So QuickSix we had less talent than Tulsa and Tulane? I get the losses to Tech (Kind of) and Memphis (kind of), but tulane ad tulsa? How about that Fresno State team with all that talent? We hired a non charismatic vanilla coach that no one was knocking on our door for, that hired an o coordinator and d coordinator that no one was knocking down the door for and we got 7-5 kind of results. So yes, a coach does matter. He is the face of the program and the voice of the program. Coming in and hiding in the athletic compound is not a good thing. His recruiting thus far is suspect as well. We are currently 8th in the AAC in recruiting. Yeah, we only have 11 players, but that is a problem as well. Signing day is 3 months away.
Back on the topic, we will be lucky to break 30k. 551 for sale on stubhub. There just is not a buzz. I am looking forward to the game and the rain and the start time…
Stubhub listings sure are strange…about an hour ago there were like 1100 listed. Now just 551. I guess a bunch of the listings were set to expire 24 hours before kickoff…wonder what the sellers plan to do…
Did they lose some games last year they shouldn’t have? Yes, of course. We also did that under the charismatic leadership of one Tom Herman the two years before that as well. Most of us expected the program to take a slight step backward after the gut punch from the coaching transition. That doesn’t mean that I think Applewhite necessarily will be a great coach.
You know what Applewhite also didn’t have that Herman did? Greg Ward.
A lot of the great football coaches are in fact very boring publicly. They don’t tend to get on the radio and argue with sports talk hosts or waste their time coming up with catchy hashtags. Charisma doesn’t necessarily equate to building a winning program. Why can’t we give Applewhite a chance to see what he does this year? Can’t say I’m ready to pull that ripcord after 12 games.
Finally, the only reason UH is 8th is based on that low number of recruits. Our on average ranking per recruit has UH number 1 in the conference. And they have the best prospect in the conference.
Applewhite still has time to fill out that class and may also decide to keep a few extra scholarships open to round out the roster with some very talented transfers a la this year. Chambers might be a beast on this D Line.
If you are curious about the progress, I did a hard count on the visitor upper deck (numbers in black) on Saturday August 28th. Like Pray said, when the count is well over 10k, it just doesn’t feel much worth counting them. The other black numbers were average estimates for those categories of seats.
The ticket office management/Athletic Directors departments for the last three years has been slowly running the pricing and mapping for our venues into the ground. We are finally seeing the result of it.
You can’t keep screwing over fans in an increasing fashion each year unless you are putting out an amazing product year after year. Increasing per game price for the season, kicking people out of their seats, changing donations/price amounts illogically, and most importantly,… taking away tried and true offers when the getting is good, and then at the last minute going “oh crap! we need to sell all of these tickets” and then dumping them into the market place at a fraction of face value will catch up with you… and it has.
It makes me sad that the previous AD kept bringing in people who don’t understand the unique aspects of the Houston sports market.
Teams do well you raise ticket prices. You want a new stadium you raise ticket prices. You could walk up and buy a cheap Astros ticket, now not so much. Rockets tickets are obscene. The Texans are the NFL and even if the game is a stinker the tickets are still in demand.
I don’t think this speaks to some unique Houston problem. It’s more about the time, opponent and college football problem. I’ve had season tickets since I got out of school in 95, and could get prime seats for nothing. Then I got moved out when they wanted the donation to buy the seats. I wasn’t going to pay that, but I understand why they did it.
I’d prefer they charge the fans as opposed to increase student fees.
Someone on TOS posted that the student section is sold out. I can’t think of any good reason why UH hasn’t expanded the student allotment by another 7K. This just drives me crazy!
