Week 1
1. App vs. Gardner Webb - 36,075
2. Southern Miss vs. Alcorn - 30,335
3. Troy vs. SFA - 28,179
4. Marshall vs. Albany - 25,101
5. JMU vs. Bucknell - 23,756
6. ULM vs. Army - 18,914
7. Louisiana vs. NSU - 18,186
8. Georgia Southern vs. URI - 17,803
9. Georgia State vs. URI - 15,546 (Thursday)
Week 2
1. Georgia Southern vs. UAB - 20,103
2. Arkansas State vs. Memphis - 18,724
3. ODU vs. Louisiana - 18,154
4. CCU vs. Jacksonville State - 16,006
5. South Al vs. Southeastern LA - 15,237
6. Georgia State vs. UConn - 15,186
7. ULM vs. Lamar - 13,154
Visiting team always goes first
App makes everyone else in the belt ask "How?"
What's really important is to play these kinds of games," Clark said. "We had 40,000-plus out here in the rain, and our fan base showed up. East Carolina's fan base showed up. We're talking about fan experience and talking about doing the right things for college football. That's what college football is about."
A day that started with Yosef ziplining from the seventh-floor tower onto the field with the American Flag."
Week 1
1. Gardner Webb @ App State - 36,075
2. Alcorn @ Southern Miss - 30,335
3. SFA @ Troy - 28,179
4. Albany @ Marshall - 25,101
5. Bucknell @ JMU - 23,756
6. Army @ ULM - 18,914
7. NSU @ Louisiana - 18,186
8. Citadel @ Georgia Southern - 17,803
9. URI @ Georgia Southern - 15,546 (Thursday)
Week 2
1. UAB @ Georgia Southern - 20,103
2. Memphis @ Arkansas State - 18,724
3. Louisiana @ ODU - 18,154
4. Jacksonville State @ CCU - 16,006
5. Southeastern LA @ South Al - 15,237
6. UConn @ Georgia State - 15,186
7. Lamar @ ULM - 13,154
Week 3
1. ECU @ App State - 40,168
2. JMU @ Troy - 26,634
3. Tulane @ USM - 25,038
4. Jackson State @ TX State - 24,118
5. Wake Forest @ ODU - 18,276
6. Duquesne @ CCU - 18,116
7. Stony Brook @ Arkansas State - 14,327
I bounced around from game to game throughout the day. App St was a legit crowd! Texas State looked as reported as did ODU. The USM game seemed like less than reported to me; but just my opinion.
Texas State AD was on during halftime report pimping their new south end zone project which will be very nice. Hopefully our AD can present our renovation plans and timeline during one of our upcoming home games. I feel confident that the plan though ….
So many impressive things about App. Just from watching yesterday it's crazy how bought in their students are. The whole section in the stands is full and the entire endzone hill area looked like college kids. Student participation like that ensures they are set for generations.
The thing that blew me away when I made the trip up there Billy's first season was how far their fans travel to watch the Mountaineers. The people who took my friend and I in to their tailgate lived 3 or so hours away in the Raleigh area. We stayed at a hotel about an hour away down the mountain, and it was full of App fans in the morning. That's like if we had a hotel full of Cajun fans staying in Jennings the night before a game (willing to travel to Lafayette for the game and have to stay an hour outside). I see no reason not to aspire to be the best (App) but USM and Troy are much more realistic examples of where we could be attendance wise with better marketing, gameday atmosphere, etc, etc, etc.
'Never' tends to be a long time. FSU used to be a women's college. VA Tech was a small military school. UL is (as my memory serves me) 1-1 against Miami football; they were a doormat forever, and almost shut down football before they hired Schnellenberger.
Oh, and the SBC used to be the dregs of the FBS.
You may be right, we may never beat LSU.
.but that's only because LSU keeps changing the rules. The Tiger fans tell us, "Oh, you'll never be as good as LSU," and as soon as we beat them in anything, they claim that that activity is not important.
Anymore.
Of course, that's about to get hard for them to keep up. As I have noted, LSU has 3x our faculty, 4x our funding, and 5x our doctoral programs.
.and yet, UL's research funding has surpassed the BR campus (they report higher, but they 'erroneously' include separate entities: Pennington, Ag Extension & the Law School are all independent institutions under the LSU System, and their funding should be listed separately). And FWIW, our research funding is going to start surging even faster.
I've mentioned this before, but after ULM shellacked us last year, I was visiting with one of their alums. He was saying we needed to add Tech to the 'Belt. I said I doubted that would happen, but then pointed out to him that right now was ULM's chance to pass Tech.
He got really quiet & thoughtful.
Tech has made a lot of bone-headed decisions over the last few decades, athletically, academically, politically, & socially. They kept jumping in la merde and then somehow bounced out smiling and smelling like hot-house gardenias.
Until they didn't. Trust me, Tech is boxed in on all sides, and their past choices have left them without great options for the future. If the ULM admin plays their cards right, they could dominate north Louisiana.
Again, 'never' gets into long time-frames.
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