View from the red zone

[azcat49]

The last two games I have left my perch and sat with the Zona Defenders in the South endzone.

Here aremerandom thoughts and views from that part of the stadium

1) These guys and gals are crazy. I have been kicked out twice from AZ stadium for being too loud and I guess obnoxious. These people say things that even make me blush.

They had the Cal mascot flipping them off and grabbing his crotch and doing the air hump. They got on poor Ty Willingham (during warm ups of the UDub game)so bad it almost made you cry.

The best line though was when the Cal cheerleaders went to one knee on the grass and one of them yelled, "hey girls the grass is not for grazing" Everyone of those girls looked over.

2) They are cult figures down their. They own the west side of the redzone. No one messes with them. They do and say what they want. They get in the stadium a full hour and a half before kickoff and they let the opposing team have it and I mean have it. No doubt they can hear what is said. they are sometimes 5 feet from the players.

3) I can't even imagine what it would be like for ASSU

4) Antolin is little but a heck of a runner. Love his north south instints instead of the east west stuff we see at times from Grigs. Dude also hurts people. I think he needs to get a lot of carries against the Trojans because just like the OSU runner he is hard to find.

5) Devon Ross still appears to be favoring his groin. He goes well straight but seems to struggle with his cuts. I am sure he would say he is fine but I think he is playing hurt.

5) Saw Tedy Bruschi last night. He wore #42 in the second half. Brooks Reed was ALL over the field and put tremendous pressure on Cal's QB's. He really looked like it finally clicked for him. Guess we will see.

6) Did see President Shelton as even he visited with the Zona defender group. I couldn't resist the opportunity to tell him he needs to make a change at the AD spot (sorry Rey)

7) The lack of game day traditions is just killing me. The band walks down the road leading to AZ stadium and it is broadcast over the screen yet they are playing nothing. Can you imagine if they timed the band playing the intro and the team coming into the stadium at the same time. Or just have the band rocking out and make people get in their seats 15 minutes early. It is a damn shame.

At the end their needs to be a reason to stick around if the game is decided. How about the players singing bear down with the fans after a victory. Tailgating has been reduced to nothing and we have zero in game traditions. Please please get us someone who will build a sense of pride in gameday.

8) Zona Zoo impressive along with the west side. East side sucks a$$. Of course it would help if the upper deck had some people in it.

9) Sydquan Thompson of Cal told Money Mike to bring his A game. I think he did Syd!

10) Zach Follet got to Tui and did some jawing at him but unlike Coach Judy at ASSU we had his back. Zach meet big nasty Eben Britton who pushed him down like a rag doll.

11) not saying we have turned the corner yet but i think we just got our first view of whats around it! That third quarter was something to watch

12) Homecoming is almost here and I know you all feel it. Something special is about to happen.

[ZonaDefender1]

Nice observation my friend. Its good to see even mrs azcats49 got into the grove. Hope u continue to come down again and invite all diehards who dont mind a little bit of vulgarity.

[Drayhound]

We definatey need to have more traditions for gameday. There is no players walk or band entrance for the team like Tennessee. There is really nothing going on but the game. I think if the fans can have more interaction witht the team and the band it would be a lot better.

[tstein7240]

I have been to the last 2 UT games (TX/OU and TX/Mizzou). Not really a fan - but free tickets are free tickets

When Mack took over, he made the comment to "Come early, Be loud, Stay Late". And the fans have taken that to heart. At kickoff, every seat is filled. After the game, fans stay to sing "Eyes of Texas" with the team. Of the 96K at the game Saturday night, there must have been 85K there when the clock hit 0:00. Just a cool sight...

As someone who watches the games on TV - huge, huge props to ZonaDefender and his gang. Wish there were more folks like that...

[WildcatBlitz]

Originally Posted by tstein7240

I have been to the last 2 UT games (TX/OU and TX/Mizzou). Not really a fan - but free tickets are free tickets

When Mack took over, he made the comment to "Come early, Be loud, Stay Late". And the fans have taken that to heart. At kickoff, every seat is filled. After the game, fans stay to sing "Eyes of Texas" with the team. Of the 96K at the game Saturday night, there must have been 85K there when the clock hit 0:00. Just a cool sight...

As someone who watches the games on TV - huge, huge props to ZonaDefender and his gang. Wish there were more folks like that...

Our chants in zonazoo suck also. theirs basically two that are done bad.
The worse thing i have heard was the chant after a first down "move the sticks, move the sticks, suck his ****." seriously what does that mean?

ZonaZoo need to work alittle harder, wait for the cards to be held by the student section to be used and look awesome, but completely fails.

one thing soccer has, are some sick chants.

[JimmyPeterson]

7) The lack of game day traditions is just killing me. The band walks down the road leading to AZ stadium and it is broadcast over the screen yet they are playing nothing. Can you imagine if they timed the band playing the intro and the team coming into the stadium at the same time. Or just have the band rocking out and make people get in their seats 15 minutes early. It is a damn shame.

At the end their needs to be a reason to stick around if the game is decided. How about the players singing bear down with the fans after a victory. Tailgating has been reduced to nothing and we have zero in game traditions. Please please get us someone who will build a sense of pride in gameday.

Crazy to think that we're only a couple of plays (UNM and Stanford) from hosting ESPN GameDay this weekend too. That might have been a little embarrassing.

[HiCat]

View from the red zone

Good stuff..

[XScribe]

Originally Posted by azcat49

5) Devon Ross still appears to be favoring his groin. He goes well straight but seems to struggle with his cuts. I am sure he would say he is fine but I think he is playing hurt.

Thanks for keeping an eye on Devon Ross' groin.

[tstein7240]

Originally Posted by WildcatBlitz

Our chants in zonazoo suck also. theirs basically two that are done bad.
The worse thing i have heard was the chant after a first down "move the sticks, move the sticks, suck his ****." seriously what does that mean?

ZonaZoo need to work alittle harder, wait for the cards to be held by the student section to be used and look awesome, but completely fails.

one thing soccer has, are some sick chants.

One thing to remember, chants are not "traditions". Traditions should be 100% focused on the Cats and our history (or making history). Hazing the other team doesn't do that... funny, yes - traditions, nope.

[Dubbin]

Originally Posted by ZonaDefender1

Nice observation my friend. Its good to see even mrs azcats49 got into the grove. Hope u continue to come down again and invite all diehards who dont mind a little bit of vulgarity.

It is a sporting event. A little bit is ok, but why take it too far?

[WildcatBlitz]

Originally Posted by tstein7240

One thing to remember, chants are not "traditions". Traditions should be 100% focused on the Cats and our history (or making history). Hazing the other team doesn't do that... funny, yes - traditions, nope.

Well, i guess unless you know of things we have done in the pass, then wouldn't we have to make traditions? Isn't that basically the point is that Arizona doesn't have anything like that. Would yelling Bear down at the start of every football game until who knows when after awhile it would be considered a tradition?

[uacats]

Originally Posted by WildcatBlitz

Our chants in zonazoo suck also. theirs basically two that are done bad.
The worse thing i have heard was the chant after a first down "move the sticks, move the sticks, suck his ****." seriously what does that mean?

ZonaZoo need to work alittle harder, wait for the cards to be held by the student section to be used and look awesome, but completely fails.

one thing soccer has, are some sick chants.

I love the ZonaZoo - but I did get into it with some of them before the Cal game. I was watching Cal warm up - I was on the sidelines at the 20. They were doing some drills and a ball went into the stands. The Zoo student had the ball and wouldn't give it back to the Cal GA. I thought that was pretty funny (for about three minutes). The Cal GA asked security for help getting the ball and didn't do much. About another two minutes and finally the guy gave the ball back to the Cal guy. So then the Cal GA is running drills with the Cal players - he throws one ball poorly and drops a throw - The students are all over him - this has been at least 10 minutes. Finally I turned around and said I can't believe your taunting a ball boy - which really upset them.

Bottom line - The Red Zone knows where to focus their efforts and who's face they need to get into!

[azcat49]

Dubbin, the vulgarity (it really is not that bad) is perfect for this section. I think we need a section that reads, "enter at your own risk" No one sits down and no one is quiet.

The post above talks about a ball being dropped and the Zoo getting on the kid. I forgot that during warm ups a Cal ball came into the section. It took one second for that thing to go up stairs and over the wall into the street.

The Cal guys wimped out and sent a UA guy over who said he needed the ball back, our guys just laughed and said he could check with the bus drivers on 5th st. He got the message.

I wish the whole freaking stadium was like this.

[ZonaDefender1]

Dubbin its called a hostile enviroment. No team gets a pass. Arizona stadium outside the zone is a mildly unfriendly place to play. We have spent over 4 years on ZD effort and 7 with the original hard hats to make opposing teams know we dont wanna go out and eat pizza later with them. Welcome to Arizona Stadium!! Ready to pay the toll?? now i wouldnt go assu fan far or attempt to enter the field but energize a fanbase that leaves in the 3rd quarter of a 13-10 game. i dont bring up families other than rudy's pop who i called joe jackson the gravytrain. We are about fun. And showing not all arizona fans sit on their hands and say good game. We have had compliments from ken norton, pete carroll and mike riley about how they thought noone cared about arizona football but we make a good case.

[ghostwhitehorse]

Originally Posted by ZonaDefender1

Dubbin its called a hostile enviroment. No team gets a pass. Arizona stadium outside the zone is a mildly unfriendly place to play. We have spent over 4 years on ZD effort and 7 with the original hard hats to make opposing teams know we dont wanna go out and eat pizza later with them. Welcome to Arizona Stadium!! Ready to pay the toll?? now i wouldnt go assu fan far or attempt to enter the field but energize a fanbase that leaves in the 3rd quarter of a 13-10 game. i dont bring up families other than rudy's pop who i called joe jackson the gravytrain. We are about fun. And showing not all arizona fans sit on their hands and say good game. We have had compliments from ken norton, pete carroll and mike riley about how they thought noone cared about arizona football but we make a good case.

So what are you going to feed dw99 come December 6th. . .? Other than good, craft beer. . . need to ween him off the silver bullet after all.