I think he was referring to Gillespie but I’m fine. I'm an LSU fan first and foremost. I just like all SEC teams as long as they're not playing LSU.
Seems pretty obvious to me that the Irvine coach is kissing up to how great LSU fans are. Here's the full quote: Like I pointed out in another thread, one thing that is so great about our student section at Tiger Stadium is that when it comes to opponent fans, we are rude, vicious, etc. For example, in "the great moments in Tiger Stadium thread," I loved hearing how Red55 shared with us that the LSU Student section rained bottles of whiskey on the Tennessee band... injuring their members so bad that they vowed to never visit Tiger Stadium again. Most fans of sports love the hate, love the viciousness, love the craziness, love the excitement, love the enthusiasm, love the noise, love the passion of LSU fans... all things that make LSU fans known as the best on the Planet. To me, it is obvious that the UC-Irvine coach was trying to praise LSU fans, he's calling us "beyond crazy," "exciting," "enthusiastic to the max," "loud," etc. (if you read the full quote, his praise of LSU fans was even greater than that). Then they ask him about how he would compare us to Nebraska fans, and basically, he said Nebraska fans suck compared to LSU fans. He said the Nebraska fans were "pretty electric," but praised LSU by saying that the Nebraska fans were not "hostile," not "vicious," not people that view the game as one of the most fierce battles in history (the US Civil War). In other words, he was trying to explain that the Nebraska fans he played against sucked compared to LSU fans, the greatest in the nation. Basically, his whole point was that LSU fans are the greatest, period. Some of you are missing the whole point here. The UC-Irvine coach is trying very hard to praise us here, it's very obvious. Sorry to some of you that he used the words "Civil War" (which is the name of the rivalry between Washington and Washington State -- EDIT, no that's the Apple Cup, the Civil War is the name of the rivalry between Oregon and Oregon State... I know, it's not surprising that not a lot know anything about weak Pac-10 football). But, everybody knows the real US Civil War was a battle between brothers. He wasn't trying to insult LSU at all, but rather, was trying to reap praise on how great our fan base is. Really, to me it is completely obvious this guy is praising us. To me, that's a great thing to see.
It's the ballpark alright and it doesn't like it when you don't treat our fans with respect. I heard from my roommate who was sitting by their bullpen. He said when their closer was warming up and the fans were ribbing him a bit, he turned to them and said F*** you. He didn't care that there was a bunch of kids around. Alex Box made him pay with 5 earned runs in one inning.
Nebraska fans are absolutely one of the greatest in college sports and Coach Gillispie knows that. After we played them (football) last season and the road trip reviews started coming in, I have never read such lofty praise. USC fans were welcomed with an unexpected and incredible hospitality. Locals at restaurants were constantly picking up the tab, people on the street would stop, talk, welcome everyone to their town. People opened up their homes, shared their food, issued invitations to come back. I can't say enough how much the trip was enjoyed. I'd say that considering the CWS has been held in Nebraska for over 50 years, their fans are masters of hospitality.
I think he meant it from an in the Stadium point of view. Meaning that Nebraska fans may not be "game changing" like LSU fans can be. I'll have to take people's word for it as I've never been to Nebraska.
I get that. The hyperbolic words like "suck" and "not hostile or violent" doesn't really translate into a well presented pov. Game changing I can buy but see how easy it was to say it with just two words? :hihi:
