What Coaches Have Said

• Kiffin said Oregon's Autzen Stadium is the loudest stadium in the country, a bold claim - especially after he made trips to Tuscaloosa (Alabama) and Gainesville (Florida) last year.
  "I still think Autzen Stadium is louder than all those (Alabama, Florida) places" - Lane Kiffin, USC Head Coach
• "That's the loudest stadium I've ever been in." - Lloyd Carr, former Michigan Head Coach
• "The biggest mistake people made going in there was trying to instigate the crowd and say bring it on, because they brought it on and usually it was followed by three illegal procedure penalties after that." - Jeff Tedford, Cal Head Coach
• "They're going to be loud from the first snap until the last snap. They are right on top of you and they're just relentless." - Barry Alvarez, former Wisconsin Head Coach
• "You know, the noise is one aspect, but you can feel the intensity of their crowd." - Pete Carroll, Former USC Head Coach
• "If you ask any coach that has played a game in Autzen Stadium, they'll tell you that it is one of the loudest places that they've ever played in." - Dirk Koetter, Former ASU Head Coach
• "It's very tough. The crowd there is unbelievably educated on when to be loud and when to calm down when they have the ball. It's just a very tough environment with the noise and just trying to communicate." - Jeff Tedford, Cal Head Coach
• "They have a good attitude about supporting their team," "That's a good way of putting it. ... They are very outspoken and, of course, they do a great job of orchestrating the game environment." - Pete Carroll, Former USC Head Coach
• "They are very difficult to beat at home. The crowd is, from every report I get, from every coach I've spoken with, a real factor. You have to learn to communicate without talking, because talking doesn't do you any good." - Lloyd Carr, Former Michigan Head Coach
• "At most stadiums, there's ebb and flow of what goes on. When they're excited, they're excited, and then they lull for a little bit. Autzen stays the same no matter what, always, no matter if you get ahead by 14 or 20 or whatever, they stay after it ... It's unlike any other stadium." - Jeff Tedford, Cal Head Coach
• "Autzen Stadium is a hostile environment, very difficult place to play. They've had a great home-field advantage for a lot of years there." - Kyle Whittingham, Utah Head Coach
• "I can assure you that the stories are not overblown. In my travels, I've been to at least 90 different stadiums for college football games, the two loudest places I've ever been to are Autzen Stadium and at Syracuse in the (Carrier) Dome. It is extremely loud." - Dirk Koetter, Former ASU Head Coach
• "When I coached in the Big 12, Oklahoma and Nebraska were the loudest places we played, but this was louder. Autzen Stadium is the real deal." - Bobby Hauck, Former Montana Head Coach
• "Notre Dame isn't half as loud as Oregon. Ohio State was loud, but Oregon is louder." - Bill Doba, Former WSU Head Coach

What Players Have Said

• "Autzen has a reputation of being in a league of its own." – Tavita Pritchard, Former Stanford Quarterback
• "Autzen Stadium is the most disruptive stadium I visited in my entire football career. The fans are loud, they are right on top of you, and they don't need much to get going. ... I remember in 1998, after a horrible start to the game, I was standing next to someone yelling as loud as I could and he couldn't hear me. Communicating in the huddle and at the line of scrimmage is nearly impossible when the Green and Gold faithful get going...." – Todd Husak, Former Stanford Quarterback
• Adrian Peterson shook his helmeted head and slapped his earholes. But the ringing wouldn't stop.
  "OOOOOOOOOOOOO..."
  As the Oklahoma Sooners stood in the tunnel of Autzen Stadium ready to hit the field, the walls around them vibrated like a tuning fork. The air felt thick with what sounded like a World War I biplane parked under the goalpost 15 yards in front of them.
  "OOOOOOOOOOOOO..."
  "It was like some sort of crazy torture in the movies. How do people do that so long without taking a breath? I think my ears are still ringing." – Former Oklahoma Running Back, Adrian Peterson in an ESPN article
• "Autzen Stadium is a combination of being super loud and how close they are. From my memory, it felt like it was 10 feet between the sideline and the crowd. No crowd usually gets to me. Oregon is the only one that stands out in my mind that has gotten to me. I was just like, 'Shut up!'" – Former Cal Running Back, Jahvid Best
• "You got the Supermanned-out duck, he rides a motorcycle onto the field, the crowd is there, it's a smaller stadium, but it's packed from side to side. I hated playing in Autzen to be honest with you. It was a great football experience, but for an away team it's very difficult to play there." – Jon Alston, Former Stanford Linebacker
• "The biggest thing I remember about that game is the crowd. The crowd noise is crazy up there. Honestly, any other away game I don't really even hear the crowd. Oregon was the only place where it really got on my nerves." - Former Cal Running Back, Jahvid Best
• "Crowd noise is almost an unfair advantage. You can't check plays, you seemingly have less time on the play clock and everything starts to feel really rushed." – Former Cal Quarterback, Troy Taylor
• "You can hear a pin drop when their offense is on the field, and when our offense is out there, it's like being in a thunderstorm." – Former Cal Safety, Thomas DeCloud
• "Their fans are out of control. Oregon fans are the funniest, most ruthless fans." – Former Cal Quarterback Steve Levy
• "If they get ahead and start causing chaos, it can be a wild zoo full of animals and rabies. They get crazy up there. ... They make the weirdest signs and bring the weirdest things into the stadium to try to distract you, but it's the ideal setting for college football. Hatred. They hate us with a passion. The boos are louder than any other stadium." – Lawrence Jackson, Former USC Defensive End
• "It was really loud. It was twice as loud as the crowd at Minnesota. I couldn’t hear Kevin [Riley] and I couldn’t hear the snap counts.” – Mike Tepper, Cal Offensive Tackle
• "In 2007 when we played at Autzen stadium for College Game Day, the noise was so loud that when I was in the huddle I could not hear the play being called and had to actually read Nate Longshore's lips to get the call. If I didn't understand what he was saying I had to ask, Guard, Noris Malele to relay it to me, which required him to be about 2 inches from my ear and scream as loud as he can. Can you imagine being in a sea of green and yellow, essentially deaf to all sound?" - Mike Tepper, Cal Offensive Tackle
• "The stadium is really crazy, it reminds me of a video game. It's a special place to play at." – Brigham Harwell, UCLA Defensive Tackle

What the Media Has Said

• "Per square yard, the loudest stadium in the history of the planet." - Keith Jackson, ABC Sports
• "I think Autzen Stadium. Per person, the Oregon stadium is the loudest stadium I've ever been in. The fact that it's so low to the ground doesn't allow the sound to escape." - Lee Corso, ESPN College Gameday
• "Listen, if my wife and kid's are watching this at home right now, pack your bags we are moving to Eugene, Oregon. This place is great, I love it here!" – Kirk Herbstreit, "College Gameday" 2007 ESPN Broadcast
• "Autzen Stadium is the most intimidating college football stadium in the nation." – Matt Hayes, The Sporting News
• "The Autzen Bounce causes deafness in laboratory rats." – Dennis Dodd, CBSSportsline
• "How does a school build a 17-game home winning streak? Start with talented players, of course. And, in Oregon's case, give an assist to a great crowd and a tricky artificial playing surface. The Bruins wanted to start fast to silence the notoriously loud crowd at Autzen Stadium. Instead, UCLA started its first possession at its 14, practically deafened by noise from seats along the sideline and behind the end zone. The Bruins were guilty of a false start on their first play, had to call time out before their next and committed three consecutive false-start penalties later in the first quarter. "We were jumping offsides and we couldn't make reads," UCLA Coach Bob Toledo said. "The crowd was like a 12th man for them." - LA Times
• "It's the greatest scene that I've ever seen in College GameDay. That early in the morning, that many people. That makes it special." - Lee Corso, ESPN College Gameday
• "Sitting in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains, Oregon's Autzen Stadium is one of college football's hidden jewels. Before kickoff, Autzen is as peaceful as the Willamette River, which runs through Eugene just a few minutes from the stadium. After kickoff, the fans – even the alumni – forget who they are, where they come from and what their degree is in. The audience adopts a new collective identity for the next three-and-a-half hours: the 12th, 13th and 14th man. Autzen's 59,000 strong make the Big House collectively sound like a pathetic whimper. It's louder than any place I've ever been, and that includes "The Swamp" at Florida, "The Shoe" in Columbus and "Death Valley" at Louisiana State. Autzen Stadium is where great teams go to die." – J. Brady McCullough, The Michigan Daily
• "So loud, I can't hear the phone for two days." - Keith Jackson, ABC
• "I'm back to list the overall top 10 most intimidating stadiums in the nation. ... For the overall top 10, it's back to the basics - the 10 most intimidating stadiums for one game and one game only:"
  1. Autzen Stadium, Oregon
  2. Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, Florida
  3. Kyle Field, Texas A&M
  4. Tiger Stadium, LSU
  5. Doak Campbell Stadium, Florida State
  6. Ohio Stadium, Ohio State
  7. Lane Stadium, Virginia Tech
  8. Jordan-Hare Stadium, Auburn
  9. Notre Dame Stadium, Notre Dame
  10. Memorial Stadium, Nebraska
  - Bruce Feldman, ESPN
• "Washington coach Rick Neuheisel remembers the noise level at Autzen Stadium approximating "a helicopter taking off." The last time the Huskies visited Oregon, Ducks fans banged their "Thundersticks" together and made it nearly impossible to hear anything on the field. Coaches couldn't even hear their counterparts in the press box through earphones. That's why the Huskies are mostly practicing in their indoor facility this week, piping in noise at the highest volumes possible. "We'll see how many times we can blow out the speakers this week," Neuheisel said. He's not joking. On Tuesday, the facility's primary speakers were blown, forcing staff to search for an alternative set." – ESPN, 2000
• "There is no better place to watch a ball game than Autzen Stadium.... Nestled on the banks of the Willamette River, Autzen is a scenic stadium inside and out, but that's not what has made this venue infamous. This place is really freaking loud." - Ted Miller, ESPN
• "Trust me on Autzen. Just go to the place and soak it all in. Before they throw dirt on you, take a trip to Eugene one fall Saturday ... Autzen Stadium is a zoo; there's no other way to say it. Get inside your own 20 in a tight game, and you can forget about A.) hearing B.) avoiding false starts and C.) success." – Matt Hayes, SportingNews
• "You can have your cookie cutter Midwest stadiums and the beauty and pageantry of Southern traditions. We'll take the most hostile atmosphere this side of Gainesville any day, anyway." - MSNBC
• "If you've never been to a game at Autzen Stadium, do yourself a favor and get there soon. One word for the experience. Loud. Hurt your ears loud. Make them bleed loud. The Big Ten has nothing as loud as Autzen." – BigTenTailgate.com
• "Per capita, Autzen is the loudest venue in all of college football." - J. Brady McCollough, The Michigan Daily
• "But the torturous drone's roots lay in Sections 4 through 8, the student sections, where nearly 5,500 collegians had come sprinting in two hours earlier in an all-out landgrab. Throughout the game they raise their hands above their heads in the shape of an 'O'. And when the students really want to be heard, they hold their hands together, thumb to thumb, index finger to index finger, forming a letter O through which they send their maddening call." - ESPN
• "Some sports cars look fast while parked. Autzen sounds loud while empty." - Doug Franz of KTAR
• "Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Oregon where the Oregon Ducks play all of their home games has a seating capacity of guess what, 55,000. The loudest decibel reading that was ever recorded during a football game was at a game at Autzen Stadium. This is the best home field advantage in ALL of college football! Sorry SEC and the Big Ten. It is louder than Michigan, Penn State, Ohio State, and Tennessee, all of which can hold more than 100,000 fans on game day. Think about it. Oregon fans can make more noise than stadiums twice their size. ... So how can a smaller stadium crowd make more noise than those huge places, and even be louder than Sanford Stadium at UGA? Because they know when to cheer and how to be effective in doing it!" - Michael Goldfeder, isportsweb
• "The view from the open-air press box is one of the prettiest in all of college football, with the tall pines, low clouds and looming mountains in the backdrop." - The New York Times
• "That's ever apparent at Autzen Stadium, where 54,000 fans scream and yell at all the right times. The front rows almost jut up against the sidelines, and the bleachers are built nearly perpendicular to the field so the noise has nowhere to escape." – SFGate.com
• "People, come on. science has spoken, and so has experience. There are plenty of loud stadiums around, but Autzen is just different. If you haven't been there, you can't understand. The Midwest doesn't know what football is, the Big 10 and Big XII are both pathetic. Autzen is louder and more intense than any other place on this country. I've been to plenty of the big football stadiums, it's just not the same. Even Cameron indoor at Duke during the Duke-UNC game, which is absolutely nuts, just isn't the same." - ruxxe.com
• "Paul Hackett, in his first year as USC's coach, returned to Autzen Stadium for Oregon's most recent home game, Oct. 24, for the first time since his days as a Trojan assistant in the late 1970s. He said Duck fans have become full-fledged participants, to the point where they influenced the outcome of Oregon's 17-13 victory. "We made a quarterback change in the second quarter and two of his first three plays were illegal procedure," Hackett said. "The guys up front couldn't hear him. We had six illegal procedures in the game. We had too- much-time penalties twice. All of those things I would attribute to the fabulous job the Oregon fans - the Oregon people - have done at Autzen Stadium." - Seattle Times (about 1998 USC game)
• "Autzen is a shrine. An absolute shrine. If you haven’t been, go. For a Cal game, for a USC game, for any game." - Katie Dowd, The Daily Californian
• "Deafening begins to describe what Autzen Stadium sounds like. But even then, we're not doing it justice. The alumni? Crazier than the students. The students? Puts anything the Big Ten has to offer to shame. We're not saying this just to say it. They're that good. The students sprint into the stadium - yes, sprint - to get the best seats possible when the gates open an hour and a half before the game. 'Let's go Ducks!' chants broke out two minutes after that by the hundreds already standing. Even after Oregon got up to a 31-21 lead, the place just got louder as all remained standing. Michigan fans there kept it respectful, as they remained throughout. Oh yeah, one more thing about the Ducks' fans: They don't need gimmicks. No 'Duck-out,' no first down mock/chop, no keys and no wave. Just insane enthusiasm to be watching football on Saturday." - The Michigan Daily
• "Autzen Stadium exacerbates everything, good or bad. If a visiting team comes out and is affected by the noise and madness of Autzen Stadium, mistakes seem to pile up. ... Even in down years, Autzen is generally worth between 4-6 points, and as we've seen in many years, it's where 'great teams go to die." - Dan Rubenstein, Sports Illustrated, on Autzen's home field advantage