PantherRob82
October 31st, 2015, 09:56 PM
Does your team, or any of the teams you have played against, ever travel with 20 players who do not dress for the game, but serve as unofficial cheerleaders?
I haven't seen it in my 26 years of watching FCS football (at least that I can recollect, and I think I would remember this).
South Dakota did this today. About 20 guys in jerseys but shorts or warmup pants. It was basically like they had a small student section on their bench. They would jump up and down and chant and cheer. They also pounded on the signage near the field to make noise on 3rd downs for their defense.
Here's a pretty good summary from someone who sits on that side:
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"I sat behind their bench about 5 rows deep. They had their freshman in street clothes on the sideline and they were really into the game. Like a male cheerleading squad. Hey...that's cool.
They were pounding on the sign along the railing the entire game. Pounding on it hard. It was annoying...but UNI fans do it too. So hey...that's cool. It's a football game.
But then there was a fair amount of banter between the players and UNI fans. And UNI fans are pretty mild as trash talking goes. But the USD guys were paying a LOT of attention to the fans. Almost looking for it.
Then some d-bag dressed like he was on USD's staff stood amongst the players and stared at the UNI crowd for like 10 minutes. He was staring down anyone who would look at him. Not even paying attention to the game...which was still in doubt at that point.
It was the silliest, most punk-ish thing I've seen...and I've been sitting in those seats for years.
Eventually they had a couple cops come over and tell the USD players to stop pounding on the boards because they could tell it was gonna lead to trouble. After the cops left they did it quite a bit for the rest of the game. Cops came back once.
Really silly stuff. Not impressive."
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I asked a few USD fans I chatted with if they normally did this and they couldn't recall it ever happening. I don't recall it happening in 2013 in Cedar Falls and I don't remember seeing anything like it in Vermillion.
I haven't seen it in my 26 years of watching FCS football (at least that I can recollect, and I think I would remember this).
South Dakota did this today. About 20 guys in jerseys but shorts or warmup pants. It was basically like they had a small student section on their bench. They would jump up and down and chant and cheer. They also pounded on the signage near the field to make noise on 3rd downs for their defense.
Here's a pretty good summary from someone who sits on that side:
------------------
"I sat behind their bench about 5 rows deep. They had their freshman in street clothes on the sideline and they were really into the game. Like a male cheerleading squad. Hey...that's cool.
They were pounding on the sign along the railing the entire game. Pounding on it hard. It was annoying...but UNI fans do it too. So hey...that's cool. It's a football game.
But then there was a fair amount of banter between the players and UNI fans. And UNI fans are pretty mild as trash talking goes. But the USD guys were paying a LOT of attention to the fans. Almost looking for it.
Then some d-bag dressed like he was on USD's staff stood amongst the players and stared at the UNI crowd for like 10 minutes. He was staring down anyone who would look at him. Not even paying attention to the game...which was still in doubt at that point.
It was the silliest, most punk-ish thing I've seen...and I've been sitting in those seats for years.
Eventually they had a couple cops come over and tell the USD players to stop pounding on the boards because they could tell it was gonna lead to trouble. After the cops left they did it quite a bit for the rest of the game. Cops came back once.
Really silly stuff. Not impressive."
--------------
I asked a few USD fans I chatted with if they normally did this and they couldn't recall it ever happening. I don't recall it happening in 2013 in Cedar Falls and I don't remember seeing anything like it in Vermillion.