“I love being back in Michigan,” Howard said when addressing the media Friday. “It’s like a second home for me. From my days with the Wolverines, to my days with the Lions, a lot of love.”

Finance freshman Mitchell Ostrowski got to the broadcast at 4:30 a.m. after being asked just a half hour before.

“It’s fun — crazy fun — but it’s a lot of commitment,” Ostrowski said.

His plan was to take a three-hour nap, then go out tailgating before going to the game, and he said that his advice for future attendees is to get more sleep.

“I would sleep the night before instead of not sleeping the night before,” Ostrowski said. ”Sleep, get up at about 3 (a.m.) and then come to it. You’ve got to plan ahead.”

Campus Arborist Paul Swartz said there were many environmental factors that had to be sorted out for the popular TV broadcast to take place with Beaumont Tower in the background.

“Protect all the sacred trees that are here,” Swartz said. “We roped all those trees off, (and) we applied mulch to the soil to protect the root zones. … The other main issue was we had to do some pruning to be able to see the tower from the stage, and that was really critical.”

Although he was glad to see the event come to MSU, he said it probably won’t be on the ground around Beaumont Tower again.

“In this area, it’s a very critical, very sacred area, and we’ve never had this here before,” Swartz said. “I wouldn’t want to see it as a regular occurrence, but in a one-time situation, we were able to protect the trees for future generations and future Spartans.”

He gave all the praise to the landscape crew working to set up the location.

“It was a tough thing, but our crews really did a good job in preparing the site,” Swartz said. “It’s a great location; it’s a great setting. The campus looks good for the nation.”