preparing for Tiger Stadium

[aubiefifty 18,222]

Auburn preparing so Tiger Stadium’s noise won’t throw it off again

Posted Oct 22, 2019

3-4 minutes

Auburn’s biggest problem against Florida — in its only loss this season — was dealing with the noise. Saturday, it will head to a stadium that is even louder than The Swamp, LSU’s Tiger Stadium.

Coach Gus Malzahn said Auburn’s made it a focus to prepare for noise ever since that loss to the Gators and especially as it gets ready for Baton Rouge, which is “of course” a loud place to play.

The NCAA named Tiger Stadium the loudest place to play in college football in 2013. In 2018, 247Sports ranked it the third loudest stadium and The Swamp the eighth loudest.

All season, Auburn has prepared for crowd noise, even during weeks it plays at home. There are speakers set up at the practice field and they blare music and recordings of crowd noise. The volume forces the offense to speak loudly and figure out how to communicate when it’s hard to hear, quarterback Bo Nix said.

But as the Tigers entered The Swamp, they weren’t prepared for just how loud it was. Although they had already played at Kyle Field, which is also considered one of the loudest stadiums in the country, it was a different situation. They got ahead of Texas A&M early and took the crowd out of it, but Florida was the team to grab the early lead in The Swamp. The crowd got into it and never lost steam, which led to a number of mistakes for Auburn.

Against Florida, Nix couldn’t just yell out pre-snap adjustments if Auburn needed to change the play or the protection. Instead, he had to go up to each and every lineman to convey the changes, senior tackle Jack Driscoll said, and it took a lot of time off the play clock.

“There were a couple of miscommunications,” Driscoll said. “At times, we just let the play calling get low and we just kind of bit the bullet with the penalties.”

Nix said he took a lot of the blame for the problems that stemmed from him not being loud enough, although Driscoll attributed it to a combination of things.

But experiencing that road environment went a long way in preparing the freshman quarterback for future hostile stadiums.

“This week, I feel like now I can just really sit back and do my job and not really worry about the atmosphere,” Nix said.

After Florida and over the past few weeks, the offense has discussed what it could do differently, playing around with different ideas and hypothetical situations. As of Sunday, there were no official changes in place.

Tuesday, Malzahn declined to specify what changes the team has made but gave assurances that they’ve worked on improvements.

“Not just crowd noise, but just some little wrinkles that we feel like can help us as far as our communication goes and along those lines,” Malzahn said.

He “definitely” feels Auburn has made the adjustments it needs to, but they still have “got to go do it.”

Once again, Auburn’s freshman quarterback will be in new territory. Nix said he’s never been to a game in LSU. He probably should have, he said, to see how loud it’s going to be. But hearing about the noise doesn’t intimidate him.

“I’m looking forward to it, especially with all the things I’ve heard, all the good things about the stadium and the atmosphere,” Nix said. “I’m looking forward to it.”

[LKEEL75 2,567]

I am really hoping that CGM has taken play out of UF playbook and just as our O looks like they are looking to sideline, snap the ball while the LSU D are on their knees.  This was a smart move by UF and caught us several times.

[Zeek 16,953]

I'm sorry but I have a very unkind initial reaction.

Are you ******* kidding me? Was this not something we prepared for before Florida? Before Texas A&M? Watching us try and call a 2 minute audible in that crowd was excruciating.

Maybe it's just a fluff piece about prepping for crowd noise and this is already a common practice. If it's something new we're doing then it's ludicrous this wasn't already a part of our preparation. Thank God we play Alabama and Georgia at home this year. LSU is our last real rowdy crowd to deal with.

[AuburnTiger4Life 2,225]

12 minutes ago, Zeek said:

I'm sorry but I have a very unkind initial reaction.

Are you ******* kidding me? Was this not something we prepared for before Florida? Before Texas A&M? Watching us try and call a 2 minute audible in that crowd was excruciating.

Maybe it's just a fluff piece about prepping for crowd noise and this is already a common practice. If it's something new we're doing then it's ludicrous this wasn't already a part of our preparation. Thank God we play Alabama and Georgia at home this year. LSU is our last real rowdy crowd to deal with.

Lol I had the same reaction just reading the title but after reading the article I think it’s more than just pumping in noise at practice. 

[Squidward2016 51]

21 minutes ago, Zeek said:

I'm sorry but I have a very unkind initial reaction.

Are you ******* kidding me? Was this not something we prepared for before Florida? Before Texas A&M? Watching us try and call a 2 minute audible in that crowd was excruciating.

Maybe it's just a fluff piece about prepping for crowd noise and this is already a common practice. If it's something new we're doing then it's ludicrous this wasn't already a part of our preparation. Thank God we play Alabama and Georgia at home this year. LSU is our last real rowdy crowd to deal with.

From what I got from the article, it seems they HAVE been funneling loud crowd noise in practice throughout the season, but UF was even worse than expected, so now they’re using new, unspecified techniques to prepare for it. Assuming that means new/different hand signals and the like 

[DAG 34,751]

38 minutes ago, Zeek said:

I'm sorry but I have a very unkind initial reaction.

Are you ******* kidding me? Was this not something we prepared for before Florida? Before Texas A&M? Watching us try and call a 2 minute audible in that crowd was excruciating.

Maybe it's just a fluff piece about prepping for crowd noise and this is already a common practice. If it's something new we're doing then it's ludicrous this wasn't already a part of our preparation. Thank God we play Alabama and Georgia at home this year. LSU is our last real rowdy crowd to deal with.

Got to read the content bud lol.

[aubiefifty 18,222]

38 minutes ago, Zeek said:

I'm sorry but I have a very unkind initial reaction.

Are you ******* kidding me? Was this not something we prepared for before Florida? Before Texas A&M? Watching us try and call a 2 minute audible in that crowd was excruciating.

Maybe it's just a fluff piece about prepping for crowd noise and this is already a common practice. If it's something new we're doing then it's ludicrous this wasn't already a part of our preparation. Thank God we play Alabama and Georgia at home this year. LSU is our last real rowdy crowd to deal with.

gus did that just to pick at you a little bit zeek.........lol

[Zeek 16,953]

5 hours ago, DAG said:

Got to read the content bud lol.

Too busy and too riled up today lol

 Cable company is trying to yah yah me about some price increase when I don’t even get NFL network. The time to switch to just WiFi has come. 

[I_M4_AU 8,933]

Two things stuck out to me after reading and re-reading that article:

1).  Auburn took the atmosphere of the Swamp for granted assuming what we had worked on was sufficient, and

2).  IF(and that is a big IF), Gus felt the noise was affecting his communications why didn’t he do some adjusting at half?  He did during the 2010 Iron Bowl. 

The best way to keep the noise down is to score points and prevent the home team from doing the same.

[doc4aday 1,887]

Someone  needs to invent a device that each player for our team can only hear what the QB is doing and totally takes the crowd noise out of the equation and all they hear is the QB and coaches. No matter how loud the crowd gets, it doesn't matter. This would be awesome! The only thing you would have is a bunch moronic fans with a loss of voices for a week or so.

Crowd noise would become a thing of the past!  I would love this and the LSUs, UFs, turds, and the rest of the SEC would be nothing more than a quiet ball game played by players playing the game with all of the foolishness taken out of the game!

[around4ever 4,139]

55 minutes ago, I_M4_AU said:

Two things stuck out to me after reading and re-reading that article:

1).  Auburn took the atmosphere of the Swamp for granted assuming what we had worked on was sufficient, and

2).  IF(and that is a big IF), Gus felt the noise was affecting his communications why didn’t he do some adjusting at half?  He did during the 2010 Iron Bowl. 

The best way to keep the noise down is to score points and prevent the home team from doing the same.

DING DING!!!  We have a winner!!

[Tigerbelle 5,299]

10 hours ago, Squidward2016 said:

From what I got from the article, it seems they HAVE been funneling loud crowd noise in practice throughout the season, but UF was even worse than expected, so now they’re using new, unspecified techniques to prepare for it. Assuming that means new/different hand signals and the like 

Bo Nix, as a freshman, was inexperienced in that kind of atmosphere. It's impossible to really duplicate it in practice He knows what he's facing now. I doubt he'll get that rattled again. 

[AUBourne 425]

Been to LSU many times. It is not even close to being as loud as BHG. That game in Gainesville was OMG loud. It is not about atmosphere. UF fans have lame cheers for the most part.  It is volume. The design of BHG Stadium traps and amplifies noise.  It is steep even in the lower levels, like LSU upper deck steep.  

[BJCrawford 1,568]

A bit off topic but I was reading the LSU boards and it seems the game is not sold out. That seems strange if true. I checked stub hub and the tickets start at $48. This seems crazy low to me. I know it will be full but I’m pretty sure The swamp was a tough ticket to get. 

[gr82b4au 5,576]

10 minutes ago, BJCrawford said:

A bit off topic but I was reading the LSU boards and it seems the game is not sold out. That seems strange if true. I checked stub hub and the tickets start at $48. This seems crazy low to me. I know it will be full but I’m pretty sure The swamp was a tough ticket to get. 

That is because they only care about 1 game a year. Until we start beating them on a regular basis we are just a good team that is a fly in the ointment. 

[AUsince72 11,084]

I remember a road game years ago that Auburn handled crowd noise so masterfully it was like a home game.  I think it may have even been one of Tot's teams...  Anyway, when asked how they prepared, they whispered all week and all on-field signals were silent, even during practice.

Honestly, I'm not sure why any SEC power would go into another's stadium and be caught off guard by crowd noise.  I mean, that's one of the things these coaches SELL recruits on. 

[Viper 3,498]

8 hours ago, AUBourne said:

Been to LSU many times. It is not even close to being as loud as BHG. That game in Gainesville was OMG loud. It is not about atmosphere. UF fans have lame cheers for the most part.  It is volume. The design of BHG Stadium traps and amplifies noise.  It is steep even in the lower levels, like LSU upper deck steep.  

Hard to argue with someone who’s been at both stadiums, but on the field (not in the stands) from opposing players, I’ve read numerous times over the last 25 years that LSU is a notch louder than FL...but that they are #1 and #2 loudest.

[AuburnTiger4Life 2,225]

9 hours ago, AUBourne said:

Been to LSU many times. It is not even close to being as loud as BHG. That game in Gainesville was OMG loud. It is not about atmosphere. UF fans have lame cheers for the most part.  It is volume. The design of BHG Stadium traps and amplifies noise.  It is steep even in the lower levels, like LSU upper deck steep.  

 UF artificially pumps in crowd noise 

[AUGoo 2,703]

12 minutes ago, AuburnTiger4Life said:

 UF artificially pumps in crowd noise 

You mean that Clark?

[The Freak 2,539]

19 hours ago, Viper said:

Hard to argue with someone who’s been at both stadiums, but on the field (not in the stands) from opposing players, I’ve read numerous times over the last 25 years that LSU is a notch louder than FL...but that they are #1 and #2 loudest.

You didn't hear it from Kozan or Dismukes.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/11-a-pig-roast-and-lsu-preview/id1478147009?i=1000454711086

[Viper 3,498]

On 10/25/2019 at 12:45 PM, The Freak said:

You didn't hear it from Kozan or Dismukes.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/11-a-pig-roast-and-lsu-preview/id1478147009?i=1000454711086

Nope I didn’t.