UCONN football............for me.

[J187Money]

I think the lack of fan satisfaction is clear from the fact that only 34k showed up for such a big football game. I don't think the program gets better because fans are boooing players, or calling into talk shows with more anger. If fans don't come, if they don't contribute as much as their peers at other schools, the message is being sent.

Actually I think most people in CT don't realize what is or isn't a big football game. It was really big for UCONN but the average person if they have ever heard of NC State only knows about Valvano and that was 30 years ago. Face it, they aren't Michigan etc.

The fact that this state has NEVER had real college football of any importance means that nobody talks about it as a subject, unless they went to a big football school or happen to be a rabid football fan.

And what I'm sure you don't see in Texas--all of the Pop Warner games are all scheduled at the same time as our games so you miss a ton of opportunities to gain new fans because they can't go to games. A bunch of the football parents in my hood maybe go to one game a year (and a lot of them went to UCONN) because they can't be in two places at once.

 

[Bootsthemonkey]

I have to admit I enjoy the UConn games as well, win or lose. My brothers, my nephew and I all live in different parts of the state. We see each other maybe 8 times a year - Thanksgiving, Christmas and six UConn games. That said I think we all care about winning, but at the same time I'm not going to let it wreck my day if it doesn't happen.

I think this fanbase can be very good - the stadium can get loud. However it's also embarrassing that it takes two quarters of the game for fans to get into the stadium - and they start filing out in the 3rd regardless of the score. I had people in front of me get up and leave right after UConn cut it to a 10-7 game in the 4th as well. Huh? Anyone on here that does this stuff, it's your right and I won't argue it but I'm stating my opinion that I'm unimpressed by this and I'm sticking to it. And whether anyone thinks the NC State crowd was small, I'll admit they were loud for their numbers.

This region does have a strong football following. Prior to the 50's when college football was king this area put out great numbers for college football - the Ivies were powerful back then and used to fill those stadiums. But as the dawn of TV gave rise to the popularity of the NFL the northeast became a pro football region. I can't tell you how many friends I ran into this week who were happily telling me they were excited because Sunday meant "Football is back!" (translation: The NFL is back and I couldn't care less about college football. Not just UConn. All of college football). I felt like reminding them that college football was already into week 2 but didn't feel like wasting my time.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Great post. Stayed till the bitter end, watched the TOB/PP handshake. Etc, etc, etc.
However . . . . . . . . .
This is not the attitude that breeds a winning program. I'm not criticizing you, condemning you or complaining about your post. I'm just bringing this up. West Virginia's fan base doesn't see it this way. They demand a relevant program. Winning programs usually don't happen by accident. They happen in response to fan and institutional demand. Calhoun happened by accident. We were extremely lucky. Uconn basketball now demands a winning program. Won't accept less. Uconn football is not there, and many of us do enjoy the sun, friends, the sausages and family time. Until there is a demand for winning - Burton family level demand - we won't achieve it.

Gars - thank you. I would have stumbled around for 1,000+ words to state this.

As much as the original post is a nice thing, without the absolute will to win, the frothing at the mouth vitriol that comes from the absolute hatred of failure, .....the attitude that Jim Calhoun installed at UConn 25 years ago.....and has led to multiple national championships throughout the athletic department.......

UConn football will continue to be a great way to spend a fall saturday afternoon with family and friends, and that's it. It should be that, and is that - but it can, and should be more. The investment, in it being more, is there.

I'm still fuming beyond belief at what I saw on the field on Saturday, the lack of urgency and the lethargy that I saw from our offense, where's the guy that's stomping around like a maniac firing everybody up? Who's the enforcer that's going to beat the snot out of you if you duck up again? If the coaching staff isn't going to set the tone, they damn well better put players on the field that will..... , and if the coaching staff can't do it themselves, and can't find players to put on the field to do it, then the coaching staff needs to change.

I watched those guys on the sidelines. THe energy level was simply not there. The defensive players were over there, late in the game, with the energy they carried all game long, telling them they'd get the ball back, and they did.

But it's now 36 hours or so + game time, so it's in a compartment in the back of my head, and I'm really looking forward to Maryland.

Friends, family, fun - yes. That's all great, but I expect winning football. that's on the leadership of the entire program to create, and there's a part of the program, that's severely lacking right now, and there needs to be a change. Deciding what that change needs to be, for the results to show on the field? That's why the head man gets paid what he gets paid.

We have not won consecutive football games in just under two years now. We've lost consecutive games. That is not winning football.

You are what your record says you are.

Coach P, and his program - is 6-8.

Right now in sept 2012?

#2 in Defense. #105 in offense.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Win or lose, games are fun to attend. No one wants to win more than the players and coaches.

Some people come close.

 

[Carl Spackler]

We're not going to be that winning program by having 6,000 empty seats for argueably the best team to visit the rent this year.

We're not going to fill those 6,000 straggler seats, when we can't win consecutive football games.

This talk about the fans needs to go away. Tehre is a core base of fans for this program that is going nowhere. The athletic department screwed up royally and the lightning rod that the program was for ticket sales 7-8 years ago, there's not much that can be done about that at this time, except everythign they are doing now, with motivating ticket sales, it's an uphill battle, but bitching about the failures of the past on the business side of things, is useless.

THe only way a fan base trully grows, is with winning.