It’s starting to sound as if a lot of folks around the Illinois athletic department aren’t satisfied with the atmosphere at Memorial Stadium these days. The week leading to Saturday’s Big Ten game against Minnesota has been filled with pleas for fans to make noise, get rowdy and become the proverbial 12th man.

I have to admit, by spending my Saturdays trapped inside hermetically sealed press boxes, where the sound is muffled (Illinois) and sometimes altogether eliminated (Iowa), it can be difficult to ascertain what the noise level is like at a stadium.

Judging by a press release, press conference and letter to fans, I’m guessing it could stand to be louder in Champaign. They certainly don’t need to ask fans to attend because this game has been sold out for quite a while. In fact, all four conference home games are sold out.

First came a release announcing that Saturday has been dubbed the “Rock the House” game, where fans are asked to “create an extremely loud home field advantage in support of the Fighting Illini.”

Next was coach Ron Zook’s weekly press conference, where he joined the plea.

“Everybody rest up on Friday,” he said. “I know it’s homecoming. I want them to enjoy homecoming, but we need them in that stadium. We need them yelling and we need to have the 12th man. We really do. It’s going to be important that we get all the energy that we possibly can from our fans.”

And finally came the letter from athletics director Ron Guenther.

“Let’s focus our energy on raising the volume when our opponent has the ball,” he wrote, in part. “Let’s rise to our feet as one sea of orange and create a wave of sound that envolops historic Memorial Stadium. And let’s wave those 20,000 Zook Zone Towels throughout each opponent possession.”

It sounds like everyone was impressed by the atmosphere at Beaver Stadium at Penn State two weeks ago, where pom poms were pumped, vocal chords strained and the structure was literally bouncing if you were sitting near the top.

I’ve read some comments on Illini message boards where the Memorial Stadium atmosphere has been criticized. So, let’s hear it. If you’ve been to an Illini home game recently, share your comments on what you think about the atmosphere.