Illinois State

[easmus]

On the bad snap trying to get encroachment, on replay the ISU DL shifted sideways. There was no flag and that was correct call.

[Yote 53]

Then that was a bad play by us.

[nccyote]

The reversed call on the fumble is mind blowing to me. Call on the field was a fumble. The video replays that I saw when I got home on the Midco broadcast didn't show anything "clear and definitive" to make it an incomplete pass from what I saw. How they overturned that is beyond me. whoever was in the review booth had a bad day that's for sure.

We've gotten screwed on 2 bad targeting calls this year. The one at KU on Myles, which was nowhere near the severity of hit to the head on their QB, cost us the game IMO. And now we have this one that knocked out our QB at arguably the most important stretch of the season.

[fightsd]

Well I have had enough time to reflect on Saturday to make some observations here.

The game itself:
1) We win that game if Camp doesn't go out.
2) It was obviously targeting, but that call doesn't change the outcome of the game.
3) Stenstrom was put in a bad situation yesterday. He clearly wasn't ready and it showed. Really not much you can do about that. Is the JLew experiment over or has he been injured or something? Seems like Saturday would have been a good opportunity to try him with a few more reps.
4) Defense continued to play well. Gave up a chunk play or two, but did their job for the most part.

The playoff picture:
1) We're still very much alive. We win this weekend and beat state in the dome, we are basically a lock. It's still possible to get in without the state win but it gets harder.
2) We weren't the only team in the valley to get upset this weekend either.

General gameday experience:
I'm not sure what it will take to get people to show up. The ticket office tried a bunch of things - free tickets for vets, discounted tickets for rankings, etc. I think it's pretty clear at this point that it's not the price of admission that's turning people off. Winning helps for sure, but we have been winning for the most part. I honestly don't know what the answer is, but there has to be a way to get people interested in the program. Maybe the last decade or so of underperforming will take a little more than one winning season to overcome in the eyes of the general public. Like I said, I don't have a solution, but the university has to get creative about increasing attendance. Even if the majority of people in there aren't cheering, a full dome is a pretty awesome atmosphere.

I know we were competing with dumbass days at Brookings Community College this weekend, but that doesn't really effect anything outside of the student section. As a non-native South Dakotan who now hangs out with people that grew up here and went to both schools, I can tell you that the hatred between schools isn't nearly as strong for those people that weren't athletes. They don't think twice about going to Brookings to party with their high school friends, and the same goes for the mouth breathers that come to Verm for DDAYS. I'm not sure there's anything you can do to fix the student section when state's homecoming is going on an hour and a half away. The problem I've noticed is that the whole season, the student body has been uninterested and unengaged. I don't know what changed between 4-5 years ago and now, but there just haven't been the kids around at the game or even in the tailgate. It used to be the best party in town on a Saturday and it was packed, even if half of them never made it inside the dome.

[easmus]

I feel like the Lewis as backup QB experience ended when he rolled left, stared down CVE, and almost threw a soul crushing pick 6. CVE saved a TD. Never saw the field again.

Students I talked to are frustrated their tailgate spot keeps getting jacked around and moved on them. I saw a map earlier this year that claimed student tailgate was up next to the practice field by where the helicopter landed Saturday. They had no idea it was supposed to be there and there’s literally no students going to it. They also have a very negative opinion of the product on the field. It’s going to take more than a couple wins to change the perception and apathy of students and most alumni it seems.

[Yote 53]

I know some students, kids of parents I know, who don't go to the games. They've been asked by their parents why they don't go and are encouraged to go. They just don't, would literally hang out and do nothing than go to a game. My buddy thinks his kids will regret not getting the college experience someday but can't seem to persuade them to go to a game. That has nothing to do with the program. It has everything to do with the mindset of youth these days. This isn't jut a USD thing. Schools across the country are struggling with getting students to games and generally filling their stadiums. Even Nick Saban has complained about this. NDSU has taken seating away from students and started selling them to the public and even they are having a harder time filling the FargoDome. UNI people last week were complaining about the lack of fans in Cedar Falls. This apathy is everywhere. Frankly, there is just general sense of apathy or angst or something in this country right now, everything just feels weird. I blame social media. Kids would rather watch TikTok than live life.

Now get off my lawn.

[yote18]

I graduated not to long before Covid so I can speak as a college student up until the roaring covid 20’s. I attended almost every Basketball and football game that I could. The problem isn’t necessarily the minds of the youth and Tik tok (although I could rant about that all day). Most of my friends from college follow sports but they didn’t ever care to follow USD sports. Why? Because of a couple of things, we might be D1 but we’re not playing the “real” D1 schools as they’d say. The only game that they cared about was SDSU, and even then that was iffy. The other reason is that our entire time there we had one winning season out of 5 years.

It’s going to take time to regrow the fan base, 2 decades of poor results can’t be erased in a season. Look at SDSU they’ve been a contender for years and still have the same conversation.

TLDR - most students don’t care about the MVFC, or summit league, and I’d say most fair weather fans don’t either except for when SDSU comes to town. They want to see the big name schools on the schedule. They also want to see results year after year. This is the life of being a mid major.

[fightsd]

For a while there, they were raffling off like a semester's worth of tuition in the 4th quarter of every home game. I can't remember if that helped at all. Honestly, I think selling beer in the dome would go a long way.

[Yotes]

Oct 25, 2021 15:36:40 GMT -6 fightsd said:

For a while there, they were raffling off like a semester's worth of tuition in the 4th quarter of every home game. I can't remember if that helped at all. Honestly, I think selling beer in the dome would go a long way.

I saw a tangent about selling beer on the UNI forum. They apparently started selling beer in the last few years. Their attendance continues to fall, so the consensus was that alcohol did nothing to boost attendance, but was at least another revenue stream. The assumption had always been that more people would show up if there was alcohol but apparently it has not been a relevant factor. I feel we would see the same results here. Seems kind of silly that we don't collect that revenue though. I absolutely never go to the concession stand but would go buy a few beers at a 400% markup.

[Yotes]

Oct 25, 2021 13:26:00 GMT -6 easmus said:

I feel like the Lewis as backup QB experience ended when he rolled left, stared down CVE, and almost threw a soul crushing pick 6. CVE saved a TD. Never saw the field again.

Students I talked to are frustrated their tailgate spot keeps getting jacked around and moved on them. I saw a map earlier this year that claimed student tailgate was up next to the practice field by where the helicopter landed Saturday. They had no idea it was supposed to be there and there’s literally no students going to it. They also have a very negative opinion of the product on the field. It’s going to take more than a couple wins to change the perception and apathy of students and most alumni it seems.

Yeah, Lewis has seemed like a liability throwing the ball and that play in particular our WR had to go on defense to save the pick 6. I don't know how you justify giving him another shot with 3 games (minus playoffs) left in his career and those kinds of mistakes to learn from.

The students are never going to impress anyone, but I feel the university has frequently failed to harness what interest does exist in the student body. I graduated in 2014 and remember having to just go be part of the old people's tailgating (everyone over 23 was old). It's basically the same thing today, except tailgating is waaaay less accessible for random people today than it was 7 years ago. I work with a student that very actively follows USD athletics, but does not go to any games. We have a long conversation every Monday about Saturday's game and what comes next. Best I can guess is that none of his friends think it is cool to go to the game so they all sit at home and watch it there. I honestly don't blame them. The atmosphere in the student section is non-existent. I sit across the aisle from the new student section and it's nothing but crossed armed frowning people sparsely filling a large swath of seating. The concept of school spirit has flown past these kids, and it is unfortunately something that rarely infects kids by itself in this day and age (if it ever did in Vermillion).

[yoteforever]

I don’t know any other way to say this other than the results of this game is football. You win some that’s hard to explain. You lose some the same way. After the game I jumped in the car and headed to Florida. I’ve been anxious to see the posts on the board.

I’m disappointed the shots taken at the coaches, particularly Coach Schlafke. You can’t pin this loss on anyone other than fate. The rookie qb that stepped in did his best. Tough situation. The coaches didn’t let him down. No one did. We simply lost the game. He tried and if you dont think so then your awareness of the game of football is limited. Things simply didn’t go our way.

There’s one poster that’s gotten active since the loss that honestly is just negative. That’s his choice to say whatever he believes. But go back and look at his history of posting and it’s all negative. This season is not lost or over. A title is. My god these guys are young. They are playing their asses off.

Regarding the crowd, I give up. It’s really a sad commentary on our alumni base. The students? If they don’t want to come then don’t. I no longer give 2 craps whether they have school pride or not. The seats are always gonna be there if they decide to come. The adults are another story. They are absolutely no different than the students. I wouldn’t give anyone a free ticket. To heck with them. If they fo to see the value then we just try and fill it over time with winners. And with this group of young athletes that’s coming. Don’t kiss their butts to come. Let them come because they want to.

Lastly, whoever remarked the people in the suites and loges were not even wstching? You’re dead wrong. I’m in a suite and I’ll tell you from side to side everyone was active cheering. There’s a few that are anti booster for whatever reason. That’s crap. Many of these people donated their resources so we could have a new arena and refurbished Dome. Don’t attack them.

This crap always happens after a loss. I say we win 2 of the last 3. If Camp co es back, all 3 are possible. Stay positive

[captaincoyote]

2015 grad here. I suffered through a lot of rough losses in the dome and empty dome basketball games. I would have loved to at least have the facilities the school has now and the more competitive teams.
Anyway, what others have said is true. In a world of brands, the general student body isn't going to feel as much pride in the school they chose when the football game isn't getting a segment on college gameday or tweeted about nationally. I must even admit that I follow both USD and the blue blood I grew up loving. I don't envy USD's marketing department job of trying to instill a Coyote identity into the students (and I think they do a good job).

[yoteforever]

Oct 25, 2021 20:07:36 GMT -6 captaincoyote said:

2015 grad here. I suffered through a lot of rough losses in the dome and empty dome basketball games. I would have loved to at least have the facilities the school has now and the more competitive teams.
Anyway, what others have said is true. In a world of brands, the general student body isn't going to feel as much pride in the school they chose when the football game isn't getting a segment on college gameday or tweeted about nationally. I must even admit that I follow both USD and the blue blood I grew up loving. I don't envy USD's marketing department job of trying to instill a Coyote identity into the students (and I think they do a good job).

Good analogy. Thanks

[Coyote Fan]

I think social media has changed the world as has the internet and cell phones. Students have everything at their fingertips and just have too many options that are more exciting than going to a game. I absolutely love the feeling of being at a live game and the energy that is created. No online game or app can replicate that but unfortunately many people don't agree.