2009 FCS Attendance

[jlcharles]

The whole Villanova's attendance sucks thing is getting old. We know it does. There's nothing I or any of the other football fans can do about it.

Yet, you beat a team (MT) in the NC game, pretty handily. I wonder about this whole attendance argument vs. quality of a team. It may be that with the Villanova NC, that attendance will improve. I think it did when MT won the NC in 1995 & went to the NC (lost) in 1996. Turned the whole program around, including attendance. I think the attendance thing is overhyped, despite players (even pros) wanting cheers from their fans. I'm amazed at the number of FCS schools that continue to field teams, despite "low" attendance and never reaching the playoffs. Football, more than any other sport (except maybe basketball), seems to define the college experience in America. It's about school pride. If your team loses, there's the next game & then there's next year. As Alexander Pope said, "Hope springs eternal in the human breast/Man is never, but always to be, blest."

I doubt it'll make any difference for our attendance numbers. Nice weather for homecoming and parents' weekend will prop up our numbers. If one or both of those weekends have bad weather, our numbers will be shittier than usual.

[Ursus A. Horribilis]

The whole Villanova's attendance sucks thing is getting old. We know it does. There's nothing I or any of the other football fans can do about it.

Yet, you beat a team (MT) in the NC game, pretty handily. I wonder about this whole attendance argument vs. quality of a team. It may be that with the Villanova NC, that attendance will improve. I think it did when MT won the NC in 1995 & went to the NC (lost) in 1996. Turned the whole program around, including attendance. I think the attendance thing is overhyped, despite players (even pros) wanting cheers from their fans. I'm amazed at the number of FCS schools that continue to field teams, despite "low" attendance and never reaching the playoffs. Football, more than any other sport (except maybe basketball), seems to define the college experience in America. It's about school pride. If your team loses, there's the next game & then there's next year. As Alexander Pope said, "Hope springs eternal in the human breast/Man is never, but always to be, blest."

I didn't know we got beat pretty handily, it looked like a hell of a game to me. On the attendance thing just a correction for ya. Montana had games in the late 80's where the crowd was about 8,000 people. Many games were at the 12,500 (capacity at the time) level. In 1989 is where it kind of started to snowball as far as fan support. The biggest expansion (North Endzone) was completed before we had won a NC. It did keep the ball rolling from there on though.

[Redwyn]

So much can be said about this statement. Close? By whose account? Rocco never even interviewed for ANY job. I'm not so sure I'd call that close.

No we're not going to collapse. Our football program is bigger than any one person. Sure, I'd hate to see Rocco leave, but he's going to leave us 10x better off than when he got here. With the facilities, administrative support, financial support the program is on the rise and here to stay for the long term.

Most of the services and an entire thread on this site said he interviewed for a vacant coaching position and was considered a finalist. Others noted he was "gunning hard" for it. Was this fabrication? It wouldn't be the first time, I'm just intrigued at the massive disparity here.

And yes, Rocco indeed will leave you better off than when he started. Liberty is a strong program and seems to be on a trajectory only a small circle in FCS football can claim to be on. However, as we see in repeated instances (ie. USC football and Memphis basketball to name the most prominent this year), a coach is a large component of a program's prosperity. If you're telling me that attendance and investments have been spurred by his presence and acts only he could have done (which seems to be the case given Liberty's record pre-Rocco), then you should be expecting a small step backwards when he does choose to leave.

[GrizMadman2]

The whole Villanova's attendance sucks thing is getting old. We know it does. There's nothing I or any of the other football fans can do about it.

Yet, you beat a team (MT) in the NC game, pretty handily.

I didn't know we got beat pretty handily, it looked like a hell of a game to me.

You're right. It was a 2-point game.

[Ursus A. Horribilis]

The whole Villanova's attendance sucks thing is getting old. We know it does. There's nothing I or any of the other football fans can do about it.

Yet, you beat a team (MT) in the NC game, pretty handily.

I didn't know we got beat pretty handily, it looked like a hell of a game to me.

You're right. It was a 2-point game.

Troof Griz brother.

btw, glad you're here. We got a lot of that east coast ass to kick around over here so welcome to the party.

[jcmanson]

Most of the services and an entire thread on this site said he interviewed for a vacant coaching position and was considered a finalist. Others noted he was "gunning hard" for it. Was this fabrication? It wouldn't be the first time, I'm just intrigued at the massive disparity here.

And yes, Rocco indeed will leave you better off than when he started. Liberty is a strong program and seems to be on a trajectory only a small circle in FCS football can claim to be on. However, as we see in repeated instances (ie. USC football and Memphis basketball to name the most prominent this year), a coach is a large component of a program's prosperity. If you're telling me that attendance and investments have been spurred by his presence and acts only he could have done (which seems to be the case given Liberty's record pre-Rocco), then you should be expecting a small step backwards when he does choose to leave.

http://www.mynewsadvance.com/index.php/ ... extension/

* East Carolina athletics director Terry Holland did contact Rocco on Monday to gauge his interest in the job. At that point, Middle Tennessee coach Rick Stockstill was still considered the favorite for the post. But Tuesday, Stockstill pulled out of the running, deciding to remain in Murfreesboro. At that point, Rocco became one of Holland’s major targets.

* Rocco said that reports that he was “pursuing ECU hard” were “comical,“ noting he never asked any of his coaching colleagues—most notably former Virginia coach Al Groh, who hired Rocco in Charlottesville—to stump for him.

* Rocco said he has been contacted by several FBS schools this offseason but he hasn’t interviewed with any of them, including East Carolina. He did say, though, that he was “a serious and legitimate candidate” at ECU.

Two quick quotes from Rocco:

“What happens in this competitive business is if you in fact want that job, you have to go after it. Really, in theory, I didn’t go after any jobs this year. Therefore, despite my name being out there and the chatter of my name and people expressing interest in me, despite the communication I’ve received from athletics directors and search firms, I never interviewed for one of these jobs this year.“

As for what will happen when/if he leaves, we'll just have to wait and see.