Washington Huskies football: Husky Stadium is officially louder than the Swamp

Cam Ward, a current Heisman favorite, re-ignited an ongoing college football argument on the opening weekend of football. In his post-game comments after Miami's big 41-17 win against Florida he was underwhelmed by The Swamp.

He even went so far to instruct the fans on when they should be loud and when they shouldn't be loud, as recorded by the AP News, “Advice to the fans: If you’re going to be loud, you have to be loud when we’re huddling, you can’t just be loud once we break the huddle. By that time, it’s no point. We hear the play and we’ve communicated already.”

This is enough to get Florida fans frustrated. However, the comment that set X on fire and the conversation is still ongoing throughout the week (and probably will for the entire season) is the one below tweeted out by Brandon Marcello, National College Football Reporter for CBS Sports and 24/7 Sports.

This, of course, got highly defensive SEC fans ready to defend The Swamp as it's often seen as one of the loudest and most intimidating places to play.

Yet, the former (and current) Pac-12 fans jumped at the idea as West Coast schools are often overlooked. You only need to click on that link and read through the comments under that tweet to see how wild it became from Ward's comments.

Washington Huskies football: Stop overlooking Husky Stadium's atmosphere

I thought it had died down during the week and this article remained in "draft" mode as I decided whether it was worth digging into or not until a random fan on X tweeted this:

This post has been seen over 115,000 times as of the writing of this article and as you can see it has 50 replies. This is an impressive amount of engagement for an account that only has 167 followers. The original X user, Dalton Odom, was infuriated by it so much that he replied that Jim was delusion. And we got this gem as a reply.

As you can see, the engagement didn't slow down and people continued to jab and poke and defend. For us, let's analyze this claim and I also want to recognize that this isn't the first player or coach to say such things about Husky Stadium.

First, we should acknowledge that Husky Stadium holds the highest recorded decibel record for a college football stadium. It was set in 1992 in a game against Nebraska at 133.6. There is some dispute on whether it was broken last year in 2023 at Neyland Stadium when Tennessee took on Georgia.

I've seen a few places report this but none very substantiated. Regardless, Husky Stadium is clearly one of the loudest stadiums in College Football if not the loudest. Stadium Talk lists it as the #1 loudest and most intimidating stadiums.

Second, we need to bring up the reality that noise can be a little relative in terms of the mindset of a player. Of course, decibels are facts and it's science for how loud a place is, but noise can be a bit psycological. Notice the difference between a defense who gets amped up by noice and a QB who gets rattled by it. Or in a home run derby some players want the crowd absolutely losing their minds, loud, and another player would rather it be quiet.

This means, we should also see what other players and coaches have notoriously said about Husky Stadium. Is Cam Ward an outlier that thinks Husky Stadium is the loudest stadium or are there others?

Former UW running back Greg Lewis mentioned how they would talk about and they knew that Husky Stadium was a menace to opposing teams. In the University of Washington Magazine, Lewis is recorded as saying, “Husky Stadium was always loud and rocking on game days, we knew the other team was intimidated by our fans and nervous about how loud the place would get.”

Warren Moon said this about Husky Stadium, “The noise was definitely a factor, coming down the tunnel is always something I’ll remember. The players fed on the noise. There was a lot of chanting, a lot of barking. It can be very intimidating.”

I know what you're thinking, those are both UW players that talked about it. What did former players or coaches say about Husky Stadium. Is it a daunting place to play?

Army Defensive tackle Al Roberts said, "70,000 screaming, yelling, and stomping - that crowd was probably the biggest difference. The acoustics were amazing, a huge factor, I've been around C-130 transports a lot, and this almost felt like I was on a runway."

Eric Heitmann a former Stanford offensive lineman said, "That's the loudest stadium I've ever played in. Being right next to the quarterback, I had a hard time hearing the cadence. A lot of times you find yourself just watching the football instead of going off the snap count. That's a huge disadvantage."

Legendary coach Lou Holtz, "I knew it would be a very, very difficult place to play...They were so rabid for their own team, but with real class."

Former Stanford linebacker Riall Johnson said, "Arizona and USC are nothing compared to (Husky) Stadium. It's three times as loud. There's no feeling like walking out of that tunnel and seeing 70,000 people booing you. I've tried to tell my teammates about it. I've said, 'We've played at Oregon and Texas, but nothing can prepare you for Washington. You have to experience it."

Jake Butt, a former Michigan TE and current Big Ten analyst talked about how amazing the environment and setting was on a recent podcast with Locked on Huskies and Roman Tomashoff. He called it the best environment, college or NFL, that he's ever been a part of it. Noting the setting, the night game, and the passion of the fans. He even recollected on the penalties the fans were able to induce in the Weber State game. He was impressed.

Here's the thing, after all this has been said, we can clearly and definitely say that Cam Ward was right about Husky Stadium.

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