Coming off a national championship last year, Ohio State set a new record for spring game attendance when 99,391 Buckeye faithful made their way through the gates of Ohio Stadium for the annual spring game. This year, Urban Meyer wants to push that record into six digits.
“There’s nothing like performing in front of 100,000 people,” Meyer said in a press conference with the media on Monday. “It’s supposed to be great weather so I’m hoping we get 100,000 people.”
Meyer made it clear he is asking the fans to come out in record numbers this weekend.
“That’s an appeal to our fans to come on out … this year even more than last year,” Meyer said. He has coaching reasons though. He wants to see how his younger players handle the atmosphere.
“I want to see [freshman quarterback] Joe Burrow perform in front of 100,000 people in that stadium. I want to see [freshman running back] Mike Weber perform in front of 100,000 people. They’ve never done it.”
They will, of course, play in front of 100,000 fans during their stays at Ohio State, both at home and on the road, but there is nothing wrong with seeing how they handle the transition right out of the gate with a spring game. But 100,000? That might be tough.
The Buckeyes set the record with 99,391 fans last year, and that was 23,000 more than the next highest spring game attendance (Penn State, 76,881). Ohio State does own the two highest spring game attendance figures though, with 95,722 attending the 2009 spring game. With no new hardware to show off and a quarterback situation already locked down, will Buckeye fans come out in record numbers as Meyer hopes?
Ohio State’s spring game is scheduled for Saturday, April 13 at 1:30 p.m. The game will air on Big Ten Network.