I have never been to Kyle Field so take this with a grain of salt, but how loud can that place really get...?
I know they practice cheering (seems to me like this would be a natural response for 80,000+ who are pulling for their team to win) but do you really need to practice to be loud? Does one really get louder the more they practice or does ones voice get tired and thus less loud the more it is used? I would think you need to practice more frequently than the Friday night before a home game before you start strengthening your voice, and that unless you are practicing frequently, you are probably having the opposite of the desired effect.
Also, just look at the stadium. It seats 83,000. Certainly not among the largest. That is almost 20,000 less people than would be cheering at BDS if the game were at home. I am not sure how the math works but the maximum a human can yell is just over 100 decibels. Times that by 20,000 (I know that is not exactly how it works) and it has got to be a big difference.
I would imagine that some of it comes down to the acoustics of the stadium. Great, this certainly can make up for having less people yelling (call it the Autzen effect if you will), but this stadium does not look to have a particularly good acoustic quality to it. The decking looks very gradual, there is an open end zone and there is no roof or cover over a portion of the upper deck to hold in the noise or reflect it towards the field.
I have been in a lot of loud stadiums. The Super Dome when it is not a neutral game site and the Carrier Dome are two of the loudest but I have never been overly impressed by the noise at an open air stadium. They get loud, sure, but deafening? Loud to the point where a team is ineffective? I think not. Sure, it may lead to some miscommunication and a delay penalty but it would have to be a razor close game for it to matter much...
Just one guys opinion.
Frankly I'm tired of hearing about Kyle Field and wish they would just play the game already.