Pitt beat writer says NC State crowd won’t be a factor

'09 Football Fans General44

Finally, the game is almost here. Paul Zeise is the Pitt beat writer for the Post-Gazette and recently did a chat about this week’s Pitt/NC State matchup. Here are his comments about the impact of crowds at Carter Finley stadium:

Well I suppose Bob Smizik might have been there for that game (the 1988 Pitt game in Raleigh) but he is retired, so unfortunately, no. And from what I understand there is a good crowd expected but, perhaps I am wrong about this, when has anyone ever talked about N.C. State being one of the tough or most hostile road venues around? I mean, in that conference we hear a lot about Virginia Tech, Clemson and FSU as being tough places to play, but I don’t recall ever hearing much about N.C. State. So I don’t think the crowd will be that much of a factor, no more than a normal road game.

I did a quick search about Mr. Zeise and the first thing I found was this:

paul_zeise

Please tell me he was kidding and not that out of touch with college football.

Of course you don’t hear about NC State being a tough place to play like @FSU, @VT, and @Clemson. That is because the recent coaching transition led by AD Lee Fowler has produced one of the worst stretches of NC State football in the last 50 years. It has absolutely nothing to do with NC State fans not creating a tough, loud, intimidating atmosphere for visiting teams.

The fact is that the atmosphere at Carter Finley stadium is one of the best in the conference and one of the few SEC-like atmospheres in the league along with FSU, VT, and Clemson. However, the atmosphere at those schools was at least partially created by winning national titles, conference titles and consistently being much, much better than NC State. Often at my tailgates, I look around at all of the people, the grills, the flags, tents, etc…and wonder what it would be like if NC State ever was a consistent top 25 program. Can you imagine?

The writer is absolutely wrong that the crowd won’t have an impact on Saturday. We will certainly do our part like we have for the last decade at Carter Finley. Hopefully, the team can match our efforts and beat Pitt.

'09 Football Fans General

44 Responses to Pitt beat writer says NC State crowd won’t be a factor

  1. Plz2BStateFan 09/25/2009 at 2:40 PM #

    I work with a Penn State grad. He had a friend who’s goal the entire year was to start the wave at Penn State. He eventually did it and made 100+ thousande people do the wave.

    They do the wave to. I seriously believe it is much more common than you people think.
    ———————–
    I was able to go from the temporary bleachers where I have season tickets down to the first row at the goal line. The noise level at ground level is insane compared to the bleachers. I cant imagine what it sounds like on the field during a big 3rd down.

  2. Trout 09/25/2009 at 2:42 PM #

    “Williams-Brice Stadium attendance was listed as 74,724 last night, but I saw alot of empty seats in the upper decks.”

    WB seats 83k, so that number sounds about right. Still, surprising to see 9-10k empty seats for Gamecock football. They have very loyal fans.

    Pitt had 48,497 for Youngstown and 55,064 for Navy.

  3. LRM 09/25/2009 at 2:59 PM #

    I think some folks lend too much credence to what outsiders think (like our marketing geniuses) — who gives a rat’s ass what some beat writer from Pittsburgh thinks? As long as I enjoy my gameday experience, what else matters?

  4. bradleyb123 09/25/2009 at 3:09 PM #

    This writer just showed his ignorance. He just doesn’t know any better. He will after Saturday. Pitt may win, but they will soon know they’ve entered a hornets nest!

  5. bradleyb123 09/25/2009 at 3:11 PM #

    ^^^ “Hopefully Pitt will be intimidated by the crowd attempting to do the wave during play.”

    You must mean the Pitt DEFENSE. For some reason, the crowd has done the wave on two separate occasions when WE were on offense. For the life of me, I still don’t understand why we did that.

  6. tjfoose2 09/25/2009 at 3:33 PM #

    Oh, and how could I forget… I was down in Florida back in ’01 and ’02. I was dating a UF fan who had season tickets to the Gators… I made several games that year (2001 – also had the chance to slide over to Tallahassee and watch Philip and the boys take down FSU on their homecoming), including the Florida v Tennessee and Florida v Georgia*, back before the PC crowd got involved and it was still ok to call it “The World’s Biggest Cocktail Party”.

    That was during Spurrier’s tenure, when all things Gator still worshiped him. Yes, the tailgating was terrible (except for the Georgia game at the former Alltel Stadium). The atmosphere did not impress.

    I think maybe sometimes we have something of a “the grass is always greener” complex. In some areas that might be warranted (AD, Marketing, game day ‘experience’ anyone), but not this one.

    *Note: If you ever date/marry/ or surrounded by hot Florida fan(s), it is in your best interest to remember that the game is NOT Georgia v Florida, it IS FLORIDA v Georgia.

  7. CaptainCraptacular 09/25/2009 at 4:14 PM #

    I have a completely different experience and perception of the swamp. I’ve been to C-F plenty, Clemson and FSU on several occasions each, and while each stadium gets loud and can approach it on key plays, especially Doak on 3rd downs on D, nowhere I’ve been is as consistently loud as the swamp throughout the game. Maybe it was the game and where I was sitting (-vs LSU a few years back), but it was ear splitting a large amount of the time and very noisy in down times, even at halftime. At no time would I have described it being quiet. I came away very impressed by the crowd and atmosphere.

  8. choppack1 09/25/2009 at 4:55 PM #

    CC – I think alot of it has to do w/ where you sit. The loudest I’ve ever heard a stadium was VaTech – but I was down low (like my seats in Raleigh)…and that was a day game.

  9. howlie 09/25/2009 at 5:00 PM #

    Everyone has their subjective ranking of some aspect of football…

    Has anyone ‘ranked’ the [supposedly] “most difficult places to play in football” and then correlated the actual win-loss percentage.

    That our stadium is loud and our fans great–no doubt.
    That it actually translates into wins–our pudding is proofless.

  10. bradleyb123 09/25/2009 at 5:11 PM #

    ^^^ “That it actually translates into wins–our pudding is proofless.”

    I believe it translates into a more difficult time for opponents. That’s all we can do. The team has to do the rest and complete the win. All we can do it make it tough for offenses to communicate. And we do that JUST FINE!

    GO PACK!!!

  11. Plz2BStateFan 09/25/2009 at 5:25 PM #

    WOO WOO!

    BE LOUD! WEAR RED! DONT GIVE THEM ANYTHING!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvxjOumoA40

  12. 61Packer 09/25/2009 at 5:49 PM #

    “OF COURSE YOU DON’T HEAR MUCH ABOUT NC STATE BEING A TOUGH PLACE TO PLAY LIKE @FSU, @VT, and @CLEMSON. THAT IS BECAUSE THE RECENT COACHING TRANSITION LED BY AD LEE FOWLER HAS PRODUCED ONE OF THE WORST STRETCHES OF NC STATE FOOTBALL IN THE LAST 50 YEARS.”

    TRANSITION? FOOTBALL? LAST 50 YEARS? Hell, we’re the worst off in ALL sports that we’ve EVER been, period.

    Please give our AD credit where credit is due!

  13. tjfoose2 09/26/2009 at 2:10 AM #

    No no no… I’m not buying it… How can the SEC have a better game atmosphere? How can their stadiums be intimidating w/o the “picturesque pine trees” and amazing views from the coach’s office?

  14. wolfonthehill 09/26/2009 at 6:36 AM #

    1 – Williams-Bryce was completely underwhelming when we went there last August. It was bigger but quieter than C-F. Playing the theme from “2001” doesn’t automatically give you a great atmosphere. Goofy came to my mind, quite honestly.
    2 – I think the weather will be a bigger factor than our fans today. In a game being basically billed as finesse vs power, power wins in the rain. Pray for the clouds to hold their water til 7pm, even if Fishel shows the noon-5pm timeframe looking pretty awful. So far, the radar gives me hope…

  15. CaptainCraptacular 09/26/2009 at 7:28 AM #

    The last Pitt game in ’88 was a gray overcast day. Cool but not cold. A very good day at C-F for a football game with my then girlfriend originally from the Pittsburgh area.

  16. BJD95 09/26/2009 at 7:59 PM #

    I suppose our good readers have already invited Mr. Zeise to have sex with himself after today’s 4th quarter in the driving rain, right? Because as far as I’m concerned, that’s something he can go do.

  17. tobaccordshow 09/26/2009 at 8:08 PM #

    I want to see this guy be intellectually honest and retract his idiocy.

  18. waxhaw 09/27/2009 at 12:38 PM #

    Crowd was a major factor. Kudos to Mr. Zeiss for giving us a little extra ammunition to get riled out.

    It was loud in the 4th!!

  19. bradleyb123 09/28/2009 at 3:54 PM #

    I wonder if this guy still thinks our crowd noise had no effect on Pitt’s performance…… if he does, he surely didn’t watch the last 16 minutes of the game.

1 2

Leave a Reply