Pro. Brandon Stokley

[cajunfan96]

Don't shop there---I like Walgreens in Abbeville as they sell UL stuff---Sold 800 t shirts after the bowl game with NO Bowl and UL!!! ----I was told that there are 11K UL graduates in Vermilion Parish --We need to get more recognition ---What does LSU do for this Parish--Nothing other than some aggie stuff!!!

Yeah, but only about 500 actually give a $h## about UL!

[HoustonCajun]

Don't shop there---I like Walgreens in Abbeville as they sell UL stuff---Sold 800 t shirts after the bowl game with NO Bowl and UL!!! ----I was told that there are 11K UL graduates in Vermilion Parish --We need to get more recognition ---What does LSU do for this Parish--Nothing other than some aggie stuff!!!

I don't think we will ever obtain any kind of consensus to call us UL plus we have the legal issue to deal with. I would like to be known as UL but that will never happen. Unless we become the Flagship of the UL System, no where in the state will we be recognized as UL, except of course in Lafayette and then not 100%.

The solution? LOUISIANA. And, do what other big time programs do, use an "L" instead of UL, like the "A" for Alabama or "M" for Michigan or "N" for Nebraska. Use LOUISIANA and "L" for all gear and license it so every retailer can sell it and sell it they will. And, it is legal. Put out a national Press Release that this who we are and what we want to be called. No reference to UL as we get away from the UL X reference and tie to ULM. When Tillman goes on TV, instead of saying The University of Louisiana, say The Louisiana Ragin Cajuns and get every pro athlete to refer to us that way, something the SID will have to do.

Until Dr. S takes initiative to do something along these lines, we will be having this same discussion 10 years from now. UL will never be universally accepted, so let's deal with that and turn this into something in our favor. We are LOUISIANA. We must have this kind of Branding initiative to change the UL Lafayette, Louisiana Lafayette, UL L, U La La dynamic that is our current identity. 12 years of this is enough. We have to change this and not hope that an ESPN will do it for us. We just learned that they will not.

[CajunProud]

I don't think we will ever obtain any kind of consensus to call us UL plus we have the legal issue to deal with. I would like to be known as UL but that will never happen. Unless we become the Flagship of the UL System, no where in the state will we be recognized as UL, except of course in Lafayette and then not 100%.

The solution? LOUISIANA. And, do what other big time programs do, use an "L" instead of UL, like the "A" for Alabama or "M" for Michigan or "N" for Nebraska. Use LOUISIANA and "L" for all gear and license it so every retailer can sell it and sell it they will. And, it is legal. Put out a national Press Release that this who we are and what we want to be called. No reference to UL as we get away from the UL X reference and tie to ULM. When Tillman goes on TV, instead of saying The University of Louisiana, say The Louisiana Ragin Cajuns and get every pro athlete to refer to us that way, something the SID will have to do.

Until Dr. S takes initiative to do something along these lines, we will be having this same discussion 10 years from now. UL will never be universally accepted, so let's deal with that and turn this into something in our favor. We are LOUISIANA. We must have this kind of Branding initiative to change the UL Lafayette, Louisiana Lafayette, UL L, U La La dynamic that is our current identity. 12 years of this is enough. We have to change this and not hope that an ESPN will do it for us. We just learned that they will not.

I agree. One of the major problems is that we are dealing with the government. As nice of a man as he is (and I really like him personally), Dr. S is a part of the machine and is a politician. As a politician, he will take the path of least resistance. I don't look for the name or the mascot issue (you know, the flaming Di !deaux) or the school color issue to be resolved in my life time.

[Hammer58]

Pure evidence (which abounds) in the epic fail usage of the term "UL Lafayette"

No one sees UL, they see >Lafayette

I agree 100%. If they feel constrained in what they can say they should use TE full name of "University of Louisiana at Lafayette" that way the city tag doesn't overshadow the UL

[Boomer]

Pure evidence (which abounds) in the epic fail usage of the term "UL Lafayette"

No one sees UL, they see >Lafayette

-----At least use LOUISIANA-Laf!!!!

[Turbine]

-----At least use LOUISIANA-Laf!!!!

LOUISIANA-50

[HoustonCajun]

Pure evidence (which abounds) in the epic fail usage of the term "UL Lafayette"

No one sees UL, they see >Lafayette

Think about schools that have the city tag. Some are successful in being identified by their letters:

UC Los Angeles - UCLA
UN Las Vegas - UNLV
UT El Paso - UTEP
UA Birmingham - UAB

Other schools are trying to be recognized by their letters:

UL Monroe - ULM
UT San Antonio - UTSA
UT Arlington - UTA

Some want to be recognized by just the city tag:

UW Milwaukee - Milwaukee
UNC Charlotte - Charlotte (formerly UNCC)
Cal State Fullerton - Fullerton State
Cal State Fresno - Fresno State

And, of course, some are able to drop the city tag athletically and be recognized by what they want to be called. However, most of these are flagship schools that didn't originally have a city tag until such time as other schools were added to their system and they picked up a city tag in their official name:

UT Austin - Texas
UN Lincoln - Nebraska
UW Madison - Wisconsin
UNC Chapel Hill - North Carolina
UN Reno - Nevada
UC Berkeley - California

Then, there is the University of Louisiana at Lafayette:

We don't want to be called by our city tag - Lafayette (there is another university by that name)
We don't want to be called Louisiana Lafayette
We don't want to be called UL Lafayette
We don't want to be called UL L
Is there another school that actually does what we do in this regard?
We DO want to be called UL or University of Louisiana, but we have legal issues in that regard

So, what is the media to do? We tell them what NOT to call us, which instead appears to be a magnet for what they do call us. They ignore our requests for what we do ask to be called. Why? Who knows, but my guess is that because ESPN caters almost exclusively to BCS schools, gets something from LSU that says you can't call them what they want and have to call them by their legal name, so they cow down to LSU and completely ignore our requests. I supect ULM contacts them as well. It happened at the World Series and I'm sure still happens today. But, so does everyone else. The SBC calls us Louisiana Lafayette, UL Lafayette and UL L. All media in the state of Louisiana call us that as well, except in Lafayette. Our university website has mixed messages on our name. Our SID does put out nice Press Releases and Game Notes using Louisiana and Louisiana's, but these seem to be ignored by our conference, by most conference members, the majority of our opponents, as well as the majority of the media. Aparently, still too many mixed messages. In fact, one of the few exceptions is Phil Steele who does call us Louisiana because that is what we ask to be called. Some universities have also obliged like Kansas State and some conference members have as well. Inroads after 12 years are minimal as we get more and more entrenched as UL Lafayette, Louisiana Lafayette, Lafayette, UL L and U La La. I for one sure don't want to go through another night with ESPN like this past week and I'm not talking about our play on the field. They called us every name in the book. What we legally call ourselves or request to be called should have nothing to do with our won-loss record, our athletic success, or lack of it. In other words, any comments to the effect that if you win we will call you what you want. That is bogus and irrelevant.

Unless you are an annointed school like UCLA, being a hyphenated school or a city tag school is small time, especially when you are tied to the hip with another school that has a similar name and, along with every other school in the state, fight any attempts we have to circumvent the law with use of UL. Short of getting the legislature to change our name to the University of Louisiana or naming us as the Flagship of the UL System, we will always be tied to the hip of ULM (I prefer to call them what them request to be called). Because we are in the same conference and have similar city tag names, the only way to get past the legal issue is to avoid any use of "Univerity of" or "UL".

Use of LOUISIANA is the only possible solution, but that alone will not work and hasn't worked up to now because it has not come with a major Branding initiative by the university. We have to drop the UL and go to a letter, an "L", like Alabama "A", Nebraska "N", Texas "T", Tennessee "T", Florida "F", Michigan "M" and just about every major "University of" school in the country and avoid ANY legal issues going forward. The university has to grow some gonads and Just Do It. We blew it 12 years ago when we "settled" for our current name and didn't weigh all options or think about the long term ramifications that have now put us in this ridiculous identity situation we are in with no end in sight.

We certainly need to get creative in this which is why we need a Branding initiative. A year ago, we were supposed to hire a firm out of Chicago who has done other major university branding initiatives. I don't know what has taken place or if anything is being done at this time. I have written to Dr. S on more than one occassion with no response. One suggestion would be to move from Russell to Nike and partner with Nike in using their slogan "Just do it!" in changing to LOUISIANA and making that relationship and slogan the key elements of our Branding initiative. With the #1 moniker in the country in Ragin Cajuns and an endorsement from Nike in rebranding ourselves as LOUISIANA, something like that just might be enough to sway the national media in our favor. Just a suggestion. Whatever is done, it is time for this university to get creative and DO SOMETHING! NOW! It only worsens every week we delay this as evidenced by the ESPN name debacle last week.

[raginsaints]

Peter King named him his class guy of the week. The thread on Reddit is cool to see. A lot of people love the guy, good representative of the school.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/nfl...2_a2&eref=sihp

Class Guy of the Week. Brandon Stokley, slot receiver, Denver.
Think of those last three words -- "slot receiver, Denver'' -- and what do you think of? Wes Welker, obviously. But think of Stokley for a moment. A year ago tomorrow, Peyton Manning signed with the Denver Broncos. During his brief free-agent fling, Manning used the home of one of his best friends, Stokley, as a refuge. Stokley lives in the Denver suburb of Castle Pines. A year ago, he was unsigned. Maybe he'd be signed by the Broncos, maybe he wouldn't. But he helped his buddy, Manning, hide out -- and decide what to do.

Manning slept at his good pal Stokley's house the day he got to Denver. The next day, Manning and Stokley got up early because Manning wanted to get a good throwing session in. In secrecy. Off to the park they went -- but there was an early-morning lacrosse game in progress. So Manning and Stokley moved to a community park with a 40-yard-square field. When a jogger would approach, Stokley would yell, "Jogger!'' And he or Manning would hide the football and wait until the jogger, or maybe bicyclist, passed.

Stokley knew the routes Manning wanted to throw, and he ran them. And when Manning signed, Stokley, 36, eventually got signed too -- with no promises about whether he'd make the team. He made the team and played 60 percent of the snaps in the slot, catching 45 passes. The last pass of Manning's season, in fact, was to Stokley, and Baltimore's Corey Graham picked it off.

So when it came time to sign Welker to a two-year, $12 million deal last week, a decision that took the Broncos about 10 seconds to make because Welker's the most productive slot man in football, coach John Fox picked up the phone to inform Stokley. "Heartbreaking,'' Fox said here Sunday, "because Stokley'd been such a great guy and important player for us.''

And Stokley said to Fox, basically, that if he was running the team, he'd go after Welker too.
That's why Brandon Stokley, who may have had his career ended by the acquisition of Welker, is the Class Guy of the Week.

http://www.reddit.com/r/nfl/comments...ey_from_kings/

[Cajun90]

Peter King named him his class guy of the week. The thread on Reddit is cool to see. A lot of people love the guy, good representative of the school.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/nfl...2_a2&eref=sihp


I watched Brandon play his last game as a Cajun in a blowing rain at about 40 degreees. Couldn't have been a thousand people in the stands after halftime. I stayed because I thought he deserved it.

You don't get much better than him as a representative for football, UL, and an overall great role model.



http://www.reddit.com/r/nfl/comments...ey_from_kings/

[GoneGolfin]

I watched Brandon play his last game as a Cajun in a blowing rain at about 40 degreees. Couldn't have been a thousand people in the stands after halftime. I stayed because I thought he deserved it.

You don't get much better than him as a representative for football, UL, and an overall great role model.

If this was Stokely's last NFL game (Divisional Playoffs vs. Baltimore), I can say that I was able to see his last one in person. That was a heck of a TD catch he made in the 1st Quarter.

Brian