How to Survive...

[zephyr]

Read it, hated it. From someone who is highly educated, I would have expected a lot less generalization and a lot more objectivity, especially when using words such as "loser" and "not so-good people". I actually agree with the very broad assumption that when you start winning, you all of a sudden tend to gain all these fans that you never knew existed. They start telling you how "die hard" they are for a program they may or may not have any affiliation with which tends to be the case with a lot of LSU fans over the years. I also believe there tends to be a core group of fans for every team that support their program and school no matter how frustrated they are with outcomes of game or the current state of the administration. There are those on the fringes that support when things go well and back off in adversity, thus showing their character. However, I can not and will not call those people who don't thrust their support, financial or emotional, at a team that doesn't win as "losers" because true die-hard fans are a certain breed. Bandwagon fans can be good fans as their emotional connection to a university increases as they become more entrenched with the added successes.

I would also refrain from calling those people "not so-good people" as well. In many cases, the overall character of an individual has nothing to do with their fleeting support in bad times for a school or athletic program. These people may have no allegiance to that school or team but they may have strict morals and codes of conduct they conduct their daily lives or businesses by. There are a lot of businesses in this area that will support the cajuns when the accomplish a level of success and these businesses are run by really good people in most cases. Bandwagon fans frustrate me as they do many people but they are also crucial in helping us get to where we want to be in the future and I suggest you take that approach as well. If not, I at least hope you show more acceptance to the fact that some may not be as loyal as others.

[Just1More]

Although I respect Joe, I'm not in agreement with the article. First, there is not a large mass of unlikeable people willing in almost any circumstance to swarm around the mightiest UL athletic system. The inclusion of the next few concentric circles of currently disconnected fans within our midst is not of the unsavory variety that are akin to huge state schools. Whether we like or dislike it, that is not going to happen. We still have a very great alumni and fanbase arrangement of excellent people that will more than fund and fill our facilities way beyond our expectations. The first, next concentric circle of fans is a pretty sweet group in fact. They only require a publically authentic continuously demonstrated administrative commitment to success. The next circle is not so bad in our following either. They are a group that will forego other means of entertainment if they know when they participate there exists a very high probability that their team (the Cajuns) will bring them joy and satisfaction. The group I believe Joe is considering are so far out in the valence shell of our atomic structure... we would only be all too delighted for their once in a lifetime pass thru... it would mean we went to a BCS bowl. In a nutshell, we need to stop behaving silly and talking poorly about any potential Cajun fans and checking their membership credentials.

The current UL culture and its quaintness are not to be lost... but to be spread in abundance by the growth of UL. You have to give it away to keep it. I simply do not agree with "enjoying" the losses and the lack of success and popularity in order to limit the following to the inner core fans. I fear that Joe may be revealing something that explains a little bit of what transpired in the dark ages of UL football. It was wicked and foolish then and it is wicked and foolish now. It is a pretense to segregation.

Anything that you love too much that you clasp your hands around its neck to save for yourself, only leaves you with a dead love to bury. You will not keep it in the end anyway. You must share it to keep of it what remains. What has happened to Lafayette, UL and Acadiana by not having a wildly popular UL... is a flight of extremely good young people, if not physically, mentally away from the charm of Lafayette and UL.

Even if the premise were true... that our popularity would bring in a less savory bandwagon fan... that fan's child might only get to experience us by that means. And that child... and many more like them... might be the absolute best and greatest thing to support and grow in the UL family. We are the most confused and misdirected lot sometimes, with often the most ridiculous covenants. It is time to reap some rewards and make UL people all over the country (perhaps the world) be able to lay claim to their alma mater... without having to explain who they are, where they are... and why no one knows us.

It is time we be less selfish and allow someone else to bask in the glory of being the college football with the greatest potential while thriving in obscurity and no postseason treats. I eagerly await the day we unlock that musty trophy cabinet and hand that ancient relic to the next worthy recipient.

[LFTCajun]

Don't know if this even relevant, but when I grew up in the sixties, my parents ardently supported USL as the local university. A neighborhood kid kept talking about some foreign school called LSU, so I simply corrected him that he had it backwards. Didn't know any better at the time as someone whose dad was the project engineer for Cajun Field.

Oddly enough, that young kid I admonished at the ripe age of 7 is now a season ticket holder to all things Cajun.

Hey, win one and lose one.

[RCAJUN90]

_ Don't know if this even relevant, but when I grew up in the sixties, my parents ardently supported USL as the local university. A neighborhood kid kept talking about some foreign school called LSU, so I simply corrected him that he had it backwards. Didn't know any better at the time as someone whose dad was the project engineer for Cajun Field.

Oddly enough, that young kid I admonished at the ripe age of 7 is now a season ticket holder to all things Cajun.

Hey, win one and lose one. _

Cajunfun is always thought provoking and intelligent. Sometimes he misses the boat. We have been in a Jihad for 30 years. Games like Nebraska I expect to lose. Not that bad but they just lost so it was like bend over. The real season starts next week. We must win conference and go to the NOLA Bowl! Ricky God Bless him has had 8 years. It is time. I had no confidence in him until this year. We have a very good football team. I think he has done the best with the money and what is expected from him. He gave us the K-State win. We just need to finish it with a NOLA bowl win!