I was there. Were you? What are your thoughts on the effectiveness of the "Take a StaND" initiative? My reaction here, in all of its subjective glory.

One caveat: I ended up on the visitor's side, but sitting with a bunch of seminarians from Moreau. Of course, the visitors being Purdue, there were plenty of them, so the lackadaisical attitude I saw toward Notre Dame's play could be attributed to that. That said, just looking around the stadium it was clear that there was no discernible increase in energy level. In fact, one group of ND fans just to my left never - NEVER - stood up during the game. The only time they stood was for "Call Me Maybe" during the halftime show. I kid you not. No disrespect to the band (they rock), but WHY DEAR LORD WHY.

After the excitement of seeing the "Take a StaND" idea being promoted by the AD's office, I was very disappointed in its presence at the game. I was expecting something along the lines of banners, maybe an announcement over the PA system, and certainly participation and encouragement from the cheerleaders whose job, after all, is to help people get into the game and cheer. Did we see that? No, no and no. The only time we saw the logo was on the screens where and when we would normally see "Make noise!" Was it enough? I don't think so. Could they have done more? Should they have? Would it have made any difference?

As an aside: As noted in the comments for Feathers in the Cap and Black Eyes, there was a marked improvement on integrating the piped in music. My only complaint? Not enough Zeppelin. Oh well.