From an Air Force Fan...CONGRATS

[RomeoCrennel's Belly]

Made it back early this morning as well. I had a great time at the game. Although, my family did deal with some heckling and it was all in good fun. I can't say I had any 'classy' run-ins with any AFA fans but it was a typical road game (some heckling, stares, etc). We were lucky to come away with this win. I didn't feel we deserved it.

[Rixtoy1]

I was there with Pogo and agree with the "Class" comments across the board.
- I would guess there were 150 -200 Shocker fans, doing the rough Row count in my head. Someone may have a better feel. ( Their security people wear Shocker Gold, so it helped the count . . .)
- Arena was less than 1/2 full I would guess - I know they average around 1,750. I am sure the Broncos at home does not help any.
- Visited with the parents of a senior starter for AFA in the concourse before the game - he is going on to flight school in the spring. Proud parents - appropriately.
- we were stopped by many clearly dedicated AFA fans before the game and welcomed and joked with - one said "If you're expecting a flyover at the end of the national anthem you're going to be disappointed"
- Another from a guy around 80 - "Our hockey team can kick your hockey team's ass". (The hockey arena is a mirror image of the basketball arena, separated by the concessions area).
- Their coach is a class act - when DW got the elbow in the mouth after being called for the foul late in the second half, Greg was approaching Higgins and Higgins signaled "Relax, we're going to look at it". Not many people realized what was going on, but during the media timeout, the refs were huddled over the monitor and by their body language and length of time you could tell it was being seriously looked at. During that time, AFA had broken their huddle and was back on the floor, one of the refs looked over at the AFA coach and the coach kind of knowingly nodded as he moved his elbow out, like he had seen it. When the ref confirmed that was what they were looking at, the coach went out and calmly talked to his guy. Don't think many coaches would do that, even if they saw it happen.
- The physical comparison of our guys to the AFA players was dramatic - our guys are ripped to shreds with muscles on muscles - their guys are good athletes, but not sure any have ever been in a weight room, in comparison.
- At the end of the half and at the end of the game, a girl grabs their coach for his comments over the PA system to the stadium - he handled it very well and with a lot of class - not sure I would ask any coach to do that seconds after a tough loss - and, certainly not Greg.
- ALso at the end of the game, the team and their coaches go to the end of the court, line up and hold hands and sing the Alma Mater with the student section - another tough thing to do after a tough loss. the Shockers were headed to the locker room, but fortunately stopped and respectfully waited. I was glad that happened.
- One of the half time gigs was a 7-baby crawling race across wrestling mats. One parent held them and let them go at the "gun" - the other parent was at the "finish" line with toys or one had a treat on a long stick he was dangling - Hilarious and fun. When introuducing particularly chubby "racer" - the PA guy said "If there is a pork chop at the finish line, watch out for this kid!".
- Quote of the day - the old guy who made the comment about the Hockey team said "Do you have a girl's team?" I said "Yes". He said "tell 'em to schedule our girls - we're terrible - I'll bet they can't even do push-ups!" Litlle did he know how funny that was in light of the recent shocker women's push-up clinic.

[Kung Wu]

Got home early this AM. The AFA fans were friendly before the game and cordial. After the game one women held my arm and commented what a good team we had and thanked us for not disrupting or leaving while the AF team went through their post game ceremony. The AFA team and fans were very good hosts and displayed great character. Met #25 Kyle Greens parents (AFA) before the game and what great parents they seem to be. They had driven up from Arlington tx where he is a police officer whose wife could not have been nicer of more proud of her son. Said he was going to be a pilot and carry on the tradition like other family members.

We saw you on the tube. It was brief but the father-in-law saw you come onto the screen just as the camera was panning to the right when showing a good shot of the crowd. Good stuff!

[Kung Wu]

- Their coach is a class act - when (I think) Armstead got the elbow in the mouth after being called for the foul late in the second half, Greg was approaching Higgins and Higgins signaled "Relax, we're going to look at it". Not many people realized what was going on, but during the media timeout, the refs were huddled over the monitor and by their body language and length of time you could tell it was being seriously looked at. During that time, AFA had broken their huddle and was back on the floor, one of the refs looked over at the AFA coach and the coach kind of knowingly nodded as he moved his elbow out, like he had seen it. When the ref confirmed that was what they were looking at, the coach went out and calmly talked to his guy. Don't think many coaches would do that, even if they saw it happen.

Interesting.

I thought that was a poor call by the way. The elbow made contact, no doubt, but I felt like the guy was pushing off with his forearm in an awkward way and he definitely did not "swing" it one bit. I didn't think it was intentional at all.

[Rixtoy1]

We saw you on the tube. It was brief but the father-in-law saw you come onto the screen just as the camera was panning to the right when showing a good shot of the crowd. Good stuff!

Ummm, are you sure you weren't watching a re-run of COPS?

Was there a hysterical woman in the background? - oh, right - that WAS at the game.

[Ricardo del Rio]

Thanks to all for your thoughts and comments. Would love to have a home and home....let shake on it now. I'll be watching your team as the year goes on. Take care and Go Falcons

Every time I think of the Air Force Academy, I think of Chad Hennings of Warthog fame.

[Cdizzle]

Interesting.

I thought that was a poor call by the way. The elbow made contact, no doubt, but I felt like the guy was pushing off with his forearm in an awkward way and he definitely did not "swing" it one bit. I didn't think it was intentional at all.

"Intent" is not part of the rule. The rule is bogus.

[OTR Shockfan]

isn't there somthin about elbow's above the shoulder bein a foul regardless?? seem's I've heard that somewhere, IDK Don't know if it was so much intentional or not , but his elbows did seem a little high to me when contact was made.

[SubGod22]

isn't there somthin about elbow's above the shoulder bein a foul regardless?? seem's I've heard that somewhere, IDK Don't know if it was so much intentional or not , but his elbows did seem a little high to me when contact was made.

I believe there is something like that. If they felt there was an actual intent to elbow him in the face he'd have been ejected.

Hell, in HS, if you swing the elbow and don't make contact it's still a violation and a turnover. I've called it a couple of times since they implemented the rule. There's no need to throw 'bows in the game and that's why the rules are the way they are.

[Rocky Mountain Shock]

Do you have a estimate of the number of Shocker Fans to make the game?

I'll second @Rixtoy1: and guess about 200. But I'd estimate the total crowd to be only about a third capacity--maybe 2000 at the very most. Not a bad crowd considering the Broncos were playing at home the same afternoon. I think HCGM was impressed with the crowd we brought--and we were loud.

[im4wsu]

Attendance was listed at 1793, up from the average of 1622, but the Montana St game of 1851 drug the average up from 1546 (the other 3 games were 1547,1547 and 1545). So our 200-248 fans were the difference.

[Dave Stalwart]

I'll second @Rixtoy1: and guess about 200. But I'd estimate the total crowd to be only about a third capacity--maybe 2000 at the very most. Not a bad crowd considering the Broncos were playing at home the same afternoon. I think HCGM was impressed with the crowd we brought--and we were loud.

I could tell we had a lot there from the radio. Usually you can guess if a call went our way or not or if we just got scored on etc. by the swells of noise from the crowd. In this game I kept hearing lots of cheering and then Kennedy would say WE just scored. That's when you know you had a good showing.

[Kung Wu]

"Intent" is not part of the rule. The rule is bogus.

I agree, but Flagrant 1 (which he was called for) replaced the "Intentional Foul" directly (in order to remove the notion of "intent" as you indicate). But "swinging" the elbow seems to be the guideline for whether it was an Intentional-now-Flagrant 1 foul. He definitely didn't swing it. That doesn't make DWill's face feel any better though. LMAO

[kcshocker11]

Go Falcons! Go Shocks!

[ISASO]

Just got back after hanging with the in-laws after the game overnight. I really loved the salute/alma mater song played after the game.