Cats Corner: Northwestern’s first home game at Ryan Field

Audio Editor Emerson Leger sits down with Gameday Editor Andrew Little and Sports Editor Aanya Gupta to chat about Northwestern’s Friday game against Penn State, the first home game at Ryan Field.

EMERSON LEGER: Northwestern hosted Penn State on Friday for its first game at the newly built Ryan Field.

From The Daily Northwestern, I’m Emerson Leger. This is Cats Corner, a podcast about all things sports and purple pride.

EMERSON LEGER: I’m here with Gameday Editor Andrew Little and Sports Editor Aanya Gupta to talk about all that happened during the first home game against Penn State at Ryan Field this past Friday.

Andrew and Aanya, can you start off by talking about what stood out to you about Friday’s game?

ANDREW LITTLE: The biggest thing for me, I was up in the press box, but even being far away, it was the student section. In three years here, I have never seen Northwestern students so engaged with a sporting event, especially football. People stayed the entire game, despite the blowout. The Wildcat Wall seemed to be rocking as anticipated, so I was really impressed with how that affected the game.

AANYA GUPTA: I was actually in the student section, so I had a very different view of it, and you could definitely feel the energy. You could feel how engaged people were, and it was very cool because historically. we’ve not been really seen as a football school, and the entire student body was both engaged and willing to learn. You could hear people explain the game to people who weren’t necessarily understanding it, and you could really feel that school spirit much stronger than we felt when we were at Martin (Stadium).

EMERSON LEGER: Andrew, what were some memorable moments that you noticed being on the press box and out on the sideline?

ANDREW LITTLE: Northwestern had over 400 rushing yards, the best performance since 2003 from the run game, and being able to see those plays open up from up high was really cool.

Chip Kelly, the offense coordinator, is known for his really innovative and new schemes, but he went back to a really old one called the Wing-T. Joseph Himon II, Caleb Komolafe, the two running backs were moving all over, and you could anticipate those moves from up top. People were joking all throughout the press box about the formation that Northwestern was running, it’s pretty atypical.

EMERSON LEGER: How do you all think the new Ryan Field affected the game?

AANYA GUPTA: I think it changes how much energy the crowd is bringing in. I was talking earlier about how we haven’t really had a student section that has had that big of an influence on how the game develops. Student section was loud and they were very dominant, but it’s also just learning how exactly to be a Big Ten football team when we really haven’t had that experience with that temporary stadium.

ANDREW LITTLE: Northwestern finally has a home field advantage. The past two years, the games at Wrigley Field, it’s been overwhelmingly Ohio State fans, Michigan fans, even Minnesota and Illinois fans for those games. Martin Stadium was just not big enough to have much of an impact.

At old Ryan Field, it often wasn’t filled up, a lot of away fans, and at new Ryan Field, you could just see the engagement from the students, from the alumni. There was a lot of purple and it was very loud.

AANYA GUPTA: It also had a big Chicago influence, which I thought was very cool. They really tie in all the different elements. They have the best of Chicago, where they have so many different things, and I think it really adds this sense of community and this image Northwestern has of Chicago’s Big Ten football team.

EMERSON LEGER: What are your hopes for the future games at Ryan Field?

ANDREW LITTLE: I hope the energy stays the same, especially from the students. It’s easy to get excited about the first game, especially after two years at a stadium the size of a big high school stadium. To get that change, I understand why everybody wanted to go. Next week, Ball State, not as good of an opponent as Penn State. Will people be as into the game? Remains to be seen. Then there’s a bit of a gap for the next Big Ten matchup, but if they can build some momentum, they can really build something special.

AANYA GUPTA: I’m a big person of traditions. I think this is a great opportunity to have some new traditions and really make an image of Northwestern football, and I think that’s something that will come as time progresses and as we get adjusted to having this new stadium.

I really do want to see an image of Northwestern as a football team, and I think we also see that with the Wildcat Wall and how unique that is in the Big Ten, how it’s kind of become the face of Northwestern football. I also just want to see how we’re engaging during the game with our chants and how we’re responding to the other team.

EMERSON LEGER: Thank you, Andrew and Aanya, for joining me on Cats Corner.

EMERSON LEGER: From The Daily Northwestern, I’m Emerson Leger. Thanks for listening to another episode of Cats Corner. This episode was reported and produced by me, Emerson Leger.

The Audio Editor is Emerson Leger. The Multimedia Managing Editors are Siri Reddy, Josh Singer and Liam Barrett. The editor in chief is Anavi Prakash.

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