Is this the peak or are we still climbing?

[inudesu]

All the more reason for us to stop scheduling:

1. Like we are deserving of six or more home games every year even though the P5's don't want to give us a home game. Playing FCS only further hurts our strength of schedule & perception.

2. Just so we can be bowl eligible. How many times has usl won the NO Bowl? How is their rep?

Just keep winning... Everybody loves a winner!

Home games help you win.

FCS games (ought to) give you wins.

6 home games per year should be our standard. If we can do that without an FCS game, fine. If one of those games is actually a "home" game in Shreveport or Dallas once in a while (when it's worth it - not for a conference game that won't draw) then that's ok sometimes, too.

[Houston Techsan]

Nothing screws up attendance like an AD on a power trip who does not understand the business of ticket sales. He also has no idea how to schedule football games outside of the SLC.

Nothing screws up attendance like losing.

[PawDawg]

Nothing screws up attendance like losing.

Winning won't help next year's schedule.

[Houston Techsan]

Winning won't help next year's schedule.

It won't help the schedule but will help the attendance.

[PawDawg]

It won't help the schedule but will help the attendance.

We'll see. It didn't last year. Weather factors in, but game times hurt our attendance as much as weather.

[Houston Techsan]

Yes, weather played havoc last year.

[Dogsince65]

That's got to be the goal. But it will take a systematic approach to get there. I think Holtz has the right framework, I really do. He needs more of a killer instinct though. If we want it, we're going to have to take it! I believe he knows how to set it up, but we can't concede or settle for merely competing. For example, we must go to Fayetteville to WIN! I went to Starkville and I don't think we had that mindset. We can't settle in those situations. We might have lost anyway but we pulled up. Definitely should have taken the game from KSTATE.

That's the way Boise emerged and we must follow the model.

here is major difference with Boise--- athletic budget of Boise -just under $44 million with subsidies of 12,500 million
highly educated city with population over 210k in a state with 3% unemployment.
Been there twice ( including Bowl game)

My favorite memory was Roger Carr in Ruston with 12 seconds left catching Duron pass to win and on to first ever playoff national championship --

I am not endorsing mediocrity--just pointing out obstacles we have because of money and small town .... Love Ruston and what we accomplish with such a small budget

[Dogsince65]

personally I believe the weather killed attendance last year. Russdawg and I sat on 50 yrd line practically by ourself last year in horrible rain ( no umbrella rule strictly enforced) .. literally got pneumonia. Rained the following week and the Rice game. 3 in a row . With Dixon, JD, Butler etc we were winning but few in right mind would bring families in such miserable rainstorms. I agree with Houston Techsan-- weather Havoc-- was fun watching all the OWLS bail out by halftime, not the weather-- it was butt kicking we gave them...

[Dogsince65]

We'll see. It didn't last year. Weather factors in, but game times hurt our attendance as much as weather.

little confused ( as always) -- we had 2 of top 10 attendance games in Tech history last year -- Southern and Southern Miss . Just personally believe last year had some brutal rain games, cold weather can be handled a lot easier than heavy rain games ..

[Houston Techsan]

Rain at Rice wasn't even a nuisance. Any excuse for Rice fans. Rice should be a good rivalry, but Rice won't "rival". Even in the old SWC days I don't believe Rice had a true rivalry. I still recall the year that the Aggies played at Rice Stadium and the MOB goose stepped off the field at half time to the Aggie Way Hymn. They needed a police escort from their own stadium hours after the game was over (which the Aggies won handily). Which all proves - Aggies can't take a joke.

[glm47]

here is major difference with Boise--- athletic budget of Boise -just under $44 million with subsidies of 12,500 million
highly educated city with population over 210k in a state with 3% unemployment.
Been there twice ( including Bowl game)

My favorite memory was Roger Carr in Ruston with 12 seconds left catching Duron pass to win and on to first ever playoff national championship --

I am not endorsing mediocrity--just pointing out obstacles we have because of money and small town .... Love Ruston and what we accomplish with such a small budget

The Roger Carr catch was in Wichita Falls, TX. I was there and it was cold as hell.

[boxerdog]

here is major difference with Boise--- athletic budget of Boise -just under $44 million with subsidies of 12,500 million
highly educated city with population over 210k in a state with 3% unemployment.
Been there twice ( including Bowl game)

My favorite memory was Roger Carr in Ruston with 12 seconds left catching Duron pass to win and on to first ever playoff national championship --

I am not endorsing mediocrity--just pointing out obstacles we have because of money and small town .... Love Ruston and what we accomplish with such a small budget

Even with all those advantages, they are just a smidge better than us in terms of what we put on the field. We definitely have a better talent pool to draw from in this region. Anyway, they win games because they expect to win games and play to win games. For example, the way Holtz tried to sit on the ball at the end the first half against Miss State was a statement (communicated to our players). It resulted in a blocked punt for a TD and we conceded in the second half. I don't think Boise would have played it that way. I also believe that Holtz didn't expect us to beat KState until well into the game when he thought it might be possible.

[PawDawg]

Just personally believe last year had some brutal rain games, cold weather can be handled a lot easier than heavy rain games ..

Yes, I was there and witnessed it.

My point was that we have a horrible schedule this year. Last year it was a good schedule. Yes, weather hurt attendance last year in a huge way, but even with good weather, winning is not enough to get people out on a weeknight or at 11:00am...especially if they don't know we are playing.

[dawgs1]

Two things about Boise.

1. They played in the WAC (a significantly better football conference than CUSA), were one of the two major universities in their state. A goegraphical area that cared much more about other sports than football.

2. The combination of their SOS from conference games, playing 1 major P5 & a FCS or two was eneough to get them noticed.

For us:

Our geography dictates that for us to get noticed we must play & consistently win most, if not all, of our conference games (weaker conference) and we must play P5 programs on a regular basis & win a fair amount of those games. This is why we cannot be compared to Boise. They do not live at the intersection of the SEC & Big 12. They play in a better football conference.

[ChipDog]

I am with those who believe we should schedule more P5 teams. We beat Miss State in Ruston and we'll do it again in 2017. Even if we have to travel 2 or 3 time to them to get them to come to Ruston, it is worth it to try and get a P5 to Ruston as often as possible.