Shots from SunLife Stadium

I was lucky (or unlucky…However you want to look at it) to be able to attend the game this past Saturday.  “Shots” has mostly been a basketball feature, but figured since I was in attendance, why not…

• I still don’t understand why Sun Life stadium is 30 minutes from downtown, and yet they still have no crowds?  In what was the most attended Miami game in Sun Life stadium it is easy to see why.   It is not close to anything.  Overheard from a Canes fan that last year on Thanksgiving they only had 22k at the game.  Can you imagine a Buckeye game only having 22k?
• The Buckeye fans were out in force.  Making up at least 25% of the crowd.  It is always good to see the Buckeyes travel.  This Buckeye needs to go to Indiana or something though to break the losing streak of 0-4 when seeing the Bucks outside of the Shoe.  (Tress’ only loss to Michigan, 07′ LSU, 10′ Wisky, 11′ Miami)
• I like how Miami is up on the times with the music at the game, and actually had a DJ in the stadium.  Now don’t get me wrong, I understand tradition and obviously like to hear the Buckeye Battlecry and fight song, and hear the band at halftime, but it doesn’t mean we can’t throw some top songs in here and there.  It kept me on my feet all game long.
• 3rd down song – I don’t know what beat was, but man it had me doing it on 3rd down, and yelling for our offense to pick up their first down. 
• It was good to see our Alumni band make the trip, even though they put them up in the upper deck.
• We started out at a tailgate that was about 15-20 Buckeye fans, and before you knew it there were about 500 fans that came together with their tailgates.  It is always so fun on the road to just party with Buckeye fans that you have never met before in enemy territory.
• For the fun part of the weekend, South Beach was nice and there were lots of Buckeyes on the beach.
• But- I will also say that South Beach is full of rude people;  like the grown men throwing the U sign in my wife’s face.  And they really didn’t even care about the game down there-  My wife and her friend left the bar they were watching at during at halftime because they turned the game off for the fight, and the attitude was “What Game?’
• Now for the action on the field.  This has been beaten to death, but the QB play was terrible, and there’s no other way to put it.  We had one guy that was scared to try and make a play and wanted to put the ball in the 10th row, and another that everytime he tried to make a play he forgot to protect the ball.  We shall see how this shakes out this week, but IMHO it is time to go with Miller and stick with him.
• I do believe that our guys left it all out on the field.  The talent was there to win the game, there was just no rhyme or rhythm to much of what we were doing.
• Jordan Hall is a stud.  Didn’t know he cramped up until we heard then news when we got home, but man was he exciting out there.
• Jacory Harris is just as bad as our QB’s, and even Miami fans didn’t want him to throw.  They were saying “no no no” everytime he dropped back.  There was a joke going around in our section that he was our best offensive player on the field.
• And last but not least remember the old saying “It’s never as bad as you think and it’s never as good as you think”.  Where we go from here is still really up in the air-  Will Fickell rebound from a poor performance on his part?  Who is the QB?  Will we find a playmaker or two on offense? What will happen when our suspended guys come back?  Remember we are young and these are 18-23 (or 45, if you’re Bauserman) year old kids.  It’s a long season, and there’s a lot of ball to be played.