We won by 28 and the first half was one of the strangest hours I have spent in that stadium.
Nothing bad was happening. That is the part I keep coming back to. We were ahead the whole time. We scored three touchdowns before halftime. And the entire place sat there with its arms folded like we were down four scores, because Eastern Michigan kept getting five yards and then six yards and then eight yards and everybody could see it happening.
Nobody booed. It was quieter than booing.
Priya Ramaswamy, a sophomore in kinesiology, was two seats down from me for part of it.
“I looked it up on my phone to make sure we were winning,” she said. “Because it did not feel like we were winning. And then I showed my friend the score and she goes, I know, and neither of us said anything else about it.”
Anna Kuiper, a freshman from Grand Rapids, went to her second game ever.
“Last week everybody was so happy,” she said. “This week everyone around me was in a bad mood and we were up ten. I asked my roommate about it after and she said that’s normal here. I don’t know if that’s a joke.”
It is not a joke.
Then the second half happened
Whatever they did at halftime, it worked, and I am not going to pretend I can tell you what it was. What I can tell you is that we came out and ran the ball for a very long time twice in a row and scored both times, and the mood in my section went from funeral to birthday party in about eleven minutes.
By the fourth quarter people were laughing at things that were not funny. A guy behind me gave a full standing ovation to a one-yard touchdown. He was standing for maybe forty seconds.
Sam Ocampo, a senior in supply chain from Wyandotte, said his group had a whole conversation in the third quarter about whether they were allowed to be happy yet.
“We were seriously discussing it,” he said. “Like out loud, is this the point where we’re allowed. And then somebody said it’s Eastern Michigan and we all shut up for a minute and then went back to being happy anyway.”
The loudest thing I have ever heard here
With about four minutes left, one of our defensive backs caught the other team’s pass and ran it all the way back for a touchdown.
His name is Tre Bell. I did not know that at the time. I know it now because I have heard it approximately nine hundred times since Saturday.
The stadium came apart. I have been to every home game since freshman year and I have never heard it like that, not for a game that was already over, not for anything. A guy in my row dropped an entire drink on somebody and neither of them cared.
Jaylen Brister, a junior in advertising from Ann Arbor, said the noise is the only part of the game he can actually still picture.
“I don’t remember any of the rest of it,” he said. “I remember it was boring, and then I remember that. That’s the whole game to me.”
The quarterback thing
Eastern Michigan’s quarterback used to play here, which we wrote about last week. When he came out before the game some people clapped and a lot of people were still in line for food.
Ocampo said he clapped, which he told me last week he was going to do.
“I clapped,” he said. “Like four people around me clapped. It was not a moment, it was fine. And then later everybody was screaming because we intercepted him, including me, so make of that what you want.”
Nobody I talked to was mean about it. That is a real change from 2023 and I want it written down.
We are 2-0 and nobody knows what to do with that
I asked people what they thought and got a very wide range of confidence.
Devonte Ferrell, a sophomore from Southfield who watches every snap, is still holding the line.
“I said relax for one more week and it is now one more week,” he said. “So now I’m saying relax until Saturday night. After Saturday I’ll tell you what I actually think.”
Grace Vanderhoof, a second-year grad student, has fully given up on being cautious.
“I said ask me after Notre Dame,” she said. “I have decided I’m not waiting. I’m in. If it goes badly I’ll be sad and that’s allowed.”
Saturday is a road game and that changes your entire day
This is the actual news for most of us. We have had two noon home games in eight days, which means two Saturdays that started at 8:30 a.m. and ended with everybody asleep at 6 p.m.
Next week we play at Notre Dame. Nobody has to get up. Nobody has to walk anywhere.
Everyone I asked is watching it somewhere, and the somewhere is the entire conversation. Several people are going to a house on Ann Street. Somebody’s apartment on Trowbridge is apparently doing food. Two people told me the same bar and one of them said get there an hour early and the other one said that is insane.
Colton Reznik, the freshman from Traverse City who told me last week he had too much work to go, is watching it.
“I still have so much work,” he said. “But I don’t have to go anywhere, so.”
A few people are actually driving. It is about three and a half hours. Kendra Bilyeu, a junior in human biology, is going with her dad because her dad went to Notre Dame, which she described as “a whole situation.”
“He’s been texting me since Sunday,” she said. “He didn’t text me at all in August.”
Practical stuff
Kickoff is Saturday afternoon. It is on TV, which is the only detail most people needed.
If you are going to a watch party, the group chat consensus is that the good spots fill up early because it is the first road game and everybody had the same idea.
If you are staying in, you get your whole Saturday back for the first time since August.