BuckeyeBull9257

I know about 20 students who went to the Florida-Georgia Game on Saturday.  I know no one who went to the USF-Houston game.

How can we improve game day experience? LOL. You can't unless you start winning because fans have abandoned ship.

"Win more games" was an option. 

 

I answered like 3 surveys this week that popped up in my email.  They all seem to want to know "How many games do you go to?" "Why do you go to games?" "How can we improve gameday experience?" "What do you think of XYZ at the games?"

 

He's at least putting in work and I respect that.  All of these programs need some saving.  Soccer and Softball are about the only sports we have that can compete for conference titles.  I don't think he can afford to fire Taggart this year, we might not have that kind of money plus it sends the wrong message to future coaches.  Taggart has at least one more year to turn this ship around.  Harlan just needs to carefully evaluate his progress and be prepared to act if it all remains this bad next year.

Don't forget Tennis,  We had them on the field today celebrating their AAC championships.         BTW  don't ever get those surveys, and I haven't missed a game in years.

 

True.  Shouldn't sell Tennis short, I apologize. 

Two of my surveys were student surveys about all sports and then football and one was for Women's Basketball fans in general.

I answered like 3 surveys this week that popped up in my email.  They all seem to want to know "How many games do you go to?" "Why do you go to games?" "How can we improve gameday experience?" "What do you think of XYZ at the games?"

He's at least putting in work and I respect that.  All of these programs need some saving.  Soccer and Softball are about the only sports we have that can compete for conference titles.  I don't think he can afford to fire Taggart this year, we might not have that kind of money plus it sends the wrong message to future coaches.  Taggart has at least one more year to turn this ship around.  Harlan just needs to carefully evaluate his progress and be prepared to act if it all remains this bad next year.

Break into the e-Sports market. 

"The Team"

I'd put "being a student and being forced to help pay for USF football to perform like this right now" in with "Paying to Watch USF Football"

Student government has only agreed to 25% of what Athletics was asking for in a fee increase on students.  They nearly shut down the idea entirely.  Most students at USF don't want to pay for every student athlete to have free housing, food, and books.  We made our voices heard and were rewarded for once.

Give the athletes full ride scholarships covering tuition.  You may as well create a sports-village where the athletes can have cheaper housing.  They already stick to themselves anyway.  Or let them compete for academic scholarships like the rest of the student population.  Create scholarships if you need to.

It was sloppy in the first half, but we managed it well in the second half.  Nice comeback, but I hope we can build on that going forward.

Look a score!  Look my hopes are up!  *waits for football gods to strike me down*

We might not lose now.  Maybe. 

As long as we are competitive in the games we ought to be competitive in, I'll be fine.

 

 

 

Do the student's have to pay to get into any of the games (e.g. football, basketball, baseball, etc.)?

 

No.. it's all covered by the fees.

They can attend any home game of any sport for free.

...And use of the Bull Runner to go to the games.. and now discounted parking.. and other perks.

 

 

That actually sounds like a pretty good deal - roughly $250 and you get to attend any home game for any sport for 4 years, and you get to support your school. I would have an issue with the fees if there was no tangible benefit to the student.

 

What benefit does a student who isn't interested or can't attend games derive from paying for it??

 

Assuming we were a good athletic school this would be a bargain.  But we the truth of the matter is that we are still in that mid-major stage.  Athletics cost the University much more than they bring in.  So really, at the present, the cost of paying the fee is far outweighing the benefits.  No major sports conference titles.  A few decent teams (Golf, Soccer, Softball - all low attendance) but nothing in the major 2 revenue sports.  Simply put, if you didn't come in with an interest in USF athletics you aren't going to be leaving with one.  Starting the whole "we need more donors and money to foot the athletic bill, better make the students pay fees" cycle over again.

One might consider it an investment in the future in the hopes that we can one day be a major competitor and our brand will pay for itself.  The only programs that are currently in the Black in athletics are the big names such as (just to name a few) Michigan, Alabama, Ohio State, USC, Florida:  brands that sell themselves to large alumni populations that grew up caring about the team or adopted the team while attending. If we can generate positive results and competition, we get students and alumni to care about the team.  I always hear about the 2004-2009 teams that would always keep things interesting.  Maybe they didn't win championships, but they competed well and won some big games.  The fans from that era are diehards. They love the team because when they attended the team was great.

In short:  the students won't gain anything from this unless Athletics start producing wins where they matter most.  It will just pander to the athletic few who come here and make students even more embittered toward their athletic counterparts than they already are. 

First half was some strong defense and good balanced offense.  Nothing too flashy, just getting business done.  Wide receivers had some big drops though.  But that was a run game to be proud of.

Second half saw our Offense dig itself into holes on 3rd down with careless penalties.  More big drops by the wide receivers that could have gone for 6.  Defense was out on that field so much and ECU got into a rhythm.  Even the 1st and 30 wasn't enough to help.  Our defense dropped the ball same time our offense did. 

If we play like we did in the first half for the rest of the year, we can finish with one conference loss.  If we play more like the second half, we won't win another game (except maybe SMU, maybe...)

I read the thread title too fast and I could have swore it read, "Heart of Thunder milked for the first time????". Too bad really, that would have made one interesting post.

I'll have what you're having 

Did they consider other options, or was this the only thing they could come up with?  I feel like that is USF's default on athletics:  make the students pay.

 

Miami announced over 43,900 for their game Sat vs Cincy,  This was their Halftime photo announcing their Hall Of Fame class. 

 

 

I wonder if the UM beat writers can get the actual attendance figure from their landlord and make sure it gets out there ....

 

They can probably just count it themselves.

It was nice and full.  Loud when it counted for sure (until we got down by 11).  But it was also homecoming and a ranked team.  After the way we threw that game it won't be that full again until UCF in November sadly.

They were having serious audio/visual problems at the Stadium yesterday.  Nothing was in sync and it sounded weird, so that's on the tech.

That being said, the band is quieter than most.  I was at the other end of the student section from them and its hard to make out what they play.  They need it.

We did make an adjustment.  We stopped rushing 4 or 5 guys on the quarterback in the second half on defense and he had all day to throw.  Flashbacks to John Elway and The Drive against Cleveland..... *sigh*

Its not the offensive scheme that is the problem.  Its our sloppy execution.  I saw about 5 or 6 dropped passes tonight in big situations.  Not blocked, straight up dropped.  We made good gains on the ground but we can't follow that up with successful play action passes.

The only students dumb enough to wear the shirts would have been those in Student government.  Those that show up to the game will be wearing either the new shirts or something from the past.  It was a stupid mistake.  At least they are doing something about it now.  Not much more we can do but try to win the game to make it all go away. 

Student Government lives in it's own little bubble, much like the real government.  They garner about the same amount of respect too....

I would think the Ole Miss game would show you where we CAN be with good recruiting and several years of work. 

Ole Miss didn't get good enough to beat Bama in a year.  Ole Miss hasn't been good since the 1960's.  Their last conference title was in 1963.  They have been bottom of the pack since then really.  A few decent years in between but mostly a beat-em up team.  Now they are good enough to beat Alabama and are 5-0 in a great start to the season. 

We can pull off upsets and win big games with time and good recruiting.  We have the good recruiting down, now what we need is to wait a bit.  If things aren't at least 6-6 at the end of next year then we start asking questions.

No fan of That Team Up North, but in their defense they do want to sell out a stadium of 114,000.  Sometimes in a lean year you have to incentivize the fans to come.

At the game.  I should have brought a poncho.  D: