the perception of USF fans

[MarketingGuy]

Wow, wish I got in on this thread a little earlier.

I've been complaining of the same things all season. Every game i've gone to, both home and away, I've been embarrassed by our fellow fans.  They have been obnoxious and rude.

After such a fantastic time at Auburn, I long for the day that we might have the same southern hospitality tradition that they have.

[crambone]

No, you truly have nasty fans, no sour grapes here.  Your team beat us thoroughly, they earned my respect .. your fans acted disgracefully, they certainly did not earn my respect.  I haven't been waiting a year for anything, just haven't forgotten the many crude USF fans I encountered in B'ham and I'm glad to see the karma come back around.

Yeah, and all of the ECU fans I saw in the bar (not Jim & Nick's...the one across from it that was mostly ECU fans) the night before the game were complete angels to all USF people.  I saw the paddy wagon get loaded up with both USF and ECU fans that night.  Don't try to act like your fanbase is above such things.

Stop being a whiny little ***** and realize that all teams have idiot classless fans.  I have found that the only people to complain about fans being bad are the losing team.

Karma?  Yeah, our fans are classless so we are being punished for it with a #2 ranking earlier in the year, a top 25 ranking at the end of the season, a great bowl against a real team (the score says it all...we got beat down) and the respect of the bigger programs.  ECU will forever be looked upon as second to NCState, NC, Wake Forest, etc.

The simple fact that you registered on this forum a year after we beat your ass (for the fifth time, btw) in a lame attempt to try to talk smack is indicative of just how "classy" ECU fans are.

Go ahead and laugh at our "fall from #2".  At least we've been to the top.

/end smack

For the record, I'd take ECU into the Big East before any other team from a mid-major.

[Carolina_Bull]

While I never have seen any truly nasty fans, the solution is simple. Stop giving free tickets to the students. Charge them $50 or so for the game and many of the pricks will not go to the game as much. As I said everytime I go to the games I am near the band many times and never really whitness this type of behavior. I think many times it is a team losing and their fans get so upset they try to blame the oposing fans as being bad.

No, you truly have nasty fans, no sour grapes here.  Your team beat us thoroughly, they earned my respect .. your fans acted disgracefully, they certainly did not earn my respect.  I haven't been waiting a year for anything, just haven't forgotten the many crude USF fans I encountered in B'ham and I'm glad to see the karma come back around.

I was embarrassed and sad for those USF as*holes that donned those tshirts and carried those signs last year.

I live in a city where many Pirates settle and because of those jackasses I was hesitant to wear the green and gold last year after the Pizza Bowl.

If one of my kids ever presents themselves in public with a shirt that basicaly makes fun of people by calling them homosexual, I will know I failed them as a parent.

[ECUPirates1]

No, you truly have nasty fans, no sour grapes here.  Your team beat us thoroughly, they earned my respect .. your fans acted disgracefully, they certainly did not earn my respect.  I haven't been waiting a year for anything, just haven't forgotten the many crude USF fans I encountered in B'ham and I'm glad to see the karma come back around.

Yeah, and all of the ECU fans I saw in the bar (not Jim & Nick's...the one across from it that was mostly ECU fans) the night before the game were complete angels to all USF people.  I saw the paddy wagon get loaded up with both USF and ECU fans that night.  Don't try to act like your fanbase is above such things.

Stop being a whiny little ***** and realize that all teams have idiot classless fans.  I have found that the only people to complain about fans being bad are the losing team.

Karma?  Yeah, our fans are classless so we are being punished for it with a #2 ranking earlier in the year, a top 25 ranking at the end of the season, a great bowl against a real team (the score says it all...we got beat down) and the respect of the bigger programs.  ECU will forever be looked upon as second to NCState, NC, Wake Forest, etc.

The simple fact that you registered on this forum a year after we beat your ass (for the fifth time, btw) in a lame attempt to try to talk smack is indicative of just how "classy" ECU fans are.

Go ahead and laugh at our "fall from #2".  At least we've been to the top.

/end smack

For the record, I'd take ECU into the Big East before any other team from a mid-major.

I am a aware of the incidents at the bar the night before the game but I don't know the details as I didn't go out that night, all I can attest to was the things I saw before, during, and after the game.  I never said or implied that all ECU fans are saints, but in many years of attending ECU home games and quite a few away games, I have never in my life seen any group of fans, ECU or otherwise, behave in the manner that many of yours did at that game, both in terms of how badly they behaved and how many of them were behaving that way.  I also did not say or mean to imply that all of your fans behaved in that way, as I tried to make clear by saying "no offense to the civilized Bulls fans."  I can shrug off a few bad apples, especially students but I simply could not believe how many of these incidents I witnessed from your fans at that game, the pictures I posted were just a few examples of what I saw.  I have seen classless displays by ECU fans as well, but nothing to that degree and at our games those incidents are normally dealt with quickly through self-policing by the idiots' friends, other more mature Pirate fans, or if necessary, the event staff/police. 

Now I will say in your defense that the setup at the game was destined to fail from the start.  Sitting the two fanbases side by side to present better for the TV cameras almost welcomed frequent confrontations to occur.  In addition, the traffic flow pattern of fans coming in and then going to and from concession stands caused problems as well.  All of that was on the bowl planners, along with the inadequate event staff and police for crowd control.  I heard this was a root cause for the incident the night before at the bar too, as the city of B'ham was seemingly unprepared for the two fanbases converging on the city.  I personally witnessed many ugly incidents during the game and more than once I thought we were on the verge of things spiraling out of control in the form of a large fight. 

With all of that said though, there was no excuse for the signs, shirts, and behavior like the you can see in the pictures, and I saw plenty more than just those.  My parents and I were regularly "assaulted" verbally outside of the stadium after we parked and were having a couple of beers before walking in by car after car of USF fans yelling obscenities as they drove by and in to the parking lots.  None of that happened to us personally on the way out but we did observe more generally crude behavior. During the game I saw USF fans running up and down and in front of our sections yelling and acting foolish, yelling obscenities, and taunting our fans on numerous occasions.  The alcohol being sold in the stadium only added fuel to the fire.  I didn't sit in your section so I don't know if any similar incidents occurred at the hands of ECU fans, but I did not personally witness any.  And I can't say that had the game gone our way there wouldn't have been some of the same things going on from our fans, but I highly doubt it, or at least they would have been much fewer and farther between.  I did see some ugly displays by some of our fans, I recall a group of our students a few rows down in particular that were acting obscenely, but our fans started getting on them pretty hard to sit down and shut up, and then of course your team took the wind out of their sails pretty quickly anyway.  I also saw some ECU fans that engaged in shouting matches and even a few physical confrontations, and I recall a couple of guys being escorted away after dumping their beers out on some USF fans that had come over to start trouble. 

SO, you're right, we were not without fault and I'll freely admit that.  But again, I have never seen anything to the degree or frequency from our fans or any other fans that rivals what I saw from yours at that game (although I have heard and read numerous accounts of equally deplorable behavior and worse on a very consistent basis from the WVU fanbase - I have not experienced that firsthand myself, but my dad has, he and others have sworn never to return to Morgantown).  I get the whole argument around most of them being students and full of piss and vinegar, but surely you can't honestly be excusing the behavior because of that.  You can explain it but there's no excuse for it.  I picked this thread to respond to because it jived with my perception of the USF fanbase, and apparently I'm not alone.  I'll admit, it wasn't the classiest thing to do to come over after your loss and rub salt into the wound, but the impression that I have of your fanbase has not faded and I guess I took the low road and took a little shot, but it really was just in jest as I tried to communicate with my smiley.

Let me also say, I ran into some nice USF fans as well and heard a few consoling comments as I exited the stadium.  I was really impressed with the energy that came from your section and your band was AWESOME!  Every ECU fan that I talked to that attended the game was really impressed with your band, they played with a lot of spirit and at the right times, they really put on a performance during the game that we all came away impressed with and envious - in a nutshell, they sounded like a big-time BCS type band.  And for all I know, maybe things have improved or we just happened to see all the worst of the worst.  First impressions are never forgotten as they say.  It's just like a chain of stores, peoples' impressions of an entire company are usually formed from their experience at their local store.  If I go into a grocery store and the service sucks, I'm gonna tell someone in a conversation that it's a crummy place to shop, but that same chain may have a different store near them where the service is outstanding and their opinion is entirely different.  If I have formed a wrong impression of your fanbase, I apologize and if I have brought a negative light onto my fanbase by my post, I apologize for that as well and I hope that you'll reconsider your perception of ECU and our fans.  I would like to say though in response to your comment about me waiting until just now to join your board and make my statement, I didn't know about your board last year and although I frequently read message boards, for some reason I didn't go out looking for yours for some reason, probably because I felt you would beat us before the game and then when you kicked our butts I just didn't want to read what I knew was probably being said on your board.  However, I did post on the Big East boards about the game and my experience with your fans, you can read those comments if you care to here: http://www.bigeastboards.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?t=10550&highlight=&sid=93bac21a028fc17b2da1c4a446cc44dd

I've been really impressed by the successes that your team and program have had in such a short time and I hope that we can join you in the BE one day and try to even our record against you.  You were a thorn in our sides in CUSA and did it again in the bowl game.  ECU has a proud football tradition, we're no ND or Oklahoma, but we've had a lot of successes and not many teams have had the level of success against us that you have thus far so I can't do anything but respect your team until we prove ourselves to you on the field.  Conversely, I can't do anything but not respect your fans until I attend another matchup and their behavior is vastly improved.

[smazza]

the Big East needs to adopt the No alcohol policy that the SEC has.

nope...

the cops need to throw these people out for over using "abusive language.." not this staning up BS

put them in the pokey

[DELdaBull]

El Paso seemed to love us!

[Taco Bull]

At halftime of the Louisville game I overheard a few L'ville fans talking. I did not catch the entire conversation but enough to know that they had a very poor opinion of USF fans and the way they had been treated. They said that they would never be making a road trip to Tampa again and had no desire to pump money into our economy with fans like ours. I do not know what happened or why these women felt this way but I fear this may be happening alot.

As USF gains more national exposure the decorum of our fans is going to continue to be scrutinized. I had the pleasure of going to Auburn this year and would go again in a heart beat. Their fans were absolutely amazing and I hope that our USF fans can emmulate that sort of an atmostphere as gracious hosts to opposing teams and fans. There will always be the few a-holes but as people have said on the boards before...act like you've been there before.

I know that our fanbase is fairly young, but that is not an excuse for a lack of class. Has anyone else noticed a bad perception of our fans or do you think this is an isolated incident? As an avid fan and USF alumni the perception of our school and fans is extremely important to me.

I see this as the time when we really get the chance to create the perception of USF and its fans and I hope it will be a good one.

I know that not all people at USF games are students or alumni and may not care how their behavior represents our school and that some students don't care either...but whether you're connected to the school or not the general behavior of our fans is going to be seen as a direct reflection of the school and in this day and age Perception is Reality.

Don't take this wrong... but our student section ... for good or bad... can be exceptionally brutal and ugly.  Personally, I do not like hearing the "over rated" chant. And the other one is the "na na na na hey hey hey goodbye". 

Isn't enough that you beat them?  Have any of you ever travelled?  We went to the Penn State game and you would never hear those chants from Penn State.

Bottom line...  yes, we can be class less.

[Guest Mr. AKA]

There are always bad fans everywhere, its an unfortunate fact. Some fans act like their lives depend on sporting events, is it really worth fighting over? Enjoy the game, I've only lived in Tampa and attended USF for a short time, im originally from IL, but a huge Michigan fan. I've been to a number of UM games in opposing venues. One particular incident at the U of I was ridiculous, some idiot was riding me hard, I simply ignored him, after a while other Illini fans told the guy to shut up.

If opposing teams fans are inappropriate just ignore them, let them look like idiots, dont join them.

Win and lose with class, its not the end of the world......

[Triple B]

Don't take this wrong... but our student section ... for good or bad... can be exceptionally brutal and ugly.  Personally, I do not like hearing the "over rated" chant. And the other one is the "na na na na hey hey hey goodbye".   

Isn't enough that you beat them?   Have any of you ever travelled?  We went to the Penn State game and you would never hear those chants from Penn State.

Bottom line...  yes, we can be class less.

I think you're putting other school's students and fans up on a false pedestal. I'm betting that almost every stadium/arena that had a ranked visiting team lose has heard the "over rated" chant. I heard it during the UGA/Hawaii game and the commentators even remarked about it. Not saying it's right or wrong, but I doubt our students are much different than any others .... and do they even still do "na na na na hey hey hey goodbye" anymore?? My oldie favorite is "warm up the bus" at basketball games.

[TRUTH D. Antagonist]

El Paso seemed to love our tourist dollars!

*fixed