One takeaway from the game for me was that changing the culture of football team isn't the only culture change needed, we need the culture of our fanbase to change just as much.
We were up by two scores in the 4th quarter against a team favored by around 30 points against us and at least in the particular place I was at (somewhere in the student section) after damn near every play, offense or defense, good or bad, was comments about how we were going to lose the game. Not encouragements, some yelling during the good plays, but it was such a defeatist attitude at least where I was sitting.
And it's not that those comments weren't always warranted, especially in a game with as many mistakes as we had. We did end up losing the game. Given our luck, I know why they were saying this. Plus, we are hurting attendance wise and need all the bodies we can get in the stands right now, so anybody showing up is probably a good thing.
But after the past few years of bad football, I will enjoy these moments of competitive football from the team as much as I can in the stands, knowing we are still in the rebuilding process. Walking back to the car after the game, my buddies and I were talking about why it has become so negative even in good times. There are the obvious reasons mentioned above for the negativity, but one buddy made the comment "well it's just a lot cooler to be negative than positive." Another buddy made a comment about how he didn't understand why some people went to the games - it was almost like they were going to the games just to be pissed off.
To me, it is pretty obvious our fan base is just a fractured fan base right now. It makes sense, the past forever has been some really tough football. We have come to expect the worse. But when and how do we start changing as a fanbase? I understand that winning will bring more fans and probably bring better attitudes, but for as much as we want the culture around the team to change, we need some serious change among our fanbase. What are some things that can be done to help this change (other than winning)?
We were up by two scores in the 4th quarter against a team favored by around 30 points against us and at least in the particular place I was at (somewhere in the student section) after damn near every play, offense or defense, good or bad, was comments about how we were going to lose the game. Not encouragements, some yelling during the good plays, but it was such a defeatist attitude at least where I was sitting.
And it's not that those comments weren't always warranted, especially in a game with as many mistakes as we had. We did end up losing the game. Given our luck, I know why they were saying this. Plus, we are hurting attendance wise and need all the bodies we can get in the stands right now, so anybody showing up is probably a good thing.
But after the past few years of bad football, I will enjoy these moments of competitive football from the team as much as I can in the stands, knowing we are still in the rebuilding process. Walking back to the car after the game, my buddies and I were talking about why it has become so negative even in good times. There are the obvious reasons mentioned above for the negativity, but one buddy made the comment "well it's just a lot cooler to be negative than positive." Another buddy made a comment about how he didn't understand why some people went to the games - it was almost like they were going to the games just to be pissed off.
To me, it is pretty obvious our fan base is just a fractured fan base right now. It makes sense, the past forever has been some really tough football. We have come to expect the worse. But when and how do we start changing as a fanbase? I understand that winning will bring more fans and probably bring better attitudes, but for as much as we want the culture around the team to change, we need some serious change among our fanbase. What are some things that can be done to help this change (other than winning)?
