Our Big Rivalry. Look at the western side of the south stands. We are up and looking good (at that moment) and the "free" part of the student section is not full. Tickets to GT-UGAg were distributed ahead of the games back in the 1980's too and you had better have gotten over to the ticket office early in the week if you wanted to be able to get in.

So money aint the reason the students are not at the games. Although I still think that $49 is way to much for a "reserved" seat in the north stands when you consider that the Athletic Fee is already $127 and that the Institute exists for the students primarily, not for a football program. BTW that makes that "season ticket" $176, Gold Zone season tickets were $170 this year and North Stands nose-bleeds were $99.

While agree that there are lots of international students and students who don't get it, the percentage of them is probably less today than in was in the past. Overall enrollment has nearly doubled since my day and there are many more undergraduate programs that are not engineering beyond the M-Train & Psychology that were available back in the 1980's.

My daughter's boyfriend - who has gone to most home games in the Swarm all of his years - says, "GT - good enough to disappoint." If we cannot get student butts into the seats when (some of) the seats are "free" (already paid for) and you can walk to the game, what are we going to have for a fan base in future when the Dodd years are only something the season ticket holders could read about?

On the other hand, look at Texas A&M: In 2013 they committed to spend $450 million dollars so they can seat 102k at Kyle Field after their first 10+ win season in nearly 20 years. And they hadn't won a national title since 1939. Or Auburn; after going 3-9 in 2012 they got a packed house at their 2013 Spring game. Likewise Tennessee; they have been in the wilderness 2008-now, and they still pack in the fans.

Go figure.

The problems that, when taken together, are unique at the Institute in getting people to the games are legion; the national/international student base, being in the ACC while being located in the heart of the SEC, the ATL is populated by transients, the proximity of a (so-called) NFL team, the proximity of other (again, so-called) professional sports teams. Add to that our win/loss issues.

Winning will bring some fair-weather Tech fans back into the fold, and certainly make the tried and true ones happier. It certainly worked for the Braves for a few years.

Crowd noise will improve when we get more Tech fans to attend the games - students, alum and sidewalk. When we have big crowds now it is usually because the opponents are coming in - usually at a discount for what they would pay to see their team at home. Then our players have to put up with the opponent's crowd noise - at home.

When I was a student, I don't ever recall having to pay extra for football tickets, anywhere in the sections allotted to students--your athletic fee covered the expense. You lined up with a student ID (early), and you got in--provided the student section didn't fill up before you got to the gate. If you wanted to bring a (non-GT) date, you had to buy a season pass to bring your date into the game, but that was it.

The current policy is just dumb, as I see it. Why make it harder for the students to attend? They are our bread and butter, in terms of rabid fandom. (we don't have a horde of clueless rednecks, like the un-Iversity of Georgia) Are they that desperate for money? Shoot, I'd pay an extra $10 per game for my ticket, if it would guarantee another student sitting in the stands, raising hell.