There were some pretty weak arms on display at Beaver Stadium Saturday -- and, no, none of them belonged to the opposing quarterbacks in the Penn State vs. Minnesota game.
They were attached to the students who tried hurling clumps of slush at their classmates and, more seriously, those on the field.
Frankly, Saturday's famous -- or infamous -- snowball fight in the student section was eye-opening if not embarrassing. I won't pretend to be pious or the moral enforcer of the student section; I've booed plenty, yelled at referees and called former Michigan quarterback Chad Henne pretty inappropriate things. But the snowball fight crossed the line for me.
Pelting your peers is one thing -- I wasn't hit, so it didn't directly affect me, but my section looked like a scene from Platoon. Anyone who was there knows the snowballs weren't really snow; some were soggy globs that soaked the person who was hit, while others seemed to be solid ice. But the real problem involved the students who began chucking them onto the field, trying to hit ESPN's sound gatherers, Minnesota student managers and various others standing on the sidelines.
This got me wondering -- do we deserve the title of "Greatest Show in College Football?" Sure, it's a totally fabricated marketing phrase, but it still means something ... right?
We have a colossal stadium, plenty of tradition and a coach who can't even be described as "legendary" anymore. As much as we might not want to admit it, though, we also have a sizable set of detractions to the claim, not only as a student section, but as a fan base in general. Spotty attendance at noon games. Not only booing illegitimate penalties against Penn State, but booing EVERY penalty against Penn State. And, now, the snowball stuff, something Penn State has seen before -- most notably during the 1995 Michigan game, commonly referred to as the "Snow Bowl."
Despite that, I still think a night game at Beaver Stadium is one of the coolest events in college football. Most of the blame for the unfilled stadium needs to be placed squarely on those in the athletic department who schedule not-so-perennial powers Temple, Eastern Illinois and the like. It also doesn't help that the ticket system makes it impossible to sell unused or unwanted student section seats after Thursday at 5 p.m. But as hard as it is to wake up for a noon kick after a night of, well, being college students (trust me -- I've been there), we still need to show up more consistently.
In addition, I'm totally convinced that if Penn State center Stefen Wisniewski ran up to an opposing linebacker and picked him up, threw him five yards and hog tied him, much of the student section would still boo about the "terrible call" when the referee called holding. True, blatant homerism is not only expected in a student section, it's required. That being said, having the understanding that some calls against your team are actually valid is equally important. Some fans are walking the thin line between enjoying booing more than cheering -- and that's a bad thing.
As much as it may sound like it, I'm not trying to bash the student section; I'm part of it, and proud to say so. The 20,000-plus people in the southeast corner of Beaver Stadium provide maybe the biggest homefield advantages in all of sport. However, we need to take a step back and evaluate where we are -- we've been lauded by numerous media outlets, and Kirk Herbstreit seems to love us more than his alma mater, Ohio State.
Let's not put that respect -- and the image of our school as a whole -- in jeopardy by acting like morons during games. Leave the throwing to Daryll Clark -- he'll do just fine.
