UP VS Texas A&M

They also allowed a sub right before the corner kick, which is (I'm quite sure) against the rules.

AggieGuest wrote:I am a Texas A&M graduate, class of 1970 and a sports fan. I would like to provide some info relative to some of the PilotNation comments on the A&M post.

Traditions. A&M started as an all-male military school, many traditions derive from those days, some have disappeared and some modified, but the remainder make A&M a unique university unlike anywhere else. You can Google or go to the A&M website for more info. There is the 12th Man tradition in which students stand (as many as 30K-40K) during the football (and some other sports) games. This has translated into tremendous student support at most sports events.

The posture referred to when Aggies did yells at the soccer game (we don’t do cheers, it’s the tradition thing) is called “humping it”, supposedly way back they decided that leaning over you could project louder (tradition). Our school song is the “Spirit of Aggieland” and the fight song “Aggie War Hymm”, both are accompanied by yells. Unique to Aggie soccer, we’ve developed the art of creative heckling of the opponent’s Keeper (if you thought it was severe you ought to attend our baseball games). You will often see many students switch sides at half to load up on the opponent’s Keeper side (not noticeable last night due to the large crowd). We also have something called the 12th Man Rewards Program – swipe your card at sporting events (except football) and with 12 swipes you get a free T shirt, 24 and 36 swipes, additional prizes. This has been studied by other universities and is an incentive for old Ags like me. Frankly I don’t know how the students have time for studies.

Attendance. Aggie games are not free. Students pay for an all sports pass or for individual games. There are special promotions like the ring night last night where free seats are offered for key games (most Aggies were probably not aware how key the Portland game was). It so happens that Friday was ring day on campus where students who qualified (90 hours) received their rings in a nice ceremony, hence, linking the opportunity at the soccer game. Speaking of attendance, last night’s announced crowd was 3500+, for any Portland fans in attendance, they saw a large crowd – my guess in the ~6000 range. I’ll never understand how A&M does its attendance figures, other than paid and ticket scanned people (basketball seems just the opposite). Presumably last night was influenced by the ring thing. Keep that in mind as the “attendance war” between Portland and A&M plays out this year.

The Game. I thought Portland controlled the midfield, especially in the first half, winning most free balls. Our speed up front unbalanced the Portland defense, and for a change we had some finishing instead of running to nowhere. Our midfield is not our strength, 2 of our key people (including Beth West, my favorite player) were injured, and Gnatzig went out with injury in the first half. But our defense was playing well. Portland had no answer for Whitney Hooper, she was dangerous 6 or 7 times and had 2 nice finishes. Had we had more people forward for Hooper crosses it could have been even worse. Portland won the first part of the second half, but overall our defense played one of its better games. We went into a shell toward the end (hate it when we do that) and Portland had more chances. But that also tired out both sides more. The disputed first goal could have gone either way, but all I can say is welcome to Big 12 officiating, they have ripped my heart out numerous times. Portland looks like a talented and balanced side, they just didn’t have their A game last night, I look for them to go far.

Portland Soccer. I think it’s wonderful that a small school like Portland could develop into a National power with a great fan base. That is a great story and what college athletics is all about. Loved watching Sinclair dominate when she was here. I enjoyed reading on the Portland site about what wonderful ladies are on the soccer team, let me assure you we are just as proud of our ladies on the character side, and Coach G is a Chamber of Commerce dream. Good luck the rest of the season, Portland is a team (other than the Aggies) I can root for, as opposed to USC, FSU, and others. Sorry, but I can’t hate UNC, they have such a fabulous program.

One of the Nation blogs mentioned yell practice. No, soccer attendees weren't required to go to yell practice. Yell practice is at midnight before every home football game (we have a home game today). It is held at Kyle Field, as many as 20K to 30K attend. The biggest yell practice of all was Bonfire, held before the U of Texas game, which has (sadly) disappeared as an Aggie tradition. Yell practice originated as a spirit thing and to actually practice the yells (very correographed), but has morphed into a general fun time with antics by the yell leaders, and such. Visitors generally get quite a kick out of attending the event, to witness some unique "Aggie color". Hopefully any Portland fans from out of town availed themselves of the opportunity last night.

up7587 wrote:I will admit that seeing the TAMU band play and march the Aggie War Hymn has always been inspiring to me, and I have no connection to them except watching a few TV football games. If you've never seen it, LINK

Pretty much the opposite end of the band spectrum from Stanford!