"...one of the nation’s most hostile environments, Memorial Stadium at Nebraska."
It can certainly get loud at Memorial Stadium when the opposition's offense is on the field but I've never heard it described as hostile.
It can be a difficult environment to play in for some teams but not for a team that calls The Big House home.
Back in the 90s glory days, there were several times when it was hostile, both malicious and just darn loud.
Malicious: 1990 "Sal is dead, Go Big Red." WTF. (That's really the only malicious one I can recall, can't remember other instances.)
Now I feel like people can point to trips to Penn State as fans being malicious, and I know people have posted stories here on it. Agree, Husker fans don't go that far.
Just darn loud: 1993 when Chad May complained to the referee about the crowd noise.
Lots of times I recall the fan noise in the stadium causing problems for opposing offenses, but that 1993 Kansas State game sticks out because of Chad May being a little baby.
I don't think we've had that kind of home field advantage simply from crowd noise since Solich was fired save for the prime Pelini years. Being good brings fan enthusiasm.
That being said, Michigan's stadium at least used to be called the quietest huge stadium in college football and the crowd didn't really have an impact. I haven't watched enough of their games since they've been great recently to know if the crowd has an impact on the game, but I bet the Michigan crowd does now more than when they weren't as good.