Don Allen: We’ve Met the Enemy
Fan apathy is threatening to eat Cajun football alive.
Who was it that once said that it’ll get worse before it gets better? I don’t know either, but I’ll wager his favorite colors were red and black.
Last Saturday in Jonesboro, Ark., (Oct. 13 2001) UL’s Ragin’ Cajuns lost for the 43rd time in their last 50 games by literally handing Arkansas State its first victory of the season.
Here, they said, you take it ‘cause we don’t want it. So a Cajun fumble with a little over two minutes to play in a tie game was returned half the length of the field and the Indians were winners. ASU won despite being dominated in the second half and despite squandering a 20-point halftime lead. ASU won despite a paltry 229 yards worth of offense and despite their fifth straight game without a sack. ASU won despite themselves, because somewhere out there in the curious world of college football, there’s always someone else that’s worse off.
And that, in a nutshell, is Cajun football these days.
There’s more. Now it’s reaching the point where nobody cares. Empty seats at Cajun Field are multiplying faster than losses and at the rate the program’s going, we’ll soon be able to answer the question — if you play a game and nobody’s there to see it, does it really count?
Apathy doesn’t just surround Cajun football nowadays, it’s broken through the circled wagons. Attendance at home games is on a downward spiral with no letup in sight. The program will probably have to average 15,000 for home games a few years from now to remain part of the Division 1-A mix, and that hasn’t happened since 1996.
Many of us in the press wouldn’t be surprised if the actual body count was closer to an average of 7,000 per game. UL’s not alone here, either — inflated attendance figures seem to be part of every college’s curriculum. Reads better in newspapers and definitely makes a better impression at NCAA headquarters. But read a little closer and you’ll see that the Cajuns’ last home game on Sept. 29 against Middle Tennessee State — the first Sun Belt game in school history, no less — drew just over 12,000 announced fans, the smallest crowd of the year.
The lack of victories over the last five seasons is the culprit here. Seven wins against the likes of Northern Illinois, ASU, ULM and Wofford isn’t exactly the stuff dreams and record crowds are made of. It’s hard enough in today’s entertainment-glutted society to sell college athletics as a viable alternative to dinner and a movie when you’re winning, much less when you’re getting beat by richer and more established programs. And when the Sam Houston States, Northwestern States and Jacksonville States of the world are exiting Cajun Field with victories intact, it’s time to take a hard look at reality.
Jerry Baldwin replaced Nelson Stokley as head football coach after the 1998 season. Stokley, after three straight winning seasons and a couple of Big West Conference co-championships, fell on hard times in 1996. Ironically, the collapse began after he engineered the biggest win in school history, a 29-22 win over Texas A&M. The win was the Cajuns’ 13th straight at Cajun Field and drew a record 38,783 fans. But over the next two seasons, the team went 4-8 at home and lost 14 of its next 24 games.
Baldwin went 2-9 in 1999, 1-10 in 2000 and is 1-5 this year. He claimed his task was one of building, not rebuilding, and he may have been right. Armed with a reputation as a solid recruiter, the incoming talent at UL would seem to reflect that, yet the influx of apparent skill hasn’t translated into victories.
Although the schedule has been dotted with a Texas Tech here and an Oklahoma State there, the bulk of the opposition has been the caliber that Cajun fans should rightly expect a victory now and then. For the most part, that hasn’t happened.
What there has been is a slew of losses and it’s taking a heavy toll. There is now a strong perception among fans that the university administration doesn’t consider athletics in general — and football, in particular — to be a priority item. Season ticket sales and overall attendance are down and if there’s been a concentrated sports marketing campaign lately, I missed it. Simply announcing a season-ticket renewal period doesn’t cut it anymore.
While the weekly losses on the field are disheartening, most followers know that success at the collegiate level is, by nature, cyclical. Like the South Louisiana weather, if you wait long enough, it’ll change. But that philosophy leaves something to be desired when applied to a Division 1-A football program.
Because the inevitable apathy that accompanies a perception of disinterest is like a virus — difficult to get out once it gets in. Well, UL officials need to recognize the indisputable fact that, like it or not, apathy is alive and well at Cajun Field.
And gets stronger by the day.
Quote
Re: Don Allen: We’ve Met the Enemy
Originally Posted by ManAboutTown
