School officials hope to prevent the student body from misbehaving during Saturday’s nationally televised game
As students get ready for Saturday night’s primetime showdown against the Florida State Seminoles at Folsom Field, CU administrators hope the game won’t be a repeat of the mayhem that occurred when the Buffs took on Nebraska in 2005.
During Thanksgiving break 2005, Nebraska visited Folsom Field for the annual showdown between the Buffs and the Cornhuskers. After Nebraska took a 30-3 lead on the heavily favored Buffs, fans from the CU student section began throwing trash and debris onto the field, prompting officials to order hundreds of fans to be removed from the stadium.
Tom McGann, the Director for Game Management and Operation, believes this incident to be a thing of the past and is confident the student section will not misbehave.
“We’ve been pretty engaged with the student body with what we believe is proper behavior,” McGann said.
The game was shown nationally on ABC, and after fans began parading the field with water and beer bottles, announcers of the game suggested that the Buffs have some of the worst fans in college football.
On Saturday, ESPN will carry the Buffs game live. This marks the first time since the 2005 incident that a game at Folsom Field will be televised nationally on the ABC/ESPN family of networks.
“We’re at maximum staffing levels. That’s all you can do,” McGann said. “Security will interact with the crowd, make sure everyone’s safe, and let them have fun.”
CU Athletic Director Mike Bohn is happy with the progress the student body has made since the 2005 disaster.
“I don’t think there’s any question that our students’ behavior at Invesco and all of last year was exemplary,” Bohn said. “It starts with the leadership of our head coach and also some student leaders.”
With a minimal number of upperclassmen on the Buffs roster this year, there aren’t many players that were enrolled in the university in 2005. But those who were on the field for the Nebraska game realize the need for fan control.
“All the chaos needs to stay in the bleachers,” said senior tailback Hugh Charles.
Head Coach Dan Hawkins, like many of his players, also wasn’t a member of the CU community during the 2005 escapade.
But Assistant Athletic Director David Plati said that Hawkins was made aware of the situation when he was hired.
“Hawk said he would pull his team off the field and take the forfeit if it happened again,” Plati said. “That’s just his nature.”
Plati said most of the students are good fans, but the school “needs to curtail the 25 or 50 that aren’t.”
“Hawkins said that there’re two kinds of class. First class and no class,” Plati said.
All history aside, students must remember the game on the field.
“We have great fans, and any time you’re home, you get excited for it,” said senior captain Jordon Dizon. “Having a good game will prevent anything from happening.”
Still, some CU students blame the misfit behavior on another source. Bryan Lipman, 20, is a psychology major who attended the game against the Cornhuskers in Nov. 2005.
“I’ve seen an improvement since then. People are trying to be more respectful,” Lipman said. “Hopefully, this time alcohol won’t supersede the game on the field.”
Contact Campus Press Staff Writer Derek Schimmel at derek.schimmel@thecampuspress.com
