Some of our own fans do the same thing here. Every damn week of the season. What am I supposed to take from this thread? That fickle idiots live everywhere?
That is undoubtedly true.
Two differences in the fanbases, I see.
Not sure the majority of our fanbase goes into many games against a ranked foe thinking it’s almost an impossibility that we could lose. You get a wide range of opinions around here. We’ll win, we’ll lose. We’re great, we suck.
I think with success being so new for them, it is easy to get carried away by it somewhat. Like the rest of the country, they also are force fed that the SEC is by far the most dominant conference from ESecPN.
So they are/were a wee bit overconfident. When HF turned Iowa around in 1981(8-4 record), I thought that was going to be the new floor for Iowa. I was a kid then, but we had improved every year under HF to that date, and I figured we would just maintain or improve on that going forward.
I think that is where they are as a fan base now for the most part. A 10-2 season has excited the fan base for good reason. But, maybe they don’t have the experience of handling that success that we have had for most of my lifetime. That 10-2 will not become their new floor. There will be up years and down years. And most importantly, anybody can beat you on any given day.
Secondly, I find it interesting that with their success this year, it hasn’t seemed to translate into fans coming out of the woodwork for them. At least as far as message board participation seems to be.
Of the two Vandy message boards I was able to find, the longest game thread was 150 posts. In comparison our game thread was about 2000 posts the last time I checked.
Does it really matter? No
Does it mean that they are an inferior fan base? No
I just thought they would be taking in new fans and it showing on their boards at a larger rate. But, this is really their breakout year, so maybe it doesn’t happen that quick.
Not necessarily a huge point to be made. Just wanted to provide a quick summary of how the opponent was reacting/thinking during the game.