I’m Just Sayin’

Are YOU ready for some football?

I’m back after a long hiatus, and I am ready for some football! What an interesting year this will be! So many questions, so much to look forward to. A new coach, an expanded and revamped MM Roberts Stadium, returning All-Conference Offensive and Defensive players, the best recruiting class ever! Where will all this lead the The Golden Eagles? Where will they land in December….. A 15th winning season? A Bowl? The C-USA Championship Game? The Liberty Bowl? Will any All-Americans emerge from this team? Will the team learn all these fancy new hand signals in time? Will we sell out The Rock this year? Time will tell!

I must say though, many of the things I have been reading the last few weeks have made me want to vomit, thus causing an end to my summer hiatus. I’ll start by addressing the weak season ticket sales (10,500 thru Friday). A new record should be set by Aug. 30. Which is a good thing. It’s enough to draw praise from many, however some believe we are doing terrible in this department, which brings out the same old, worn out excuses popping up again and again…. I must respond to some of these excuses, it’s becoming a yearly ritual it seems. I’ll try to move past all these negative excuses and stay positive from here forward…

DEMOGRAPHICS!
There are plenty of EAGLES to fill up The Rock in a 100 mile radius of Hattiesburg, hell there are plenty in a 25 mile radius! Wish there were more, but the demographics ain’t changing, we can sit around and point to this and that and cry about it, and use it as an excuse… or we can get off our asses and come up with a solution to this problem. Is there a solution? Somewhere out there as hard as it is for some to believe… yes!

THEY ARE DOING EVERYTHING THEY CAN!
I’ve seen it mentioned that Vogel and Fedora are doing great jobs. Yes they are doing outstanding jobs this year. What exactly are their jobs though? Is it selling tickets? Dick Vogel, Director of the Eagle Club, his main function is to secure EAGLE CLUB memberships and monies. While Larry Fedora’s job as Head Football coach, is to put an outstanding product on the field week in, week out. NEITHER of their jobs are to directly sell tickets. Granted it benefits them both to help out with ticket sales and it is partly their responsibility, but it is NOT their primary job function. The Eagle Club’s job is to be able to cover the costs of scholarships. They do not do that by selling tickets. Fedora can help the most by winning games and hyping up the fan base with his energy. But still it’s not his direct reason for being here. As many have said, it will take so much more than that.

WHAT MORE DO YOU EXPECT?
So what more should we expect some are asking? I expect either someone in the current administration to take the lead in ticket sales AND fund raising or hire someone that knows what is going on. Right now we need some outside help with ticket sales and fund raising. Some new blood, new ideas. Someone that has the experience and know-how to get it done! Not someone to wear multiple hats and beat the same folks over the head for more and more money.

OUR HOME SCHEDULE SUCKS!
Yes the schedule sucks, I have however seen it much, much worse. Every game is on Saturday, when is the last time we could say that? There is an effort to get some better teams in here starting next year. But face it folks, it’s always going to be weak home schedule. It’s never going to have a big SEC school coming to the Rock, never! Much like the demographics, it ain’t going to change. It is what it is. We have to find away around it. Many of us laugh at Miss State and Ole Miss and their inflated attendance figures b/c we all know they draw 10K+ a game from other schools. Now some are saying that is what we need to get our attendance up! Is that really what we want? Do we want to fill up the rock with Lions and Tigers and Bears? OH MY! Shouldn’t we want to fill it up with GOLDEN EAGLES?

“You come to see the Golden Eagles play, not the opposing team,” Fedora said. “It doesn’t matter whether we’re playing the Little Sisters of the Poor, you come out to see our guys perform.”

SOLUTIONS?
First, hire a new energetic, offensive minded coach that will put an entertaining and exciting product on Carlilse-Faulkner Field. That seems to have been accomplished, we will soon know for certain. We need to light up that scoreboard. And I mean LIGHT-IT-UP. 50, 60, 70 points a game! Imagine this… October 11, 2008 - ESPN top plays #4, Hattiesburg, MS. Austin Davis completes the short pass over the middle to Shawn Nelson, he breaks 4 tackles and takes it 88 yards for his 4th Touchdown of the afternoon. He then strolls over to the first row to grab a bite of a fan’s popcorn after the play. He finished the day with 223 yards receiving on 8 catches, and took the 2nd half off!

WHAT ABOUT DEFENSE?
Bring back the NASTY BUNCH. Yes I know, its gone, there is no one to pass the tradition on. Well go find someone from that era and bring them back, let them pass the “nasty”on to Gerald McGrath. Let him lead the revolution of the Nasty Bunch. There have been very few big hits the last few years. Coach Fedora must follow thru on his “promise” when he said: “We’re going to be tough and we’re going to hit you. We’re going to hit you in the mouth where you don’t like to be hit.”

WHAT CAN WE DO?
To quote Coach Fedora again:

“Each of you has a role in this program. We need you to pack the Rock. The Rock can be our fortress. It’ll be our edge. From Friday night at the Fountain, through the Eagle Walk in the District. We need you here early, we need you to be here late, and we need you to be obnoxious and loud.”

All these things can help build one of the greatest atmosphere’s in college football. So Don’t NOT get excited b/c we are playing ULL. Get excited b/c we are going to kick their asses back to Lafayette in grand fashion. Be excited that you are going to see Deandre Brown and Damien Fletcher score TD after TD after TD all night long. Be excited that the new Nasty Bunch pitched a shut out for the first game under Larry Fedora. Be excited when we welcome home the 3-0 Eagles to The Rock on Sept. 20 after a 2-game road trip. And most importantly “let it be known” to everyone, that there is always something to be excited about at The Rock!

Now is not the time for patience, not the time to dream of better days, or how far we have come. It’s not time to wait and see what Fedora can do. Now is the time to seize the opportunities, and take full advantages of the things that are in our control. Its a small window when a team has the energy flowing to create something special. I believe that RIGHT NOW that window of opportunity is wide open, and waiting for USM!

Jason Munz said it well in his column today when talking about the Packer faithful he says:

My bet is that won’t change. Even though the “Golden” boy has left town for the glitz and glamor that comes with playing in New York, the majority of the Green Bay faithful will continue to turn out for Packer games. Packer games that are sometimes played in sub-zero temperatures. Packer games that at times the home team has no hope of winning. Packer games that now will no longer feature old No. 4 under center.

I can think of a team or two that would benefit from having its fan base take a page of the Packer faithful’s book.

I’m Just sayin’!

See you at The Rock!