(12-09-2012 10:07 PM)GSU Eagles Wrote:  

(12-09-2012 10:05 PM)WKUFan518 Wrote:  Watched some of that game, very impressive stadium ODU has...Georgia SOuthern's qb has to be the shortest guy I have ever saw play QB...Is he 5-7?

5-9 210 sub 4.5

And can bench 430.

No that is not a typo.

(12-09-2012 10:05 PM)WKUFan518 Wrote:  Watched some of that game, very impressive stadium ODU has...Georgia SOuthern's qb has to be the shortest guy I have ever saw play QB...Is he 5-7?

Seriously? I don't think it's nice at all, especially for a team going to FBS. I have attended a game there. It's just a really large high school stadium. Gotta give their fans credit though. They really support the team!

I attended the game and tailgated with several W&M, GSU and ODU fans...great bunch of guys. ODU offers one of the best "lower-level" gameday experiences in college football and this game had the best atmosphere for any playoff game I've seen. ODU probably has the strongest fan support and it's not because they won a bunch of games; their MBB team is something like 1-8 yet their average attendance is well over 6,000 at home. Pretty amazing. Great game on ESPN...if the SBC doesn't snatch GSU & Appy, they deserve what they get.

(12-10-2012 08:27 AM)Eagles Cliff Wrote:  

(12-10-2012 04:41 AM)MTPiKapp Wrote:  [quote='WKUFan518' pid='8675207' dateline='1355108746']
Watched some of that game, very impressive stadium ODU has...Georgia SOuthern's qb has to be the shortest guy I have ever saw play QB...Is he 5-7?



Where is that time from and was it hand timed or electronic?

McKinnon would be a player at any level. I wish we could've put a red shirt on him, but we needed him in his freshman year. He has gotten so much bigger and stronger without losing speed. He had 19 carries for 109 yards (5.7) against UGA which is shy of his 6.9 average for the year, but respectable.

Oh I watched a fair amount of the Georgia game, the kid can play no doubt, I just think 40 times are the most exaggerated and overhyped aspects of football. Dwight Dasher took the league by storm his junior year and I saw him outrun a ton of defenders. He ran all over Southern Miss in the New Orleans bowl for a little over 200 yards, which at least at the time, was a record for rushing yards by a QB in a bowl game. I think his official 40 time ended up being 4.56 IIRC.

(12-10-2012 09:40 AM)Tribal Wrote:  I attended the game and tailgated with several W&M, GSU and ODU fans...great bunch of guys. ODU offers one of the best "lower-level" gameday experiences in college football and this game had the best atmosphere for any playoff game I've seen. ODU probably has the strongest fan support and it's not because they won a bunch of games; their MBB team is something like 1-8 yet their average attendance is well over 6,000 at home. Pretty amazing. Great game on ESPN...if the SBC doesn't snatch GSU & Appy, they deserve what they get.

many of their alumni likely live within an hour of the school. it's a benefit of their location i suppose, but it's an advantage that most D1 schools in this country don't have. their admin has been aggressive and marketed the school effectively however. credit to them.

(12-10-2012 09:37 AM)army56mike Wrote:  

(12-09-2012 10:05 PM)WKUFan518 Wrote:  Watched some of that game, very impressive stadium ODU has...Georgia SOuthern's qb has to be the shortest guy I have ever saw play QB...Is he 5-7?

Seriously? I don't think it's nice at all, especially for a team going to FBS. I have attended a game there. It's just a really large high school stadium. Gotta give their fans credit though. They really support the team!

I also have to agree with you here. I've been to foreman field and it isn't among the worst, but I also wouldn't call it the best fcs facility either. I'm not sure what they were thinking putting their priciest, club seating in the endzone. UNC did that too and it was just as questionable.

The way the main sides of the stadium are built with that arc, I would think that expanding it out or upward, or adding suites and boxes, would be near impossible. ODU would likely have to tear down the whole place.

(12-10-2012 11:24 AM)BMarkey Wrote:  The way the main sides of the stadium are built with that arc, I would think that expanding it out or upward, or adding suites and boxes, would be near impossible. ODU would likely have to tear down the whole place.

I think I saw the expansion plans at one point. I think there was a way they were expanding upward, at least on one side.

(12-10-2012 11:14 AM)Dukes09 Wrote:  their admin has been aggressive and marketed the school effectively however. credit to them.

Very, very true. Charlotte needs to look to the model set up by ODU and UTSA and avoid some of the mistakes we've made at GSU.

(12-10-2012 11:43 AM)Pounce FTW Wrote:  

(12-10-2012 11:14 AM)Dukes09 Wrote:  their admin has been aggressive and marketed the school effectively however. credit to them.

Very, very true. Charlotte needs to look to the model set up by ODU and UTSA and avoid some of the mistakes we've made at GSU.

i think the lack of professional sports and college sports to compete with, while still being a highly populated area, is why odu and utsa have drawn as well as they have. I would say that's the #1 reason.

edit: personally, i think ga state and charlotte will struggle more in garnering support as they both have to compete with NFL and NBA teams. ATL also has an MLB team. The Tidewater region only really has some VT fans if there are cfb fans down there, at least in terms of significant support. I would assume the Texas Longhorns loom about 1.25 hours away from San Antonio and hold some power in that region.
Ga State has GA tech to deal with right in their city and then UGA 1.5 hours away. ODU is fortunate enough to have the closest BCS level team be 2.5 hours away and even UVA holds little serious support in VA compared to VT.

(12-10-2012 11:55 AM)Dukes09 Wrote:  

(12-10-2012 11:43 AM)Pounce FTW Wrote:  

(12-10-2012 11:14 AM)Dukes09 Wrote:  their admin has been aggressive and marketed the school effectively however. credit to them.

Very, very true. Charlotte needs to look to the model set up by ODU and UTSA and avoid some of the mistakes we've made at GSU.

i think the lack of professional sports and college sports to compete with, while still being a highly populated area, is why odu and utsa have drawn as well as they have. I would say that's the #1 reason.

edit: personally, i think ga state and charlotte will struggle more in garnering support as they both have to compete with NFL and NBA teams. ATL also has an MLB team. The Tidewater region only really has some VT fans if there are cfb fans down there, at least in terms of significant support. I would assume the Texas Longhorns loom about 1.25 hours away from San Antonio and hold some power in that region.
Ga State has GA tech to deal with right in their city and then UGA 1.5 hours away. ODU is fortunate enough to have the closest BCS level team be 2.5 hours away and even UVA holds little serious support in VA compared to VT.

I think winning has also been a big contributor to ODU's fan support. They have like a .8xx overall record right now. I bet some of GStateU's 30k fans they had at the opening game would have stuck around if they posted that kind of record over the following four years.

(12-10-2012 11:33 AM)MTPiKapp Wrote:  

(12-10-2012 11:24 AM)BMarkey Wrote:  The way the main sides of the stadium are built with that arc, I would think that expanding it out or upward, or adding suites and boxes, would be near impossible. ODU would likely have to tear down the whole place.

I think I saw the expansion plans at one point. I think there was a way they were expanding upward, at least on one side.

I could see them doing something very similar to Florida if they expanded upward/outward.

I heard they were only tearing down the clamshells

(12-10-2012 01:28 PM)Seven Would Be Nice Wrote:  

(12-10-2012 11:55 AM)Dukes09 Wrote:  

(12-10-2012 11:43 AM)Pounce FTW Wrote:  

(12-10-2012 11:14 AM)Dukes09 Wrote:  their admin has been aggressive and marketed the school effectively however. credit to them.

Very, very true. Charlotte needs to look to the model set up by ODU and UTSA and avoid some of the mistakes we've made at GSU.

i think the lack of professional sports and college sports to compete with, while still being a highly populated area, is why odu and utsa have drawn as well as they have. I would say that's the #1 reason.

edit: personally, i think ga state and charlotte will struggle more in garnering support as they both have to compete with NFL and NBA teams. ATL also has an MLB team. The Tidewater region only really has some VT fans if there are cfb fans down there, at least in terms of significant support. I would assume the Texas Longhorns loom about 1.25 hours away from San Antonio and hold some power in that region.
Ga State has GA tech to deal with right in their city and then UGA 1.5 hours away. ODU is fortunate enough to have the closest BCS level team be 2.5 hours away and even UVA holds little serious support in VA compared to VT.

I think winning has also been a big contributor to ODU's fan support. They have like a .8xx overall record right now. I bet some of GStateU's 30k fans they had at the opening game would have stuck around if they posted that kind of record over the following four years.

ODU in 4 seasons, 38-10, one unofficial CAA conference title (due to being ineligible but finishing 1st anyways). That's a .792 winning percentage. A lot of powder puff teams in there, but the fans don't seem to care. Wins are wins I suppose.
Ga State in 3 seasons, 10-23. That's a .303 winning percentage. I would say that OOC scheduling by GA State has been stronger in comparison to ODU. However, losses are losses at the same time.

UTSA and ODU's ADshave done a tremendous job. Our failures have less to do with the are we're in and professional sports and more to do with missed opportunities and an AD who has never ADed over a department with football. UTSA is 80 miles from Austin and smack in the middle of Burnt Orange Nation. If you have been to South Texas you know what I mean. Everything in San Antonio is about UT, the Cowboys and the Spurs. But they have done a great job of creating a Saturday experience by any means necessary. Old Dominion has done the same. The key is that you cant just schedule games and hope the experience develops. We're schools with no football history which means that our alumni follow Georgia, Georgia Tech, Texas, Virginia Tech and North Carolina.The key is to create an experience every week that will make them pull away from that SEC/ACC/Big12 experience if only for 3 hours. Our AD didnt get that the inaugural game was not the destination but a beginning that had to be replicated weekly. We got 30k for our first game and 12k for our second. Why? Because they thought that they could go on auto pilot after week one. For us startups its about putting on a broadway show every week until the excitement catches on which could take years.

(12-10-2012 01:47 PM)panama Wrote:  UTSA and ODU's ADshave done a tremendous job. Our failures have less to do with the are we're in and professional sports and more to do with missed opportunities and an AD who has never ADed over a department with football. UTSA is 80 miles from Austin and smack in the middle of Burnt Orange Nation. If you have been to South Texas you know what I mean. Everything in San Antonio is about UT, the Cowboys and the Spurs. But they have done a great job of creating a Saturday experience by any means necessary. Old Dominion has done the same. The key is that you cant just schedule games and hope the experience develops. We're schools with no football history which means that our alumni follow Georgia, Georgia Tech, Texas, Virginia Tech and North Carolina.The key is to create an experience every week that will make them pull away from that SEC/ACC/Big12 experience if only for 3 hours. Our AD didnt get that the inaugural game was not the destination but a beginning that had to be replicated weekly. We got 30k for our first game and 12k for our second. Why? Because they thought that they could go on auto pilot after week one. For us startups its about putting on a broadway show every week until the excitement catches on which could take years.

I actually observed this pattern in your attendance so far in your first 3 years and found it odd. You had 30k in the first game, then it dropped to 15k-ish the next week. That's a HUGE drop from one week to another. Second year, 25k or so for game one. Then back down to 15k.
This year, 18k, then down to the 12k or less again.
Why are people showing up for the first game (typically against a D2 no-name opponent at that), and then not coming back?
I'd expect 1-3k people to not come back, but 15k? that's alot!

(12-10-2012 11:09 AM)MTPiKapp Wrote:  

(12-10-2012 08:27 AM)Eagles Cliff Wrote:  

(12-10-2012 04:41 AM)MTPiKapp Wrote:  [quote='WKUFan518' pid='8675207' dateline='1355108746']
Watched some of that game, very impressive stadium ODU has...Georgia SOuthern's qb has to be the shortest guy I have ever saw play QB...Is he 5-7?



Where is that time from and was it hand timed or electronic?

McKinnon would be a player at any level. I wish we could've put a red shirt on him, but we needed him in his freshman year. He has gotten so much bigger and stronger without losing speed. He had 19 carries for 109 yards (5.7) against UGA which is shy of his 6.9 average for the year, but respectable.

Oh I watched a fair amount of the Georgia game, the kid can play no doubt, I just think 40 times are the most exaggerated and overhyped aspects of football. Dwight Dasher took the league by storm his junior year and I saw him outrun a ton of defenders. He ran all over Southern Miss in the New Orleans bowl for a little over 200 yards, which at least at the time, was a record for rushing yards by a QB in a bowl game. I think his official 40 time ended up being 4.56 IIRC.

McKinnon is as fast as #23 in this clip and he is definitely sub 4.5.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orQ0vbYBvEw

(12-10-2012 11:20 AM)Dukes09 Wrote:  

(12-10-2012 09:37 AM)army56mike Wrote:  

(12-09-2012 10:05 PM)WKUFan518 Wrote:  Watched some of that game, very impressive stadium ODU has...Georgia SOuthern's qb has to be the shortest guy I have ever saw play QB...Is he 5-7?

Seriously? I don't think it's nice at all, especially for a team going to FBS. I have attended a game there. It's just a really large high school stadium. Gotta give their fans credit though. They really support the team!

I also have to agree with you here. I've been to foreman field and it isn't among the worst, but I also wouldn't call it the best fcs facility either. I'm not sure what they were thinking putting their priciest, club seating in the endzone. UNC did that too and it was just as questionable.

Prior to my 2 hour stint on the GSU pregame show, I had the opportunity to talk with the ODU SID and some others, and that question came up in discussion.

Due to the ADA requirements, if there would be any change to have been made to the existing structures, it would have been mandated that the entire facility be brought up to current code. Ballard Stadium, as constructed, does not meet those standards.

I suspect that whatever they do to add seats will be some type of free-standing, cantilevered addition, otherwise the only recourse is to tear down both sets of stands on the sidelines.