Two games into our season and I must say we have very little room to be optimistic for the rest of the upcoming schedule. Of course, for use EMU fans this is nothing new, year in and year out we fail to put out a competitive product on the field.

For some reason I couldn't stop thinking how and what will it take to get this program around.

Here are some of the things I would to as an EMU AD to help CC help this program become competitive again. I do truly believe that a great coach alone WILL NOT help this program out by himself unless it is a big name football personality which we will never have funds to hire.

1. Make changes to Rynerson. First of, I would cover the side sections on both sides of the stadium until people actually start showing up for the game. This way we could have people sit in the middle sections on both sides which would make the already empty stadium look a little more appealing for the respective recruits.

I am talking something like this:



2. Market our school, market our team. If I was the AD, in all the free time the players and the staff have would be used for community events and meetings, volunteer work and etc. We need to get the citizens of Ypsilanti and surround towns out to the games. I know this seems desperate and what not but WE need to build up a fan base ASAP. In today's recruiting having butts in the seats in my opinion is just as important as a good team, good coach or great facilities. WE NEED TO PRACTICALLY FORCE THE PEOPLE TO COME.

Kids want to play in front of people not somewhere were there is less fans than they had at their high school games.

3. Which leads to my next point. Why charge people for these tickets ? Okay I get it maybe have some sections for purchase to die hards like us, but other than that if I was our AD I would be sending out free tickets to houses around Washtenaw county or handing them out at bigger local events. No one normal, who has seen our team play in recent years will pay to watch this type of product.

4. Atmosphere. Look at Chicago Cubs, arguably one of the worst organizations in the country when it comes to on the field product but their games and rooftops are almost always full no matter how bad the team is. People come for the good time. I say build some other entertainment around the stadium, for example across the street in those empty parking lots. Throw some bars around, let the people get drunk so they don't care about this crappy product.

And to finish up my post.

I do not know if this makes sense to anyone but our school has an awful perception in the local press along with a terrible football crowd and even worst team. I seriously believe that a good coach alone will not get anything done. He needs help from the community, he needs help from the press, university staff, our president and even our students. I really hope we have the leadership to understand that because CC alone will not change things.

Opinion on my thoughts very welcome.

You make some good points. I have been saying for about 4 years that we cannot have a high school stadium set-up. The crowd has to be spread out, if you will. If we get 10,000 for a game (which should be a bare minimum requirement) we should have 5k on each side. College fans generally don't travel at the MAC level, you can't have one side of a stadium comletely empty-COMMON SENSE. Personally, i'd like to see Rynearson blown up. It is a hideous monstrosity.

A couple years ago, a guy here asked for and received a bunch of free tix which he was going to hand out to his factory co-workers and friends. No one wanted them.

The truth is that Ypsilanti is a small, poor, crime ridden little depressed town. Not much can be done to change that and get people involved.

I would make a few changes:

1) I'd move the students and band to the center sections of the East side. I 'd have one or two sections for visiting fans.

Don't students tailgate that side.

2). Agree I too would tarp off some sections on the east side.

Dear realistEagle,
We are marketing the team, we have given out free tickets, last year one or two sections on the visitors side was covered. How much free time during the season do you think our players have? I really am getting a little tired of hearing high schools have more fans than we do. I don't know what high schools you watch, but I am a suburban Detroiter and the high school games I have watched the last few years are lucky to have 500 to maybe 1000 fans at the most. Maybe I'm watching crappy teams, but their attendance is not better than Eastern's.
In my opinion, the Cub's fan base expects them to lose, so yes, I have no idea why you would go there. I personally do not revel in losing.
If Eastern can put a winning product on the field, the fans will show up. I lived through two winning eras, Dan Boisture, and Jim Harkema. Those years the stadium was filled for most home games, because they won most of their games both home and away.

(09-08-2014 12:33 PM)Ken Barna Wrote:  Dear realistEagle,
We are marketing the team, we have given out free tickets, last year one or two sections on the visitors side was covered. How much free time during the season do you think our players have? I really am getting a little tired of hearing high schools have more fans than we do. I don't know what high schools you watch, but I am a suburban Detroiter and the high school games I have watched the last few years are lucky to have 500 to maybe 1000 fans at the most. Maybe I'm watching crappy teams, but their attendance is not better than Eastern's.
In my opinion, the Cub's fan base expects them to lose, so yes, I have no idea why you would go there. I personally do not revel in losing.
If Eastern can put a winning product on the field, the fans will show up. I lived through two winning eras, Dan Boisture, and Jim Harkema. Those years the stadium was filled for most home games, because they won most of their games both home and away.

Ken,

There are football schools around the country that have more fans at their games than our team had on numeral occasions within last few seasons in English era.

Same goes for basketball, most high schools in Chicago area have around a 1000 fans a game. Sounds familiar ?

But that is besides the point.

My whole point on the post is that our coach needs recruiting TOOLS. Unless he is a magician and out of nowhere we will start winning.

I truly believe that having a good coach is a very little small piece to a bigger puzzle. And some of the things that I pointed out can in my opinion help to achieve that.

There is a bigger thing going on here then just not having a good coach who is able to piece everything together.

Couple of things...

EMU has never made anyone sit anywhere, really. I have been affiliated with the university for 31 years and, while I have pretty much occupied the same general location at games during that time, I can't remember a time when seating has really been enforced by EMU. People sit where they want and pretty much always have. I like being able to move around during games and not being restricted to one seating location.

The perception of EMU is drastically different than say Michigan or MSU because EMU has essentially become a commuter university. EMU caters, rightly or wrongly, to people who may not be traditional students who live off campus, may attend college later in life and often have families and work their way through college. So, while EMU has its share of traditional students a good number are not and it is likely that those non-traditional students are working while games are being played or are attending the sporting events of their children.

Regarding perception...I would say that EMU has a very good reputation/perception of being a very good school to attend for the non-traditional student. It is affordable and, like I wrote above, caters to those who decide later in life to go back to college or have families and are working while going to school. With that in mind, there really isn't anything wrong with the perception of EMU. As a university it does what it does and it does it pretty well. The perception of our athletic programs is poor but, honestly, well deserved.

Dear HuronRob,
Excellent post!

Here is what we need:
1 - Players that stick with the program. Every year we have fewer seniors than almost every team I observe and too many of them are two year seniors who transferred in from somewhere else. Players normally peak during their senior year and many times a more talented freshman or sophomore will be outperformed by a less talented senior. Experience matters.

2 - A coaching staff that knows what they're doing. They have to be resourceful, clever and insightful. They have to outsmart coaches who rely more on recruiting.

3 - Luck There's no way to plan for or produce better luck, but sometimes it has to go our way. Far too often it goes the other way.

HuronRob: The perception that our atletic program is poor is not well deserved. In recent years we've had an NCAA diving champion, NCAA swimming All-Americans, NCAA T&F All-Americans, Olympians and just a few weeks ago a gold medalist in the IAAF World Junior Olympics. I think we have more sports and more student-athletes than every other MAC school. We have sports like wrestling that have been dropped by major conferences (Wrestling defeated ranked Stanford last year.). And one of our alumns recently was named Rookie of the Month and Pitcher of the Month for the American League. Ignorant people thinkg football is everything. It's not.

Like it or not, football and basketball are the sports most recognized by EVERYONE in this country. The sports you're referring to are more indicative of successful private college or smaller college athletic programs. If EMU were to drop football it would still excel at those sports. Are you saying EMU should drop its football program ?


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By the way, LJM, this thread is about EMU football, not EMU swimming, EMU diving, EMU baseball or EMU wrestling.


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(09-09-2014 01:20 PM)HuronRob Wrote:  Like it or not, football and basketball are the sports most recognized by EVERYONE in this country. The sports you're referring to are more indicative of successful private college or smaller college athletic programs. If EMU were to drop football it would still excel at those sports. Are you saying EMU should drop its football program ?


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If football was dropped tomorrow, I don't think I would be sad at all.

Well, it would be the end of a perpetually disappointing and embarrassing program that's for sure.


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(09-09-2014 01:46 PM)HuronRob Wrote:  By the way, LJM, this thread is about EMU football, not EMU swimming, EMU diving, EMU baseball or EMU wrestling.


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You wrote, "The perception of our athletic programs is poor but, honestly, well deserved."

A football team is not referred to as "athletic programs." Had you said, "The perception of our football program is poor, but honestly, well deserved," I would have not commented since it is rather obvious. But you brought up the "athletic programs" and I felt it was worth a comment.

(09-09-2014 04:44 PM)ljmhurons Wrote:  

(09-09-2014 01:46 PM)HuronRob Wrote:  By the way, LJM, this thread is about EMU football, not EMU swimming, EMU diving, EMU baseball or EMU wrestling.


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You wrote, "The perception of our athletic programs is poor but, honestly, well deserved."

A football team is not referred to as "athletic programs." Had you said, "The perception of our football program is poor, but honestly, well deserved," I would have not commented since it is rather obvious. But you brought up the "athletic programs" and I felt it was worth a comment.

Usually it takes a little while for things to get as chippy as they have in here.

LJM, whatever. Pretty much semantics on your part.

It's great that a rookie pitcher from EMU has received accolades but he's a diamond in the rough. Our baseball program sucks.

For all the recognition our swimming and diving program has received it isn't even in the NCAA Top 30.

I could go down the list, and I have been looking, and all of the sports you mentioned that EMU participates in are pretty much sports that school who don't have football programs participate in.

Yeah, we've had some incredible athletes (notice I am talking about individuals here) swing through EMU - both academically and athletically - but, overall EMU athletics, with the exception of a handful of programs/sports, is very subpar.

(09-09-2014 05:13 PM)HuronRob Wrote:  

(09-09-2014 04:44 PM)ljmhurons Wrote:  

(09-09-2014 01:46 PM)HuronRob Wrote:  By the way, LJM, this thread is about EMU football, not EMU swimming, EMU diving, EMU baseball or EMU wrestling.


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You wrote, "The perception of our athletic programs is poor but, honestly, well deserved."

A football team is not referred to as "athletic programs." Had you said, "The perception of our football program is poor, but honestly, well deserved," I would have not commented since it is rather obvious. But you brought up the "athletic programs" and I felt it was worth a comment.

I could go down the list, and I have been looking, and all of the sports you mentioned that EMU participates in are pretty much sports that school who don't have football programs participate in.

I don't think you know these other sports Rob. That's okay. Generally speaking, it's the big 10 and the Pac and other major conferences that participate in these sports and the poorer schools that don't. For example, every traditional school in the big 10 (I'll concede I don't know about the newcomers.) has Track and Field, Cross Country and Swimming. The MAC schools and many other mid size conferences have dropped them like crazy. There are only five MAC T&F teams left for the men, six CC. Swimming had to add a bunch of schools who play sports in other conferences.

At the next HOF ceremony a man named Boaz Cheboiwyo (?) will be inducted. He was national champion in Cross Country. One of his teams finished third in the nation.

I don't know why you're trying to diminish our school's accomplishments.

Well we should take some notice that CC has I believe 15 verbals for the 2015 class, I keep upping my count for next year's class as there a few that appear not to have "bought in" to CC's program. I note the Florida interview stated we had possession receivers, yes but it would nice if we had a QB and a gameplan that actually threw the ball downfield rather than side to side. Right now this offense reminds of the pre-Parrish Ron English offense and that's not good.

I also note that true freshmen Harris, Beck and Kenny Jones look like they have potential to be real contributors at EMU.

(09-09-2014 09:47 PM)ljmhurons Wrote:  

(09-09-2014 05:13 PM)HuronRob Wrote:  

(09-09-2014 04:44 PM)ljmhurons Wrote:  

(09-09-2014 01:46 PM)HuronRob Wrote:  By the way, LJM, this thread is about EMU football, not EMU swimming, EMU diving, EMU baseball or EMU wrestling.


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You wrote, "The perception of our athletic programs is poor but, honestly, well deserved."

A football team is not referred to as "athletic programs." Had you said, "The perception of our football program is poor, but honestly, well deserved," I would have not commented since it is rather obvious. But you brought up the "athletic programs" and I felt it was worth a comment.

I could go down the list, and I have been looking, and all of the sports you mentioned that EMU participates in are pretty much sports that school who don't have football programs participate in.

I don't think you know these other sports Rob. That's okay. Generally speaking, it's the big 10 and the Pac and other major conferences that participate in these sports and the poorer schools that don't. For example, every traditional school in the big 10 (I'll concede I don't know about the newcomers.) has Track and Field, Cross Country and Swimming. The MAC schools and many other mid size conferences have dropped them like crazy. There are only five MAC T&F teams left for the men, six CC. Swimming had to add a bunch of schools who play sports in other conferences.

At the next HOF ceremony a man named Boaz Cheboiwyo (?) will be inducted. He was national champion in Cross Country. One of his teams finished third in the nation.

I don't know why you're trying to diminish our school's accomplishments.

I'm not trying to diminish the accomplishments of EMU athletics but the fact of the matter is this - all of our sports would benefit from a strong football program. A strong football program would generate revenue that would not only sustain the things that go along with having a football team but would also help the other EMU teams - the non-revenue generating sports. Imagine how much more successful the non-revenue generating sports could be if we had a football team that actually generated money.

(09-10-2014 04:42 PM)HuronRob Wrote:  

(09-09-2014 09:47 PM)ljmhurons Wrote:  

(09-09-2014 05:13 PM)HuronRob Wrote:  

(09-09-2014 04:44 PM)ljmhurons Wrote:  

(09-09-2014 01:46 PM)HuronRob Wrote:  By the way, LJM, this thread is about EMU football, not EMU swimming, EMU diving, EMU baseball or EMU wrestling.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You wrote, "The perception of our athletic programs is poor but, honestly, well deserved."

A football team is not referred to as "athletic programs." Had you said, "The perception of our football program is poor, but honestly, well deserved," I would have not commented since it is rather obvious. But you brought up the "athletic programs" and I felt it was worth a comment.

I could go down the list, and I have been looking, and all of the sports you mentioned that EMU participates in are pretty much sports that school who don't have football programs participate in.

I don't think you know these other sports Rob. That's okay. Generally speaking, it's the big 10 and the Pac and other major conferences that participate in these sports and the poorer schools that don't. For example, every traditional school in the big 10 (I'll concede I don't know about the newcomers.) has Track and Field, Cross Country and Swimming. The MAC schools and many other mid size conferences have dropped them like crazy. There are only five MAC T&F teams left for the men, six CC. Swimming had to add a bunch of schools who play sports in other conferences.

At the next HOF ceremony a man named Boaz Cheboiwyo (?) will be inducted. He was national champion in Cross Country. One of his teams finished third in the nation.

I don't know why you're trying to diminish our school's accomplishments.

I'm not trying to diminish the accomplishments of EMU athletics but the fact of the matter is this - all of our sports would benefit from a strong football program. A strong football program would generate revenue that would not only sustain the things that go along with having a football team but would also help the other EMU teams - the non-revenue generating sports. Imagine how much more successful the non-revenue generating sports could be if we had a football team that actually generated money.

It'll never generate money but it could lose less.

(09-10-2014 06:02 AM)emu79 Wrote:  Well we should take some notice that CC has I believe 15 verbals for the 2015 class, I keep upping my count for next year's class as there a few that appear not to have "bought in" to CC's program. I note the Florida interview stated we had possession receivers, yes but it would nice if we had a QB and a gameplan that actually threw the ball downfield rather than side to side. Right now this offense reminds of the pre-Parrish Ron English offense and that's not good.

I also note that true freshmen Harris, Beck and Kenny Jones look like they have potential to be real contributors at EMU.

EMU’s receivers just aren’t good. They weren’t good under English and they are not good now.