UMass letdown...

[fedxdog]

I was part of the great crowd that attended the UMass game Saturday...No cheerleaders and no pep band was the glaring deficit that made me feel 3rd rate. Made us look cheap and not a top tier athletic department.
13,000+ in attendance and it looked like about 6,000 were Bulldog fans.

 

[Mafiadawg]

Our parting gift from scott

 

[RocketDawg]

I was part of the great crowd that attended the UMass game Saturday...No cheerleaders and no pep band was the glaring deficit that made me feel 3rd rate. Made us look cheap and not a top tier athletic department.
13,000+ in attendance and it looked like about 6,000 were Bulldog fans.

Thought I saw our cheerleaders there. But the colors are similar enough the ones I saw obviously were theirs.

 

[missouridawg]

Thought I saw our cheerleaders there. But the colors are similar enough the ones I saw obviously were theirs.

Definitely not ours. UMASS did have a huge cheerleader, dance squad, etc... Contingent.

 

[patdog]

Very strange game live. Stadium almost empty. Zero traffic before or after. Little excitement from either teams fans. Long, boring delays for replay review & commercials. It became an ordeal we all just wanted to end. We sat next to a nice couple from Maine whose son is a FR at MSU.

 

[Philly Dawg]

UMass defense was really bad, but they had some talent on the offensive side of the ball. Their QB and WR's made some very nice high skill level plays. It will be interesting to follow them over the course of the season.

 

[cowbell88]

Very strange game live. Stadium almost empty. Zero traffic before or after. Little excitement from either teams fans. Long, boring delays for replay review & commercials. It became an ordeal we all just wanted to end. We sat next to a nice couple from Maine whose son is a FR at MSU.

So, do they still catch crap for "the Maine" cluster 17 from their neighbors?

 

[Shamoan]

i played hs football in front of a couple of thousand most weekends, then one game we traveled to silliman, la in front of a couple hundred (might be generous). THAT game was very difficult to get in to from a playing standpoint. it felt like a scrimmage and left much of the team feeling bleh. just didnt feel important. those kinds of games are sneaky, so glad we could leave with a W, but from a fan standpoint, that was hard to watch.

 

[Wizard.sixpack]

Joel T Coleman said something about this and the band's Twitter responded with that it was too expensive a trip for them.

 

[patdog]

With an extra road game & 2 long non-conference road trips, I guess it came down to go to Provo or go to UMass.

 

[Cow College]

Don't schedule these games if we don't want to do that. It was an awful game to be at. Saw Scott over the weekend a couple times and would have bet he was gone.

 

[HD6]

One day MSU fans will realize they had to schedule this game on short notice after Tulane backed out of a contract and cost us a home game. But it is not this day.

 

[DesotoCountyDawg]

I thought that was common knowledge that it was a last minute replacement game but it appears no one knew that.

 

[mcdawg22]

It was also a Bowl Game, and the only one we will go to this year. Plus the weather was better than Birmingham in December.

 

[patdog]

Everyone knows why we scheduled this game. Some just ignore it to troll. Stricklin did about as well as he could have under the circumstances. The fact is, it was a good trip for a lot of our fans. We had a good representation of fans at the game. The stadium is very nice, and there are plenty of fun things to do in the area after the game. We went to Nantucket. Another poster spent time in Boston and Cape Cod. And some new fans from Maine we met got to see the Bulldogs play live for the first time. And I wound up sharing a plane with our women's golf team on the last leg home tonight and got to meet them and wish them luck this season. Good trip.

 

[Uncle Ruckus]

SA? Played there once and they seemed to have a good crowd. They had a good program back then so maybe things were different. Now, if you want to talk about bad crowds, play a game a Chamberlain Hunt...

 

[aTotal360]

 

[Cow College]

I know why we scheduled the game but it does not always have to be us that travels first. They could have come to Starkville and we could have gone up one year where we could still have 7 home games

 

[HD6]

You don't seem to understand that UMass was the one that had the power in this negotiation. We had to get a 12th game period. We got a two for one out of it.

I have gotten onto Stricklin in the past for always scheduling MSU on the road first, but this is not one of those times. He was in a corner and did what he had to do.

 

[Shamoan]

i played back in 99-01 fwiw.

 

[The Peeper]

Which brings up the question, why the hell did Scott turn right around and schedule Tulane, AGAIN, after they screwed us over? I hope the terms in this new contract make up for lost revenue. No comparison in what I'm sure we got to go on the road to play in a stadium w/ 10,000 fans vs playing a home game

 

[Shamoan]

we got the game as a filler for sure. next time, we need to make an ironclad contract with teams like tulane to hammer them if they try to back out. was the deal with tulane a byrne contract?

also, what is the strategy with conceding the first game at their stadium? make them come here first, then if they want to back out of a home game, that is their problem, but the sec clout should allow us some leverage.

 

[dawgstudent]

The original Tulane contract is from 1998.

 

[Hypnodawg]

Knowing how few people would show to that game, we really should have ponied up to send the band. The atmosphere in that place was dead.

 

[The Peeper]

The new one just announced in August is for 2020 here & 2023 there. That's the one I'm talking about. With that agreement we're only getting what they originally had agreed to do in the first place and another road game. Should have been 2 here instead of 1@ ea place to make up for pulling out on short notice and us having to go on the road instead of home game this year. Thanks Scott....

 

[Uncle Ruckus]

I was a few years later. We had overflow crowds on most nights, not something you really see in academy ball. My 9th grade year in junior high we had more people at our games than at most academy high school games I bet.

 

[Confucius Say]

The new one just announced in August is for 2020 here & 2023 there. That's the one I'm talking about. With that agreement we're only getting what they originally had agreed to do in the first place and another road game. Should have been 2 here instead of 1@ ea place to make up for pulling out on short notice and us having to go on the road instead of home game this year. Thanks Scott....

Sometimes you have to pull out on short notice. Or so I'm told.

 

[patdog]

You say you understand, but then you show that you really still don't understand. UMass could have scheduled a I-AA school at home last weekend. If they'd come on the road to Starkville, they would have only had 5 home games, 1 of which was really a neutral game vs Boston College. They simply weren't going to add a road game, period.

 

[patdog]

Wrong. We got paid the contracted price when Tulane bought out of the game this year. Whether it was a good contract or a bad one (it was the second option), that contract is OVER and Tulane doesn't owe us anything for it.

 

[patdog]

Because it's a business, and he made a good business decision. The AD that screwed us over on the last contract is gone anyway. Their current AD never did anything to cause us a problem.

 

[BiscuitEater]

One day MSU fans will realize they had to schedule this game on short notice after Tulane backed out of a contract and cost us a home game. But it is not this day.

Okay .. 15 months ago is NOT 'short notice.' First articles were published in June of 2015 announcing the game in Gillette. http://www.sportingnews.com/ncaa-fo...ee-game-series-2016/tx7tzt98pt8g1325cfiise7h3

So, Bully can't even get to the game that's announced 15 months ago? Sorry .. no excuse for lack of support.

I worked the logistics to get my family there over a year ago. Tickets were $25.

 

[HD6]

We aren't talking about the same thing.

 

[KingBarkus]

I protested in front of the Tulane AD's office this weekend...lone-cowbell-ringer-style.

 

[fedxdog]

Joel T
Coleman said something about this and the band's Twitter responded with that it was too expensive a trip for them.

EVERYONE is missing the point. If MSU wants to be relivant in the SEC and respected as a school and athletic program, then you cannot bring 6,000 fans into a major market without at least 4 cheerleaders and a sound system and about a 10 person pep band.
The crowd was dead because they were without a way to focus their energy.
The players love for the crowd to get into the game. It is immaterial when this game was scheduled. You don't go into an NFL stadium without something to drum up spirit! Ask Dan about flat crowds.

 

[BiscuitEater]

We aren't talking about the same thing.

Then, you are going to have to 'explain it to me'!

You said ..

One day MSU fans will realize they had to schedule this game on short notice after Tulane backed out of a contract and cost us a home game. But it is not this day.

So, why isn't 15 months enough time to get Bully and a couple of Cheerleaders to the game in Boston? I got tickets, planned the trip, and got family from 3 states to the game and had it planned over a year ago.

 

[HD6]

I am not talking about the band or cheerleaders, I am talking about the person who says we shouldn't schedule games like this. My point was we were in a corner and little choice.

 

[patdog]

Seriously? We're bitching about the cheerleaders and the band? WTF? I didn't even notice we didn't have any cheerleaders there, and I didn't care that we didn't have the band there. The crowd was dead because there were 12,000 people in a stadium that seats close to 70,000 and the game dragged out for 4 hours.

 

[Bulldogg31]

Which brings up the question, why the hell did Scott turn right around and schedule Tulane, AGAIN, after they screwed us over? I hope the terms in this new contract make up for lost revenue. No comparison in what I'm sure we got to go on the road to play in a stadium w/ 10,000 fans vs playing a home game

Are you serious? Not one single person who made that original deal is still around at either school. Do you really not understand how the business works? Tulane wrote us a small check to get out of our game, so that they could get a BIG check to go play somewhere else. It's not a personal attack, it's a business decision. Same as Stricklin taking the FLA job. It's business.