Now that our football season has ended.. looking forward at next year.. question..

[champion110]

Personally, I think the culprit has been Skip Holtz's "style of play" that's keeping the fans away. I don't think it has anything to do with "tailgating" or "parking" or any of that stuff. Fans quit coming because we run a boring offense, and there hasn't been any excitement. That's my take. No one who attended the Indy Bowl can tell me they were't bored to tears many times during that game. That's why the crowd was so quiet.

People don't want to waste their time or money just to be bored. When Sonny Dykes was here running his wide open offense, NOBODY was bored. Oh, he had his coaching critics and his defense couldn't stop a door, but NOBODY was bored.

I think the last exciting season we had was in 2016. We still ran a wide open offense with Ryan Higgins, and future NFL players Boston Scott, Trent Taylor & Carlos Henderson. Our defense was led by future NFL greats Xavier Woods and Jaylon Ferguson. And NOBODY was bored. Tailgating was still strong and attendance was peaking. Even our bowl game win over Navy that year was listed as one of the most exciting Bowl games of the year.

But all that began to change when "you know who" became QB1 in 2017. And the excitement around Tech football has been in a steady decline ever since. It's just a fact. People just don't like our style of play with J'Mar running the offense. I'm sure all of you can remember some games in the last couple of years that you thought were boring? We actually saw people post about it here on BB&B. Well HELLO problem! The good news is, with him moving on, maybe we can get some of those fans back now.

THIS! I am not sure that is going to be fixed with a different QB, though, unless Skip changes the scheme of our offense. We need a wide open offense again to excite people. A star QB would be a start, but the game plan has to go with it.

[RGTech98]

Personally, I think the culprit has been Skip Holtz's "style of play" that's keeping the fans away. I don't think it has anything to do with "tailgating" or "parking" or any of that stuff. Fans quit coming because we run a boring offense, and there hasn't been any excitement. That's my take. No one who attended the Indy Bowl can tell me they were't bored to tears many times during that game. That's why the crowd was so quiet.

First off, I love Louisiana Tech and everything it stands for. However, since the very first game I attended in the Joe I have been concerned about the noise level generated by fans inside the stadium. It seems they 'like' to get excited about offensive productivity and then continue to stay loud while the offense is on the field. Then usually quiten down a bit once the defense is on the field because their isn't "much excitement". The exception was the recent years of 'Sack Daddy' production highlight reels.

This generally isn't the way a fan base is supposed to work; the fans should be the "12th man" by making so much mnoise when the defense is on the field that is disrupts the offense of the opponent!

I used a lots of words to ask a basic question, why should a fan base have to be excited by the offense to cheer on the defense?

[Dawgonit]

First off, I love Louisiana Tech and everything it stands for. However, since the very first game I attended in the Joe I have been concerned about the noise level generated by fans inside the stadium. It seems they 'like' to get excited about offensive productivity and then continue to stay loud while the offense is on the field. Then usually quiten down a bit once the defense is on the field because their isn't "much excitement". The exception was the recent years of 'Sack Daddy' production highlight reels.

This generally isn't the way a fan base is supposed to work; the fans should be the "12th man" by making so much mnoise when the defense is on the field that is disrupts the offense of the opponent!

I used a lots of words to ask a basic question, why should a fan base have to be excited by the offense to cheer on the defense?

I remember one of the problems we had when we first got the jumbotron (ok Dawgpix, video board!) was them putting the graphic of "MAKE SOME NOISE" on offense along with the announcer doing the same. I don't know if that is the cause but it does seem to be an example showing that the football/athletic program doesn't communicate well with our fan base. I mean that in a general sense too, not just in the example of having the crowd participate.

[techman05]

I remember that. However, fans should know to make noise on D and be quiet on O. Just like they should know that we don’t do the wave.

[Dawgonit]

fans should know to make noise on D and be quiet on O.

Agreed, but unlike most of us on the board, many people at the game are very casual football fans and don't really know game protocol too well. They are there for the fun and to be with friends and family. If the announcer says to make some noise, lets have fun together and yell is their mentality. We have to make sure that the video board, announcer, band, spirit groups are on the same page to work to get all of the fans into making noise at the correct times. Keep that up and eventually it will be instinctive for all fans.

Just like they should know that we don’t do the wave.

Well thank Tommy for choosing to put the DAC right up to football field without bowling in the stadium, preventing us from the doing the most honored of football traditions in our stadium.

[sportdawg]

I remember one of the problems we had when we first got the jumbotron (ok Dawgpix, video board!) was them putting the graphic of "MAKE SOME NOISE" on offense along with the announcer doing the same. I don't know if that is the cause but it does seem to be an example showing that the football/athletic program doesn't communicate well with our fan base. I mean that in a general sense too, not just in the example of having the crowd participate.

They still do it, with the PA announcer asking fans to make noise. I tweet about it during games regularly to TMac, LaTechFB, etc, to no avail.

This is what we should have:

[Lone Star Dawg]

Agreed, but unlike most of us on the board, many people at the game are very casual football fans and don't really know game protocol too well. They are there for the fun and to be with friends and family. If the announcer says to make some noise, lets have fun together and yell is their mentality. We have to make sure that the video board, announcer, band, spirit groups are on the same page to work to get all of the fans into making noise at the correct times. Keep that up and eventually it will be instinctive for all fans.



Well thank Tommy for choosing to put the DAC right up to football field without bowling in the stadium, preventing us from the doing the most honored of football traditions in our stadium.

If we ever get to a point of needing more seats, I would love to see them fill in the open sections between the southern ends of the stands and the DAC. If you could then add seats on top of the DAC that were at the same height as the East and West stands, we would have a unique bowled in south endzone and still have a great view of the glassed in weight room and entrance for the players.

I'm not an architect or structural engineer to know whether that's feasible, but it looks great in my head. Maybe one of you photoshop gurus could whip up a graphic.

[qng001]

Move the band back to the 50. I used to sit in OO and enjoyed seeing the band there. Student on either side would do the move the chain wave. The folks in OO were rowdy. On a noise level, we felt united. I'm not sure how it is over there now I've moved to the west side.

Now that students are leaving at half time it leaves an empty seating problem on the 50. It's prime seating, but if they are leaving well before the game is over, we should put the band back. Hopefully it could re-energize that side again.

[HogDawg]

I remember that. However, fans should know to make noise on D and be quiet on O.

Agreed. But I’m not just talking about crowd noise during games. A little “crowd coaching” can help with that.

Rather, I’m talking about the overall excitement of the PRODUCT on the field. The stuff that makes fans want to come back and cheer again next week. Yes, we’re winning now. We simply need an offense that can score some TD’s to make it more fun. People want to see THEIR TEAM scoring. We only scored 14, 10, and 14 points in three of our last 4 games, including our bowl game. (The 4th game was against lowly UTSA, which won’t move the needle.) That makes it hard to sell tickets.

[qng001]

If we ever get to a point of needing more seats, I would love to see them fill in the open sections between the southern ends of the stands and the DAC. If you could then add seats on top of the DAC that were at the same height as the East and West stands, we would have a unique bowled in south endzone and still have a great view of the glassed in weight room and entrance for the players.

I'm not an architect or structural engineer to know whether that's feasible, but it looks great in my head. Maybe one of you photoshop gurus could whip up a graphic.

I would get rid of both metal wing stands. Build new seating in the north end zone including expanded seating, Loge seating, standing room area beer garden with drink rails. The underbelly could house a team shop, concessions, and additional game operation offices.

We can finally connect the two concourse.

A scales down version of what Texas is doing.

[Geaux Dawgs]

Maybe its me, but why in the world are we talking about seating expansion?

[zharkins]

Tech was 35th in scoring/g (2nd in CUSA), 9th in home scoring/g (1st in CUSA), 35th in total offense (2nd in CUSA), and 11th in total offense at home (1st in CUSA).

In 2016, the people seem to set that we need to match to be exciting enough to attend a game, we were 2nd in scoring/g (2nd in CUSA), 1st in home scoring/g (1st in CUSA), 9th in total offense (3rd in CUSA), and 3rd in total offense at home (2nd in CUSA).

So what constitutes boring? Do we need to be Top 10 in the country every year to a? Top 15? Top 20?

[Blue Dawg]

Tech was 35th in scoring/g (2nd in CUSA), 9th in home scoring/g (1st in CUSA), 35th in total offense (2nd in CUSA), and 11th in total offense at home (1st in CUSA).

In 2016, the people seem to set that we need to match to be exciting enough to attend a game, we were 2nd in scoring/g (2nd in CUSA), 1st in home scoring/g (1st in CUSA), 9th in total offense (3rd in CUSA), and 3rd in total offense at home (2nd in CUSA).

So what constitutes boring? Do we need to be Top 10 in the country every year to a? Top 15? Top 20?

I don't know if stats tell the whole story here. JMar was voted OPOY despite being, well, a boring quarterback (at best).

[T1]

Tech was 35th in scoring/g (2nd in CUSA), 9th in home scoring/g (1st in CUSA), 35th in total offense (2nd in CUSA), and 11th in total offense at home (1st in CUSA).

In 2016, the people seem to set that we need to match to be exciting enough to attend a game, we were 2nd in scoring/g (2nd in CUSA), 1st in home scoring/g (1st in CUSA), 9th in total offense (3rd in CUSA), and 3rd in total offense at home (2nd in CUSA).

So what constitutes boring? Do we need to be Top 10 in the country every year to a? Top 15? Top 20?

Consistency? Holtz has had great offenses in 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2019, but bad offenses in 2013, 2017, and 2018. Fans don’t know what to expect from year to year? The general consensus here seems to be that ALL of his offenses are bad, which is untrue, but perception becomes reality.

[sportdawg]

I've been wanting something like this for years. If possible, I'd do this in parts since we currently don't need the seating.
1a. Team shop, concessions, game day operations
1b. Standing room area with beer garden
2. Expanded seating
3. Loge seating

1a would bowl in the stadium and give us an improved Team Shop Experience. The East Side team shop is not worth a crap. It would give us lesser folks on the East Side access to better concessions as well.

I think if we did something like Independence Stadium (with concrete instead of metal), that would be enough. The bottom set of bleaches could be taken out for the Beer Garden. Put Dawgzilla on top.

I would get rid of both metal wing stands. Build new seating in the north end zone including expanded seating, Loge seating, standing room area beer garden with drink rails. The underbelly could house a team shop, concessions, and additional game operation offices.

We can finally connect the two concourse.

A scales down version of what Texas is doing.