Been a while since I bothered to post on here and definitely have visited less than before. Mainly because it's descended into a pit of negativity the last couple of years. Some of the criticisms valid and worthwhile, some constructive, many not.
This is a forum all opinions welcome but that being said, at some point when I used to post often I remembering debating the merits of positivity from our fan base. Did criticism of players, parents or coaches eke into their decisions, thought processes, or daily lives or were we (mostly) in a fan bubble? People fell on both sides of this. Some said, those players, coaches and parents need thicker skins. We want to be big time college sports so this is part and parcel of that. Every team has critics and message boards. True. And, obviously, enough family members have checked in here over the years to know we don't just babble in a vacuum and some of what we say ripples outward. But to what degree?
I saw a great social media post from TJ defending his former coach in light of the win last night. Shawndre spoke up too. It's clear the FireMooneyMafia or like minded thinkers have spoken loudly enough to be known by the players (former and current) and by their families and by recruits. Why? Because in the same thread a parent of a player mentioned just how brazen the negativity is (comparatively) around our program and said that it has legitimately undermined recruiting. Considering that parent has first hand knowledge of a fan base that is perhaps even angrier at their coach then our fan base was at ours earlier in the year... this is telling.
Perhaps, there are better ways to go about inciting change then hashtags and catfishing local reporters. Perhaps, if your campaign to get a coach fired is in fact undermining the very thing you seek to improve your methods should be rethought.
When things are going bad, the optimists and the "be positive" posters tend to get out shouted on social media and message boards. For those that want to support the coach, the team, the players, the families and the recruits, perhaps we should speak up more not less when things are going bad.
Also, these guys love their coach. You attack him, you attack them whether you want to or not. When the only voices heard are the small but vocal group clamoring for a guy's job, it distorts the perception of just how many actually support coach and by default the players. Apparently, recruit's parents think that small group is representative of the fan base as a whole. That's... tragic.
We have some great kids, we really do. We are lucky to support them.
I don't want to debate the merits of our coach, seems like that's been done ad infinitum on here. People aren't likely changing the minds of others. What I do hope that at some point all of us will realize there is enough in the players mostly sophomores and freshmen that our coach will get two more years to prove himself whether you want him to or not. Our AD seems reasonable. That strategy seems very reasonable. I shouldn't ask this as I know the likely response but maybe in the interests we share (success of the program) going forward we can just table the really acidic invective until then? Is that too much to ask. Less hashtags, less tweets, less catfishing?
I recognize we'll be dogs in our next two games and the temptation will be there to fire up the heat if we do lose, but I hope we tone things down just a notch even after our worst displays.
I do think if this core sticks around we are going to have a fun year next year (maybe even a really surprising and fun year this year), and one of our all time great years in two. Also, I'm a gambling man. I see us poised for a truly special run. If I could find A10 futures for two years out, I'd make a very large wager. Any of you MooneyMafias like to hold the other side of the action?
PM to discuss. I'll probably be checking in on rivals more often after reading those tweets today, so I should get back to you sooner rather then later.
(And my apologies if I'm rehashing wholly old material as mentioned I haven't been here much).
This is a forum all opinions welcome but that being said, at some point when I used to post often I remembering debating the merits of positivity from our fan base. Did criticism of players, parents or coaches eke into their decisions, thought processes, or daily lives or were we (mostly) in a fan bubble? People fell on both sides of this. Some said, those players, coaches and parents need thicker skins. We want to be big time college sports so this is part and parcel of that. Every team has critics and message boards. True. And, obviously, enough family members have checked in here over the years to know we don't just babble in a vacuum and some of what we say ripples outward. But to what degree?
I saw a great social media post from TJ defending his former coach in light of the win last night. Shawndre spoke up too. It's clear the FireMooneyMafia or like minded thinkers have spoken loudly enough to be known by the players (former and current) and by their families and by recruits. Why? Because in the same thread a parent of a player mentioned just how brazen the negativity is (comparatively) around our program and said that it has legitimately undermined recruiting. Considering that parent has first hand knowledge of a fan base that is perhaps even angrier at their coach then our fan base was at ours earlier in the year... this is telling.
Perhaps, there are better ways to go about inciting change then hashtags and catfishing local reporters. Perhaps, if your campaign to get a coach fired is in fact undermining the very thing you seek to improve your methods should be rethought.
When things are going bad, the optimists and the "be positive" posters tend to get out shouted on social media and message boards. For those that want to support the coach, the team, the players, the families and the recruits, perhaps we should speak up more not less when things are going bad.
Also, these guys love their coach. You attack him, you attack them whether you want to or not. When the only voices heard are the small but vocal group clamoring for a guy's job, it distorts the perception of just how many actually support coach and by default the players. Apparently, recruit's parents think that small group is representative of the fan base as a whole. That's... tragic.
We have some great kids, we really do. We are lucky to support them.
I don't want to debate the merits of our coach, seems like that's been done ad infinitum on here. People aren't likely changing the minds of others. What I do hope that at some point all of us will realize there is enough in the players mostly sophomores and freshmen that our coach will get two more years to prove himself whether you want him to or not. Our AD seems reasonable. That strategy seems very reasonable. I shouldn't ask this as I know the likely response but maybe in the interests we share (success of the program) going forward we can just table the really acidic invective until then? Is that too much to ask. Less hashtags, less tweets, less catfishing?
I recognize we'll be dogs in our next two games and the temptation will be there to fire up the heat if we do lose, but I hope we tone things down just a notch even after our worst displays.
I do think if this core sticks around we are going to have a fun year next year (maybe even a really surprising and fun year this year), and one of our all time great years in two. Also, I'm a gambling man. I see us poised for a truly special run. If I could find A10 futures for two years out, I'd make a very large wager. Any of you MooneyMafias like to hold the other side of the action?
PM to discuss. I'll probably be checking in on rivals more often after reading those tweets today, so I should get back to you sooner rather then later.
(And my apologies if I'm rehashing wholly old material as mentioned I haven't been here much).
