Is it possible that after only one week of football apathy has set in? All the excitement, all the hype about the team, all the hype about a brand new stadium, all the fanfare leading into the season. Go out in game one and lay that big fat stinky steaming turd. Couldn’t sell out the stadium. Add to that the injury to Walker. Don’t get me wrong I am glad it is football season. It’s my favorite time of the year. But for the first time in a long time I just don’t really care if we win or lose.
I’ve definitely felt that some seasons but not quite this year. I’m nervous about this weekend though. Losing this game does irreparable damage to the program.
A loss Saturday will effectively end the Mike Desormeaux tenure.
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Last week was such a huge letdown that there’s a hint of justified pessimism that has creeped in especially with our Cajuns Disaster Syndrome.
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Enthusiasm from your core fans is probably down.. I mean ANY possibility of a program-elevating game to end the season just went down the toilet.
Enthusiasm from casuals is likely unchanged. Most people think we’re on the same level as Rice so this was just another game..
This right here. Most casual fans look at Rice as a peer, if not better, program than Louisiana.
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I feel it’s more because this seems to always happen. It’s not an isolated moment. Anytime it feels like momentum is in our favor, an egg gets laid. that’s why only 22k showed up on Saturday. People are used to getting excited about hype, only to be brought back down.
How much money would we have available to hire a new head football coach?
We could lose this weekend, and he’s still here another 3-4 seasons, I think.
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No way. If we drop this weekend, and have a losing season, his time at UL is done.
That may be true, but the budget for a new hire likely wouldn’t be any higher
While this is probably correct, sometimes things are over before they are officially over. Des will have lost what’s left of this fanbase permanently. Same with Bustle when he lost to McNeese in 07 and same with Hud when Tech walked in here and embarrassed us in 14.
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Is it possible that after only one week of football apathy has set in? All the excitement, all the hype about the team, all the hype about a brand new stadium, all the fanfare leading into the season. Go out in game one and lay that big fat stinky steaming turd. Couldn’t sell out the stadium. Add to that the injury to Walker. Don’t get me wrong I am glad it is football season. It’s my favorite time of the year. But for the first time in a long time I just don’t really care if we win or lose.
You see why I am about done.
I live in Houston. Trust me, my neighbors were all WTF when I got back home. They don’t view Rice in a positive light athletically, and couldn’t believe we actually lost a football game to them.
This is weird argument: Hud still finished that year with 9-4 record, Bowl win and runner up in the conference. The knife in Hud’s coffin was the locker room video as well as having 3 losing season after the 14 season
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But do your neighbors live in Lafayette/Youngsville? Those casual fans don’t know the difference between Rice and Fresno State.
T,
Definitely not trying to discredit anything accomplished after that point in the 2014 season by you and your teammates. The importance of that loss cannot be understated, however, particularly in the way that it happened and the circumstances surrounding the game with Hud inviting all of Tech’s recruits. The beginning of the end was probably a better way for me to phrase that thought. The name of the game for every team not named LSU in Louisiana is separating from the pack. That was a big part of the magic from the early Hud years is people had actually bought in that we had done that. 3 wins over Monroe, 2 over Tulane, Tech was way down. That loss was a return back to earth, and IMO, the moment the bubble burst for Lafayette’s infatuation with Hudspeth.
I understand what you mean but those Tech teams went on to win 9 games 3 years in a row. I know you have to have a broad look at the whole season and let them play out but those were good Tech teams in the early Skip Holtz era. Its tough being the best team in Louisiana outside of BR but to say that loss was the beginning of the end is quite near sighted when you look at the start of the season we were 1-3 and end 9-4
There was legitimate excitement coming into the season (and it can still come back.) Even in spite of the finish last year. They won 10 games and were in the conversation for the CFP in November. It was a looooong shot, but the graphics on ESPN were real.
22k for the first game is a result of several factors. Cost of attending a game, tailgating, gaffs from previous gameday experiences, and as much as it sucks, what’s going on across the basin. We know this. If anything, 22k was a bit of a boost due to the renovations.
Even with that, attendance has been static if not slowly better and better following the downturn in the last 3 Hud years. We still hold the record by far for a Sunbelt conference championship game @ 31k. Tickets that were sold from 0.
We’ll have better attendance this week due to the opponent and those who travel from Lake Charles. Don’t lose that or then the apathy might very well set in for those who actually make Cajuns football a priority.
Altogether, Cajuns football is on most weekends an 18-20k attraction. Sometimes better, sometimes worse. Losing to Rice didn’t change that.
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It goes beyond just that one team’s record. It was unheard of to hear a bad word uttered next to Mark Hudspeth’s name in Lafayette prior to that game. Getting torched by the school many of our fans hate most and having it become a spectacle because of HUD’s arrogance changed that. I think most would say Akron 2015 and him blaming that debacle on the APC was the start, but I think it traces back further.
Im gonna disagree there..
The real apathy set in when UL finally checked a couple of decades-old boxes (bowl game, P5 win, top 25 ranking), and the result was the same stale Beth Mowins Bowl every year
People thought there was a hump to get over or a corner to turn, but in reality the system is set up for the ULs of the world to be farm teams for the Haves. An appearance in a playoff game where we lose 56-3 against Georgia will only hammer that point home, not elevate the program
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