A Sea Of Red

Last night I went to the UT/Alabama game. Any time you go to a game with 102,000 people, it's impressive. The crowd and traditions are what we aspire to.

With that said, I left the game completely unimpressed, and even annoyed, with their in-game environment from a production stand point. It was completely normal for both bands to be playing while there was PA music going and a video on the video board. There was absolutely no coordination from their game ops people to provide continuity in the off-field aspect of the game.

As unimpressed as I was at UT, it made me even more impressed with the LU in-game environment. The off-field stuff is scripted and there is order to it. The band doesn't play at the same time as the canned music. If there's a visiting band, they don't play while our band plays.

People may not notice the details and be able to point them out, but they can definitely feel them. Our people are doing a great job and Jamie deserves more credit than she gets.

SuperJon wrote:Last night I went to the UT/Alabama game. Any time you go to a game with 102,000 people, it's impressive. The crowd and traditions are what we aspire to.

With that said, I left the game completely unimpressed, and even annoyed, with their in-game environment from a production stand point. It was completely normal for both bands to be playing while there was PA music going and a video on the video board. There was absolutely no coordination from their game ops people to provide continuity in the off-field aspect of the game.

As unimpressed as I was at UT, it made me even more impressed with the LU in-game environment. The off-field stuff is scripted and there is order to it. The band doesn't play at the same time as the canned music. If there's a visiting band, they don't play while our band plays.

People may not notice the details and be able to point them out, but they can definitely feel them. Our people are doing a great job and Jamie deserves more credit than she gets.

I was at the UVA/UNC game and their game day stuff is solid up in C'ville if their on field game management is spotty (12 men on the field after a Time Out). The UNC band was put up in the upper deck which was funny. They did play the same time as the UVA band but it wasn't a big deal.
The UVA band at half time was amazing,.
But I agree with SJ in that out in game stuff is well organized. We have good folks behind the scenes

I heard it was a "paper only" UNC Band. All of their tunes are piped in. The administration and band director aren't aware of this either.

flameshaw wrote:I heard it was a "paper only" UNC Band. All of their tunes are piped in. The administration and band director aren't aware of this either.

Very well played

I went to the Oregon UVA game last year and then made it back for the Liberty-Monmouth game. The difference between the two was night and day, in favor of Liberty. It is funny you mention this Jon because there were some miscues that happened yesterday that were pretty funny. Liberty does a great job with this now compared to a few years ago where the marching band was playing loud with our offense trying to get calls in on 3rd down. It is completely different now.

There will always be miscues, but it's all about how you handle those miscues. If we've made it to the point where people are noticing the mess-ups then we're doing things really well.

I agree 100%. How was the Bama UT game? I went to the UT Vandy game about 5 years ago. It was incredible.

It was my first UT game since 2010. Totally different environment. Butch has people excited. Was surprised at the amount of Bama fans. There were 102k total, and I'd guess 20-30k were Bama fans.

UVA's atmosphere has been down for a long time. It really hasn't been anything since Groh's 3rd or 4th year. I sat on the student side the 2nd half of yesterday. You really forget how impressive the home side looks until you go back over there for a game, especially when it's filled like yesterday. If we can keep up this momentum and finally win the conference and make a playoff run (all big if's). I could really see us pushing 20,000 every game and pushing 22 or 23 for the bigger games next year like CCU and Montana.

Homecoming brought a lot of folks into town and Family Weekend did the same. The campus was swarming with students and their parents on Friday. It's not to say that we need to always depend on out of towners to "Fill the Bill" but it certainly has helped in our last two home games. Maybe the excitement will draw more students (13K residential students) and some more from the community to supplement us diehards. The Baptists side was as full as I have ever seen it . . more than homecoming for sure. Go Flames !

flamerbob wrote:I went to the Oregon UVA game last year and then made it back for the Liberty-Monmouth game. The difference between the two was night and day, in favor of Liberty. It is funny you mention this Jon because there were some miscues that happened yesterday that were pretty funny. Liberty does a great job with this now compared to a few years ago where the marching band was playing loud with our offense trying to get calls in on 3rd down. It is completely different now.

I was at that Oregon game and agree it was awful. But this year was much better. The Band, not to beat a dead horse, was outstanding. I think UVA does a better job on their opening and half time but other than that LU has them beat

Purple Haize wrote:I think UVA does a better job on their opening

Absolutely love it when Cav Man comes riding in on his horse waving his sword!


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Cider Jim wrote:

Purple Haize wrote:I think UVA does a better job on their opening

Absolutely love it when Cav Man comes riding in on his horse waving his sword!


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He about took out 2 UVA players who were not paying attention.

BTW, when was the last time GameDay was at Marshall? That's what I thought! Morgantown this Saturday!

I think Liberty's entrance music could be better. For me, 2001 A Space Odyssey just doesn't seem to fit.

Also, lots of schools have a song that relates so strongly with the school such as VT's Hokey Pokey. Liberty should find a signature song that when played by the band, leaves no doubt you are at a Liberty Flames game.

2001 Space Odyssey is a rip off.....errr....borrowed from South Carolina

Might I suggest this: http://youtu.be/LkIWmsP3c_s

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It's talking about fire the entire song and Alan York says "Light 'em up" when he calls a touchdown. Along with all of the lyrical connections LU seems to love their Fall Out Boy, I've heard "Centuries" at every home game I've been to.

Wow. We can't even have a thread telling people they're doing a good job without criticizing or making suggestions.

SuperJon wrote:Wow. We can't even have a thread telling people they're doing a good job without criticizing or making suggestions.

For the record mine was by way of comparison not a criticism

Some people care more about what happens ON the field. lol.

(You are right SJ about the "game experience" being excellent at Liberty).

alabama24 wrote:Some people care more about what happens ON the field. I chortle audibly..

(You are right SJ about the "game experience" being excellent at Liberty).

No self respecting SMGT person should feel that way!

Plus you sound like ballcoach who feels PA Announcements push the envelope!

One big improvement that Liberty could make, in my opinion, is with the marching band. It has been mentioned about how great UVA's band is. One thing that I like is that UVA has a different halftime show for every game and they play one song to each side of the stadium. At Liberty you get the same show every week. I've often called Liberty's band a glorified high school band with the style that they do their halftime show.

One other thing that UVA does that could be done at Liberty is contests during timeouts. The "Sabre Scramble" is a crowd favorite (for what crowd still comes) at Scott Stadium. And my last pet peeve at a Liberty game, the video board isn't high enough and the poles for the field goal netting block part of the screen...

The atmosphere at Liberty though is really good overall for an FCS school.

If you compare today what we had 20 years ago it's night and day. I hope in 10 years we will say the same thing. These things take time and the LU crew is taking it in the right direction. Heck, I remember when playing Motown would generate angry letters! We will get there

JakeP50 wrote:Might I suggest this: http://youtu.be/LkIWmsP3c_s
It's talking about fire the entire song and Alan York says "Light 'em up" when he calls a touchdown. Along with all of the lyrical connections LU seems to love their Fall Out Boy, I've heard "Centuries" at every home game I've been to.

Really like this song and idea for the team entering the stadium. I also like the idea of someone carrying a flame into the stadium, maybe dotting the I in Liberty. I know that is similar to OSU, but still like it. Would like to see something similar to that become a tradition ie. FSU lance at midfield, USC horse, Air Force falcon flying around the stadium, etc.
BTW, I am not criticizing anyone or anything about the current game atmosphere, it is awesome. But we need to build on the current foundation.

I really like 2001 for the tunnel/ team entrance song. I was in the marching band back in the Rashad Jennings era and I always loved 2001. My suggestion now and how I felt then is, the band should play it, not a recording over the PA. I think it would be much more epic for the band to blast it as the team enters at full ffff My .02

RING OF FIRE...

RING OF FIRE...

This should be our song. The students could sing along. I don't know of another college using it.