Sooners News Daily 6.10.14
Posted on: June 10, 2014
Sorry, y’all. Not the busiest of news days.
FOOTBALL
Good listen w/ Cale Gundy who was on with Dusty Dvoracek & Teddy Lehman yesterday afternoon. (KREF)
Hard to to think the OSU defense is going to have some issues this coming season. Which is just fine with me. (NewsOK)
I have often found myself disappointed with our student section, so I found this piece on Michigan’s to be somewhat interesting. (Bacon)
Who am I to call the guy a liar, but I think it’s pretty easy for Pete Carroll to be saying he would have stayed at USC had he known how severe the sanctions were going to be. (NFL)
I know it’s old, but I just needed a little bit of this today.
OTHER
Would you pay $30 a month for this channel lineup? (Recode)
41 Comments
Completely agree with that article, especially on ticket and food/drink prices.They are both ridiculous!
Good point, I like many of us remember back in the day at halftime you’d hit up Jenkins and grab about of beers and then head back to the stadium. But now, you can’t leave the stadium, have to buy their overpriced food, water and soft drinks and they don’t serve beer. When you were a college student, beer seemed required when watching a game.
It’s not required???
Yes, that was a good article. Especially about the college game as an antidote to the friggin’ Super Bowl. The college ties trump the crass commercialism. (Hopefully)
Our A.D. is pretty doggone smart, he should be able to amp up student attendance and involvement. One thing, maybe pre-sell discounted food/drink “vouchers” to students prior to the games, so the students can get food/drink inside the stadium for a decent price.
What with games starting at peculiar times due to TV schedules, it helps to have something to eat, some bottled water to sooth the throat helps after screaming your lungs out.
Joseph Paul & Dallis Todd both now appear in OU’s online registry. Which is never a guarantee that a kid is enrolled, but generally a pretty good indicator.
Which leaves the only remaining members of OU’s 2014 class not registered and/or on campus being: Orlando Brown, Natrell Curtis, Kenyon Frison, and Vontre McQuinnie.
Brown & Curtis were known issues (grades) and if they make it probably won’t be until later this summer. Frison is a non-issue as I understand it, just got out of h.s. later than the others. I believe is on his way to campus, if not already there. McQuinnie on the other hand….heard some rumors but don’t feel comfortable putting it out there if it winds up being false. Have asked K to follow up w/ some of his guys down in Texas to see if there is anything to it.
We’ve had such a good week so I’m hoping the rumors are false about mcquinnie and that he shows up in Norman today.
First off, let me say I never want to root against a kids academics, but I’m still absolutely puzzled with where McQuinnie fits into our defense. I honestly think they offered him before they were convinced we could make the full move to a 3-4, and now he will be stuck in purgatory without being fast enough for S, big enough for MLB, or versatile/big/fast enough for OLB. I think they stuck to their word with his commitment to an offer, but I’ll just say it wouldn’t hurt my feelings if that scholarship opened up for the next 4 years.
So where would he of played in OU’s 4/3 scheme? If Coach Mike thought he was good enough to play in the 4/3 then he would be good enough to play in the 3/4. Actually based on Vontre’s film I think he plays better at a EMOLS position. When he plays safety in a two high look he gets lost. Some kids don’t play well in space. When the played Vontre at an EMOLS position he made plays. Coach Mike liked his athleticism and his willingness to knock the screws off someone’s face mask.
In a 4-3 you have OLB that don’t need to be as long since they aren’t attacking the edge of the pocket and taking on tackles most plays. You can have small safeties play those spots as they can roam sideline to sideline with more down lineman in front of them to take on blockers. Look at some of the small backers we had at those positions over the years like Rufus, T-Lew, Wort was more that than MLB,
Hope Joseph Paul makes it. We could use the depth at guard for the 2015 season.
Added to soonerscoop’s list of players who are in
That student section thing is pretty much everywhere right now. Time for these schools to get creative and figure out a way to get the students back in the stands. I think what Stoops did during the spring by allowing the students to interact with the players was a step in the right direction.
We have the perfect setup with the way we have our band and student section right behind the visitors bench. We just need the students rowdy as hell that’s all. Maybe opening up the stadium at half time would help too.
I agree that things are overpriced, and I know attendance is a problem everywhere, but I can’t help but blame our students to some degree. My seats aren’t far from them, and every game I look over there and shake my head. They show up late, leave early, and just don’t seem as interested as in the past. When Stoops opened up that practice to them, not many showed up. 10 years ago the place would have been overrun with college kids. I know this is making me sound like the old guy who always says “Back in my day” but it is the truth.
I graduated from OU in 2013 and I can tell you that while I was there it’s the fact that to get “good seats” you have to get there a couple hours before kickoff and going and sitting in that stadium, sobering up, having to spend 5-6 bucks on water bottles, and by the time the kick off comes you’re tired, not very drunk, and hungry, but don’t want to spend a bunch of money on food so we’d leave to go to campus. It sucks but it’s just the truth. Staying at the game and cheering on the team w/o any alcohol or follow the pretty girls to corner and drink well the second option wins almost every time.
The problem with that open practice attendance was marketing rather than a shift in attitude over the years. I knew about it through twitter, but if you didn’t follow the right people then I doubt a student would have heard about it. There might have been one e-mail about it, but it no doubt got washed out with the 20+ mass emails OU sends students a day. Not to mention it was like a week before finals, and on a thursday afternoon. If it gets marketed better and not during a critical time of the year and a time of day where most students have class then there is no doubt it will be much bigger. As for games, there are a couple of factors determining that. For one, tickets are easy to come by as a student so most are able to attend every game. With the pretty pitiful home schedules the last couple of years, students can have much more fun going to campus corner and watching OU beat Louisian Tech in an alcohol friendly environment, not the blistering heat. The average non-student fan does not have the opportunity to attend every game, so of course they make the most of it and watch the whole time. As a student, I felt fine leaving games once they were out of reach knowing that I had one the next weekend to attend. Not to say some non-students do not fit in this category, but for students saturdays are about the pre and post game festivities just as much as the game. All this being said, Look at the attendance for the two major games of the last couple of years (OSU *which was even on thanksgiving break* and ND 2 years ago), the student section was completely full. All of these factors are the reasons for your observations. Call in nonsensical or absurd, but watching a blow-out as a student is a lot more enjoyable at a bar than facing the sun at Gaylord especially knowing that you get to come back the next week.
Thanks for that perspective. I didn’t know that about the lack of communication as far as the open practice. That should have been handled better. Having said that, I’m not trying to say that your points are invalid, but it does sound like the students now take the opportunity they have at Owen Field for granted. Maybe it’s because they aren’t old enough to remember the 90’s. Maybe it’s because they don’t have to shell out nearly as much hard earned money for their tickets as the regular season ticket holders do. It might be a combination of things. Also, it’s not like we stop liking alcohol and the opposite sex once we get out of school, but we all have a whole weekend for that too. Playing teams like La Monroe and LaTech is going to happen, but that doesn’t mean we bail out. I would really like to hear your thoughts on what they can do to get the students there earlier and stay later. I agree they should lower concession prices. What do you think of the student discount idea?
They could sell beer in the stadium. That I think is really the only thing that would keep students there. But even that I don’t think would make a dramatic difference (Not to mention Boren would NEVER allow that).I really don’t think prices of concessions have anything to do with it either. I think it’s just that students get drunk before the game, and find the idea of drinking more and watching the game somewhere a better option than sobering up and watching an uneventful football game. Especially if we’re up a bit at halftime, which is 30 minutes of hell to most students. Most leave at halftime bc they don’t want to sit through a long show with nothing to be excited about when compared to a football game. As for coming earlier, I’m not sure what you mean by that. In my experience the student section fills up to watch the video (except maybe this year because it was terrible IMO) before the game. The only Time I really noticed the student section not being full at kickoff was the 11am games against bad competition (Tulsa and ISU I believe)
That’s easy, don’t accept kids into OU that don’t like football; problem solved.
Students should get discounts for everything (Tickets, Food, Drinks, Merch, Anything else) when attending games. That might bring some more to the seats.
I agree. I think they are paying plenty already. Just swipe your student I.D. for the discounts.
I’m pretty interested in the student section. My daughter will be there in the fall and will get free admittance. I told her if she is going to be on her phone the whole time, leave and let a fan have her seat. They should be the loudest section every game, imo.
As bad as the student section may be let’s be honest the crowd is a bunch of older people who go to the games kind of as a social status thing.
I remember last year a fan getting into it with mark Rodgers about sitting at the games and that he should sit because his ticket says “seat”. And traber called in and started making fun of the guy for wanting to sit while others stood in his way. It was pretty entertaining.
I’m more interested in how loud they are. I have been known to be ear shattering loud, but I have also been known to sit down every now and then.
https://twitter.com/TheFbBrainiacs/status/476405177369755649
I like what you’re doing there.
The article was interesting about the student section. I hope our AD sees what is happening there and does things to encourage student activity.
Would someone really not go to a game because they wouldn’t be able to use their phone? If someone can’t go for 3 hours without using a phone, they need to get a life. Please!
Student section started dwindling when they closed down readmittance from o’connells, I mean half time. If you uh are too young to remember this, then you are unfortunate.
Also the social thing is a bunch if BS. In the south football game is THE social event. Don’t even say that’s why the students aren’t rowdy.
Everyone’s louder when liquored up!
I can neither deny nor deny this. However, it is why the section empties out at halftime.
No doubt. You are in college only once and this is the time for a good time. If they let you back in from half, this would stop a lot of the binge drinking too. Let kids be kids and have fun and be rowdy. Like J J said, football is king of social events and it gets everyone in a good mood before during and after the games.
Players love to hear the students going nuts too. That’s part of the college experience from both the student and player.
The fact is, kids leave. You want them to stay, let them re enter
I was in high school when my sister was in Law school at OU. I was visiting her one time and we went to O’Connell’s with some of her friends. One guy thought it would be funny to get the kid drunk, so he told me he would buy me as many beers as I could handle. My sister told him she didn’t think that was a good idea. He thought she was trying to protect me, but she asked him how much $$ he had with him. He gave up after about 6. I said, “I LOVE THIS TOWN!”
Nothing wrong with that… I won’t lie, it happens to me still… And I still love that town!
Anyone who believes that Carroll would have stayed at USC had he known of the sanctions needs to check what they are smoking.
https://twitter.com/TheFranchize__/status/476435903007956992
So does this mean Tim settle is gonna adjust his top 8 again? Dudes acting like he’s on myspace and his friends keep pissing him off.
I love it until I go to his twitter page and the banner is all Alabama rings?!?!?!
…..saw this on lt…..
https://twitter.com/PimaAthletics/status/475021245616885760
I predicted this the other day. Not that school but I just had a feeling he would stay out west unfortunately for ou that’s a wasted signee and I doubt they’ll go after him in the future.
I wonder if Danley from scooba can get qualified for 2014. Maybe one of the brainiacs knows?
…per oui, hale saying this was a hedge on his part if things don’t work out ………..ncaa has to clear his classes a/o determine if additional classes are needed so it’s up in the air…….same for brown……mcquinnine is out
Pima Community College has tweeted out that Natrell Curtis has enrolled at their school. Not surprising but looks like we have a definite answer