Last Saturday I woke up in confusion to my blaring alarm wondering why my slumber stopped at the early hour of 9 a.m. on a weekend. After crawling out of bed, I quickly remembered; it was the first Badger football game of the season, a day I had been looking forward to all summer.
I think my anticipation got the best of me because I was very disappointed with the performance I saw at Camp Randall last Saturday. My frustration was not with the team--they did their part by clobbering UCF- but with the unusually weak Badger game day experience.
My first disappointment came from the choice in music. Now by no means am I bashing the band, because they are one of the best parts of the game, but how could they leave out Swingtown? I know band director Mike Leckrone didn't think of playing the song because we were already up by so much, but that's not a sufficient reason for me. Whether we are up or down by 20 points, this song is a tradition and you do not just leave out traditions at Badger football games.
Another song that was left out was \If You Want to Be a Badger."" I did hear this a few times when a few band members serenaded different sections around the stadium but it was never directed toward the whole student section. Maybe the freshmen don't know the words quite yet, but that is another song I expect to hear every Saturday.
Next on my list is the student section race. I never knew that Section K was a student section until I saw it displayed on our beautiful new score board. Isn't that section typically for those who wait until 4 p.m. on Thursday before the game to turn in their voucher? They did not sacrifice their weekend, sleep overnight at the Kohl Center or wait in line for good seats, so why should they receive the pride of winning the student section race, especially at the first game?! Enjoy it while it lasts, Section K, because it's not happening again.
""Jump Around"" brought a little bit of redemption, but to be honest, I had a feeling from the way things were going that it was going to be a second home opener without it. Thank you to the sound guy for not screwing us this year.
Finally, Badger fans, I was shocked with your minimal vulgarity throughout the game. I come to expect multiple exchanges of ""fuck you"" and ""eat shit"" but last Saturday I maybe heard the chants twice. I understand if you were trying to act polite for the home opener, but that's not how I have come to know my student sections.
The Camp Randall atmosphere is not what it used to be, and that needs to change. I don't know if we all forgot how to celebrate football Saturdays or if the new renovations were too distracting, but there is a lot of work that needs to be done. We all have the first game behind us and guess what? Tomorrow is another game day.
Betsy Golomski is a sophomore planning to major in journalism. She can be reached at eagolomski@wisc.edu.
