So Stanford has done some upgrade to its old stadium up in Palo Alto. The new stadium up at the Farm is a more compact version of the 80,000 stadium, which now seats about 50,000. The stadium is designed in a way to generate more crowd noise for the home team. So excited is former Stanford player and current ESPN analyst Rod Gilmore that he blurted out this in Inside Bay Area:
"If Stanford had this stadium last year they would've beat UCLA," said ESPN analyst Rod Gilmore, a former Stanford and Skyline High player. "They wouldn't have gotten three touchdowns in the last (seven) minutes."
The Bruins rallied from a 24-3 deficit to win 30-27 in overtime. The attendance was 42,850, meaning there were nearly as many empty seats as occupied ones. And if UCLA had not come back to win that game, Stanford would have finished 6-5 rather than 5-6, and gone to a bowl game.
A pretty big difference.
Uh that is a nice theory but it really doesn't work. Of that 42,850 who attended the Stanford-UCLA game probably 15,000 of them were UCLA alums/fans from the Bay area. Don't believe it? Check out this offensive play from Stanford last year. And hear the crowd making noise to put pressure on the offense and reacting after the Havener play:The Bruins rallied from a 24-3 deficit to win 30-27 in overtime. The attendance was 42,850, meaning there were nearly as many empty seats as occupied ones. And if UCLA had not come back to win that game, Stanford would have finished 6-5 rather than 5-6, and gone to a bowl game.
A pretty big difference.
Yes, the Bruin fans at the end zone were much louder than the entire pathetic Stanford crew (kind of like a USC basketball game home crowd). Anyways, good for Stanford to have a new home stadium. Hopefully it will get them 6 win or whatever they need to make it to a bowl game. I am glad we get these guys early. They will provide a much needed confidence for Ben Olson and his crew as they should be 5-0 after first six weeks of this upcoming season.
GO BRUINS.