For a school that prides itself with its marketing program......................

[Chop]

This University does a ____ poor job of marketing its athletic program.

I think the only person that gets it is HUD.

Everyone always seems to start a thread anytime XYZ newspaper or so and so broadcaster uses the name UL-Lafayette.

But its own people do the same thing.

I can walk on the campus of UL and I see Lafayette all over the place.
There is no law that says the University is required to do that, but yet they do that to themselves and complain about others when they do the same thing.

I go to the RCAF function the other night and you have one of your own head coaches get on the stage and refer to your own team as UL Lafayette.

This is a head coach of the university that is doing this.

So you walk on the University and see Lafayette everywhere which they are not required to do.
You go to an RCAF function and your own head coach calls it UL Lafayette.
You go to the University bookstore and see it in there.

And then you wonder why the rest of the country does the same thing.

UL is its own worst enemy.

Its time for this school to take a stand and do its own marketing and change things from the inside out and not the outside in.


Let me tell you a little story about when I signed up for the RCAF last October.

I called up the number to sign up for the RCAF last October.

I asked the girl who answered the phone what donation level would I need to get a parking pass for the 2012 football season.

She told me that the membership runs from Jan to December of the calendar year so if I give money now(October) it would not be valid for the next football season.

I have no problem with her being upfront to me at that moment.
But the real problem I had is what happened next.

So I tell the girl thats no big deal I will go ahead and give $250 for this year(2011) and then give another $250 at least for next year which will get me the parking pass.

She then did something that blew my mind.

She tried to talk me out of giving the $250 for 2011 because it would not go towards getting the parking pass for 2012.

She basically told me (I kid you not) that if I sent $250 now(October 2011) that I would be WASTING my $250 for nothing! Because I would then have to start all over again 2 months later.

She went on and on about since RCAF membership is a January to December deal that I would be wasting my money by giving money in October because it would only be good for 2 months.

My jaw was almost on the floor at this point.

I had to insist 4 or 5 times that that did not matter to me, that I was cool with that, that that was ok.
I will go ahead and pay the $250 now and another at least $250 in January.

She thought that was the craziest thing she ever heard.
She said (are you sure you want to do this) 3 or 4 times before she finally relented and let me give my debit card info.

The very true story I just told is a very sad story.
This story tells me that the main problem is internal.

The story I just told has absolutely 0 to do with athletic budget. NONE. It does not matter if UL has a 10mil budget or a 200mil budget. This problem has nothing to with budget, or outside forces.
This is an internal problem.

Everyone seems to be so excited about the football program right now, and rightfully so.
But im afraid the way things are being run over here with absence of any vision or marketing whatsoever coach HUD has turned into some sort of band-aid.

He is such a remarkable person, and so good at what he does that he is able to overcome his own University and succeed despite his employer.

The problem is HUD is not going to be here forever.
And once he leaves all these problems that persist in almost every other sport besides football and softball will rear its ugly head once again.

I see very little if any improvement from the RA regime.
I see beter results in the football program because of a remarkable head coach that is literally 1 in 1000 that is covering up for the rest of the programs problems.

Lets not mistake results for progress.

The paradigm was not shifted much if any since RA left.
Have there been marginal improvements since he left? SURE
But not nearly on the scale that many think.

If someone like HUD would have been hired 10 years ago we would have got the same results until he left.
A special coach can cover a lot of problems.

The only thing this University has accomplished in the last 3 or 4 years was winning the coaching lottery.

The baseball stadium situation was a complete joke, and I am mentally preparing myself for the same problem with the football stadium issue.

Who am I to believe that if we could not get our act together for 7 mill project that all of a sudden things will go better with a 40 mil project.

I can just hear Scott Farmer now saying "Well if someone wants to write a check for 40 million dollars we will remodel Cajun Field tomorrow."

They make no attempt to try to get into a better conference. They just wait around for someone to beg them to move up to another conference.

They sit around saying we are not ready yet for another conference.
So we are not ready but FIU is?
Tell me why FIU is ready.
Tell me why LaTech is ready and your not.

Are there obstructions in getting to a new conference?
Sure.
But at least let it be known to the football world that you want to move up.
Make them tell you NO.Make them say your name. Make them pick up the phone and say sorry you are not invited.
Dont assume they are going to say no. Dont tell the world your not ready. Dont let the world tell you what you can and cant do.

The marketing is a joke.
I have not seen any advertisement for season tickets other then a few signs on campus.




We still have problems folks.
And a lot of these (most) are internal.

Most of the things that are correctable are cheap and requires little money. Just a tad of vision and organization.
I think coach HUD has made the rest of the administration lazy.
Just let HUD do his things and let the wins pile up.
We will just sit around here acting like he is never going to leave and bask in his glory.

UL has done a ____ poor job with the name issue.

How can you expect ESPN to call us LOUISIANA when they walk on the campus and see Lafayette every time they turn there head.

How can you expect ESPN to call us LOUISIANA when your own head coach of one of you own teams speaks at an RCAF function and calls his own team UL Lafayette?

What do you expect them to call you.
To have them call you something besides UL Lafayette would require them to call you something that you yourself dont call yourself.

I have lots of other things I could say and might insert them into post, but this thread is already running way too long.

Im out for now.

Enjoy the HUD while he is here because once he leaves all these internal problems that have not been fixed will rear its ugly head once again.

Enjoy every victory, every last game. This is lightning in a bottle like I have never seen.

Because we will return to the old era once again if these problems are not corrected.

[CajunFan3406]

The problem is with social media as well. The UL university facebook page is "University of Louisiana at Lafayette." I understand the university's full name is The University of Louisiana at Lafayette, but when you have a page that is "liked" by almost 44,000 people and you constantly refer to yourself as UL Lafayette of course people (many of whom are alumni) are going to say ULL and UL Lafayette.

Just take a look at the page and see how the university refers to itself, and how incidentally many alumni who comment on the posts refer to the school. I think Chop has a good point. Look at the facebook page and be the judge. BTW, this is a method that many nowadays keeps up with their university.

http://www.facebook.com/officialullafayette

[Chop]

The problem is with social media as well. The UL university facebook page is "University of Louisiana at Lafayette." I understand the university's full name is The University of Louisiana at Lafayette, but when you have a page that is "liked" by almost 44,000 people and you constantly refer to yourself as UL Lafayette of course people (many of whom are alumni) are going to say ULL and UL Lafayette.

Just take a look at the page and see how the university refers to itself, and how incidentally many alumni who comment on the posts refer to the school. I think Chop has a good point. Look at the facebook page and be the judge. BTW, this is a method that many nowadays keeps up with their university.

http://www.facebook.com/officialullafayette

But the funny thing is people get upset when other people call you the same thing you call yourself.
Its comical.
Then you have your own head coach calling it UL Lafayette. Then somehow you are supposed to be ____ed if KirK Herbstreet doesnt call you UL?
Comedy at its finest.
That is just one problem.
There are dozens of other problems besides that name issue.
That is just an example of the total lack of vision this University has right now.
The only reason people think things are different now then they were under RA is because we have a special head coach that hides these problems.

And unless he signs a lifetime contract and becomes the next Joe Paterno(on the field) these problems will soon come right back.

[nathancpike]

I'm almost certain the University of Louisiana system requires its universities to refer to themselves by their full names. Isn't it in athletics where there is a grey legal area? Can someone with a better understanding chime in on this?

[Turbine]

I'm almost certain the University of Louisiana system requires its universities to refer to themselves by their full names. Isn't it in athletics where there is a grey legal area? Can someone with a better understanding chime in on this?

Not every utterance for sure, and if that were somehow true you could never identify Ragin' Cajuns by itself.

For lack of a better term know this, "Common Law" references are 100% OK.

Full name references are for letter heads.

[Chop]

Not every utterance for sure, and if that were somehow true you could never identify Ragin' Cajuns by itself.

For lack of a better term know this, "Common Law" references are 100% OK.

Full name references are for letter heads.

Exactly.
LSU's official name I believe is the University of Louisiana at Baton Rouge A&M or something to that effect.

This does not mean they have to put that on every shirt.
This does not mean you will hear the womens basketball coach call it that at a TAF event.

I was hoping this would not be a name change thread.
It was just part of what I was talking about.

Its just one example of many that this school has.

[nathancpike]

Exactly.
LSU's official name I believe is the University of Louisiana at Baton Rouge A&M or something to that effect.

This does not mean they have to put that on every shirt.
This does not mean you will hear the womens basketball coach call it that at a TAF event.

I was hoping this would not be a name change thread.
It was just part of what I was talking about.

Its just one example of many that this school has.

I'm with you on this one, Chop. When I heard Coach Brodhead refer to the program as UL Lafayette, I knew he was probably going to hear about it from Coach Hud.

[CajunFan3406]

I'm almost certain the University of Louisiana system requires its universities to refer to themselves by their full names. Isn't it in athletics where there is a grey legal area? Can someone with a better understanding chime in on this?

If that was the case then on some occasions the UL facebook page would be in violation of this. While most of the time, the person who posts from that page refers to the university as UL Lafayette there are some instances where they say UL. See the Facebook posts about the Horse Farm transferal on July 28th and UL students creating an iPad app on July 27th.

[Chop]

I'm with you on this one, Chop. When I heard Coach Brodhead refer to the program as UL Lafayette, I knew he was probably going to hear about it from Coach Hud.

You never heard HUD say that from day 1.
Which is why I feel like he is the only one that gets it.

[Boomer]

I'm almost certain the University of Louisiana system requires its universities to refer to themselves by their full names. Isn't it in athletics where there is a grey legal area? Can someone with a better understanding chime in on this?

----Hey NP--can you have the news on KPEL refer to us as just Louisiana or UL????? Thanks for your efforts!!!!! Tell them that it ____es HUD off when he hears it!!!! Maybe that will work!!!

[leeman]

It might take Coach Broadhead a little longer to get used to saying UL. I'm sure it was second nature saying ULL after coaching at Mcneese for so long.

[BirdofParadise]

Chop, I'm not going to go over your post point by point.

I'll just say some of what you say has merit.

Some of it, in my opinion, does not.

The sky is not falling. ANd, no, it's not just because of HUD.