How Auburn plans to adapt to ‘new normal’

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Auburn Football

How Auburn plans to adapt to ‘new normal’ of limited crowds, piped-in noise on gamedays

Updated 10:14 AM; Today 10:08 AM

Auburn players line up in the end zone to warm up with strength coach Ryan Russell (center) before a scrimmage at Jordan-Hare Stadium on Aug. 22, 2020. (Todd Van Emst/AU Athletics)Todd Van Emst/AU Athletics

By Tom Green | tgreen@al.com

A week out from the long-anticipated arrival of their season-opener, Gus Malzahn gathered his team in Jordan-Hare Stadium last Saturday evening for a practice under the lights.

Auburn’s eighth-year coach wanted his team to know what they were walking into this year — what they were going to experience on gamedays this fall under what he has on multiple occasions called “the new normal.” Attendance will be capped between 20 and 25 percent capacity throughout the SEC and crowd noise will be piped in—to an extent, at least. And at Auburn, Jordan-Hare Stadium’s new LED lighting system, which was installed this offseason, will be on full display.

It will certainly be a different experience, especially when players have grown accustomed to sold-out stadiums, raucous environments and, within the confines of Jordan-Hare Stadium, what they believe to be the best homefield advantage in the country.

“You know, when the schedule first came out, the first thing that stood out to me was that we actually were at home the very first game, which I think is important with all this new normal,” Malzahn said. “So, we’re really looking at that to be an advantage for us. When it’s a regular gameday, and we’ve got 90,000 fans, there’s no better place than all of college football in terms of atmosphere than here. The fact that a majority of our fans are going to be students, and our student section is always one of the best, if not the best, in the country. I know they’re going to have their A game. And they’ll be as loud as possible to help us win. So that, along with getting crowd noise piped in, I think it’s going to be a pretty good atmosphere that’s pretty loud.”

When No. 8 Auburn takes the field Saturday at 11 a.m. against No. 23 Kentucky, the capacity at Jordan-Hare Stadium will be capped at 20 percent—or approximately 17,490 fans compared to its usual 87,451—and the vast majority will be students. The school decided to, at least for the opener, allocate the majority of the general admission tickets to the student body to give them something to look forward to during an abnormal fall semester.