The first installment of Grades from Da Douche follows up this weeks first bit of breaking news from Da Douche!!
Fans - A +, Killed it. Showed up. Tailgated, wore black. Got involved. Cheered. And really were trying to come back for the second half before the "lightning?" caused everyone to be asked to leave. The ones that returned in the second half were loud and in the game.
Students A -, Not terrible. Must have been tough for college students to chose to stay up past 11am on a school night, but several of them did. They get a lower grade because they gave very little effort to return back to the game after the delay.
Game Day Prep People - A +, Great tailgate atmosphere. Love the location of the stage and the band. It could be heard in all corners of the West Lot and West Annex Lot. Inside the stadium the music was on point, the videos were great. The 5 millionth fan was cool. The 4th quarter video is still awesome. Thunderstruck is definitely back in full force. Thunderclaps were back after the early score, even with a 3, 2, 1 from Cornwell.
Athletic Department - A+, I feel bad for Spears, and the Marketing/Advertising/Big Green/Game Day folks. We get our biggest win in possibly school history in week two, didn't come home for a non FCS game for over a month. They tried everything to make it a great night, and it was, everywhere except the radar and the scoreboard. They did a fantastic job getting that many people to still come out to the game considering the way the previous month has gone. The flyover was EPIC. Perfectly timed. Great work
Defense - A, I thought they played very well. In the second half they gave up a few plays because I truly believe they thought they had to figure out a way to score because at that time the offense wasn't. We didnt seem to get as much pressure on the quarterback as we had been.
All in all, with the exception of the football game that we were all there to watch, it was a great night. The weather ended up good. Fans showed up. Tailgating was fun, people set up much earlier than I expected and in much greater numbers. Glenns was packed all day yesterday, restaurants were packed all day yesterday.
We are what we are right now. We are 25 years deep into this FBS thing. We will have great years, we will have terrible years. We will have average years. We will have great teams that lose to bad teams. We will have bad teams that beat great teams. Then we will have unknown teams that lose or beat other unknown teams. But, its still Marshall football, and it is still our program.
Lastly. Late in the game yesterday, I was standing with my son and a gentleman came up to me and shook my hand. I didnt catch his HN Screen name, but he introduced himself, and said he had been reading for years. He was fired up. Vented, and it was awesome. He was mad as fire, but still there with just minutes to go. He said a lot of great things. Made me realize a little bit more that fans can voice their concern. But...the difference in this Marshall fan that I got the pleasure of meeting is, even though he was ticked (and trust me, he was LIVID) he was still there, supporting the team.
Loved it, made my night, so if you are reading, thank you, and it was a pleasure meeting you and learning about your son as well!!