People are missing the fact that when we drew those big crowds ten years ago, not only were we winning, and not only were we in a better conference, but there was also a novelty factor, a growth factor that made people want to invest. Our ascent in the FBS world was going way faster than people expected, and by the time we broke through to the Fiesta Bowl we had already knocked on the door a couple of times. It had the feel of an exciting story, to the point that people were beginning to wonder whether the program was following in basketball's footsteps.
That's gone. Even if Edsall recovers the program, and we dabble with 7-5 or 8-4, I just don't see the excitement getting back to where it was. People can say the dreams were always unrealistic, but that doesn't always matter when it comes to selling tickets. There are no more delusions of grandeur about what you can accomplish playing college football in the state of Connecticut - if we happened to join a premier conference, you'd probably see big crowds the first few times we played a marquee opponent, but after that they'd begin to dwindle with every season we spent in mediocrity. It's not like fans of Syracuse, Pitt, or BC are knocking the doors down right now because the demand is so high. The product won't be there in the northeast because the culture isn't there, and the culture is a lot harder to develop on mile 20 than mile 1.
