The student section at a football
game…there is no other place in a stadium, or the world for that matter like it.
It’s the only place where I’ve ever been when downing 14 beers before noon and
acting like a complete, deranged animal is actually acceptable. In fact, it’s
encouraged. It’s the only place in the world where you can openly curse, scream,
and even regurgitate on the ground without even getting a
double-take.
I admit, my description of the
student section is not flattering, but trust me. I wouldn’t lie to you Cyclone Nation.
There isn’t a better place in the world to watch a football game, then the
student section. The students might be obnoxious at points, they might even be
just a little bit on the immature side, but I can guarantee you that they are
one heck of a good time.
After Saturday night’s 28-27
Cyclone victory over the Northern Iowa Panthers, I decided to take a little
stroll through the student section to give the students a voice to sound off on
the football season so far.
Right now I’m trying to think of
an adjective to describe this experience. Interesting comes to mind…that’s an
enormous understatement. Let’s pull out the old thesaurus on
this…
Charming…hardly.
Glamorous…Definitely not the word.
Amusing…that works but not in this
context.
Here we go…I’ve got it.
Stimulating. Going through the student section after a one point win over UNI is
a stimulating experience. Why? If you’ve ever sat in the Iowa State student section, you should know.
I got a little bit of everything
from the students on Saturday night. I got some positive remarks, some negative
remarks, some intelligent remarks and some flat out ignorant remarks.
My first victim is Tanner Overton, a native of Waukee, Iowa. Describing Tanner is easy; he’s a very
bold individual. He’s opinionated, and he’s passionate about his Cyclones. You
might be asking yourself how I know that when I randomly picked him out of a
crowd on Saturday. Well the answer is simple. Tanner came to me. He saw a tape
recorder and he wanted his voice to be heard. Here’s what he had to say…with my
takes on his opinions.
Overton on the battle with
UNI…
I never thought that UNI would
even be in this game. A D1AA team shouldn’t even be able to play with a D1 team.
A D1 team should blow a team like the Panthers out, whether they are national
champions or not. It’s a totally different league.
My Take: I agree brother. D1AA’s
shouldn’t come into Big 12 stadiums and almost upset quality programs like
Iowa
State. There’s no beef
between us on that statement. Mad props.
So this is the part of the story
where Tanner…well…he gets bold.
Tanner on playing “not to
lose”
I think that we always play not to
lose. We need to use the talent that we have. We have one of the best receiving
cores in the nation and we don’t ever air it out. We always play this
conservative game plan with a bunch of draws. We need to start airing it out
more and playing to win instead of playing not to lose, especially against a
team like UNI.
My Take: Ok Tanner…maybe I caught
you at a bad time, but Iowa State only ran the ball six times in the
2nd half against UNI. Bret Meyer was 24-29 with 323 passing yards on
the day. Do you want to just eliminate running the football from the
playbook?
My next victim was Josh Robinson out
of Ames, Iowa. Josh was by far the most positive
student that I talked to after the game. He was a little harsh at some points,
but he always seemed to find the light at the end of the tunnel.
Robinson on the UNI
game…
- We should have won by a lot
more. The little incident (Flynn fumble) at the end of the 4th
quarter was a little bit of a problem but you know, we took care of it. It ended
alright, that’s what matters.
- We didn’t take them lightly, we
just had a few mistakes and that’s to be expected. We took care of it this game.
That’s all we can hope for.
My Take: I love the optimism
Josh…the Clones did win…and that is what matters.
Robinson on ISU’s
problems…
- We’re a little bit too
conservative towards the end. You know what, we’re going to take care of
everything by the end of the season.
- I feel like we sometimes play to
our opponent’s status. UNI, we didn’t take them lightly but it shouldn’t have
been this close.
- It just seems like the defense
is not stepping up in the right situations. We got it done today but we’re just
too relaxed throughout the game and we’re giving up too many
yards.
My Take: Alright Josh, we were
cool until I heard you say “it just seems like the defense is not stepping up in
the right situations.” What do you mean the defense isn’t stepping up? They held
UNI to six points in the second half when the offense and special teams
continued to turn the ball over. I agree, the defense isn’t the stingiest one
I’ve ever seen at Iowa State, but they’re stepping up when the
experience offense needs them the most.
Robinson on the
season…
I think that we’ve definitely got
our nuts and bolts under control, it’s just when those clutch situations come
up, we get a little too tense and make some little mistakes. We’ve got the
majority of the game under control, it’s just those certain situations where it
really counts and everybody gets too excited. We’re going to be
alright.
My next victim was Brian Fager out
of Atlantic, Iowa. Fager, like Overton says what he thinks.
There were some good things that
happened. There were a lot of fundamental things that went wrong. We should have
easily won this game. It shouldn’t have been close. We better buck up and get
back to the basics. We have to remember all of the basics. We need to wrap up
our tackles and follow through on our blocks.
My Take: Fager had pretty good
football knowledge. You could tell that he was a student of the game and that he
was a diehard Cyclone, however, I question his choice of the phrase “we better
buck up.” I’m still trying to figure out exactly what that means.
And last, but certainly not least
was Darren Kruger from Brit, Iowa. Kruger said a lot of the same things
that the other gentlemen were quoted on, but this one stuck out to me.
The only problem I had tonight was
when we ran for it on 4th down. With two yards to gain, we should
have done a halfback pass or an option or something.
My Take: What a great quote. “We
should have done a halfback pass.”
That’s why I love the student
section, comments like that. If I said that on Marty and Miller or Deace in the
Afternoon, I’d probably get laughed off the face of the planet. But you know
what, wanting to run a halfback pass on 4th and two should reminds us
all one thing. This game is fun. PERIOD.
A huge thanks goes out to the guys
who I interviewed. You guys were awesome and the rest of you students, be on the
look out. You just might be next.