COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Just how loud was it on the field at Ohio Stadium on Saturday night?
Earsplitting, painful and maddening, just to name a few descriptors.
The noise at Ohio Stadium, a 106,000-seat bandbox and madhouse wrapped into one, was the most sustained and thunderous sound that a consensus among the Trojans had ever experienced. While Oregon's Autzen Stadium can reach epic noise levels and Nebraska's Memorial Stadium got pretty loud, nothing quite matches what the Ohio Stadium crowd produced for about 59 straight minutes on Saturday night.
Because the Trojans captured the win, Coach Carroll officially declared in the locker room afterward that the crowd was a nonfactor, though the offense's communication was definitely altered during the game. When Matt Barkley was at the line of scrimmage, oftentimes his guards and almost always his tackles couldn't hear his cadence. The linemen would go off the movement of the center, creating a chain reaction at the snap.
It was so loud whenever the Trojans had the ball that coaches and players had to strain to even have a conversation on the sideline, usually being forced to yell into the other person's ear to overcome the din.
But the greatest and most poignant sound of all came with 1:05 left in the game.
Utter silence.
The crowd of 106,033 turned off as Stafon Johnson ran into the end zone, allowing room for the Trojans to wildly celebrate and soak in the unbelievable game-winning drive.
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