I had two hours to drive back from the game last night. So plenty of time to feel sorry for myself and reflect. I'm prejudiced, but as I pulled into the driveway, my conclusion is there are no fans like Tech fans. There's just not. We are a unique bunch in many ways.
I don't think there's a college fan base as loyal with so little championship pay-off as ours. We've had plenty of good years -- in fact, some very good years -- but since stepping into major college football in 1960, Tech has shared a conference title twice and a division crown once. Nothing outright.
Yet we still keep coming back.
You look around and you see other similar programs -- or worse -- that at least get to taste a championship once or several times -- Oklahoma State in 2011, Kansas State on a couple of occasions, Missouri. Even Kansas went to a BCS bowl. All are on or about the same playing field as Tech, or even lower.
Yet, we still keep coming back.
Of course, the most difficult examples are the fickle fair-weather wine-and-cheese fan bases of TCU and Baylor (I guess in Baylor's case, it's Dr Pepper and cheese). In reality, they can take it or leave it. When they don't win, crowds are in the lower 30,000s or even less. Put it this way, Tech's never had a tarp to cover up empty seats.
When they do, as they have in recent years, well, you get around 47,000 or so at TCU -- where it's maybe 80 percent full in a metro area that's one of the largest in the country. Or you get Baylor's new commode-covered stadium that's capped at 45,000 because with much more, it would be a bad look to have empty seats for a top 10 team.
What do you think Baylor and TCU would have averaged during a very tough 4-8 season? It damn sure wouldn't have been close to the 58,000 or so that Tech averaged last year. What would they have drawn in their fourth game of the year after such a season? Probably not filled up a 5A high school stadium, much less draw more than 60,000.
Which leads to my last point: There can not be a program in the country that averages nearly 60,000 with such a small population base within a 100-mile radius. Just can't be. Look at Oklahoma State, similar school. They have two one million-plus metro bases within 60 miles to the northeast and south. Yet they draw a little less than Tech, and last year when they were slumping, Pickens Stadium against Texas was barely half full.
Yet we drive hours and hours, and hop on flights to get to Lubbock. When there are stories in the Wall Street Journal and other media outlets about student attendance plummeting -- like at Alabama -- ours continues to set records.
Saturday night, sitting in section 119, I have never heard noise like that at Jones on TCU's last two drives. Never. Not even, IMO, in 2008 against Texas. It was seriously at rock concert level on a couple of third downs. My ears were ringing. God, it was great.
And I thought later, how many of those fans, screaming their lungs out, trying to will Tech to a win, have come back year after year with no championship payback, sort of like the carrot in the face of the horse?
Yet, we still keep coming back.
I want a championship season for the program and players, for my alma mater, and damn sure for me who's been following Tech since 1965 as a 7-year-old. But as corny as it may sound, I want one for all of you guys, my mostly anonymous fellow Red Raiders who have made the same type of emotional investment year after year. It would be a thrill to see all of your reactions to get that one special season for all those years of coming up short. That would be fun.
We complain, support, question, and suggest after tough losses because that's what fans do who want it so bad. But, in the end, we still keep coming back.
Because that's what we do.
Guns Up, my friends.
I don't think there's a college fan base as loyal with so little championship pay-off as ours. We've had plenty of good years -- in fact, some very good years -- but since stepping into major college football in 1960, Tech has shared a conference title twice and a division crown once. Nothing outright.
Yet we still keep coming back.
You look around and you see other similar programs -- or worse -- that at least get to taste a championship once or several times -- Oklahoma State in 2011, Kansas State on a couple of occasions, Missouri. Even Kansas went to a BCS bowl. All are on or about the same playing field as Tech, or even lower.
Yet, we still keep coming back.
Of course, the most difficult examples are the fickle fair-weather wine-and-cheese fan bases of TCU and Baylor (I guess in Baylor's case, it's Dr Pepper and cheese). In reality, they can take it or leave it. When they don't win, crowds are in the lower 30,000s or even less. Put it this way, Tech's never had a tarp to cover up empty seats.
When they do, as they have in recent years, well, you get around 47,000 or so at TCU -- where it's maybe 80 percent full in a metro area that's one of the largest in the country. Or you get Baylor's new commode-covered stadium that's capped at 45,000 because with much more, it would be a bad look to have empty seats for a top 10 team.
What do you think Baylor and TCU would have averaged during a very tough 4-8 season? It damn sure wouldn't have been close to the 58,000 or so that Tech averaged last year. What would they have drawn in their fourth game of the year after such a season? Probably not filled up a 5A high school stadium, much less draw more than 60,000.
Which leads to my last point: There can not be a program in the country that averages nearly 60,000 with such a small population base within a 100-mile radius. Just can't be. Look at Oklahoma State, similar school. They have two one million-plus metro bases within 60 miles to the northeast and south. Yet they draw a little less than Tech, and last year when they were slumping, Pickens Stadium against Texas was barely half full.
Yet we drive hours and hours, and hop on flights to get to Lubbock. When there are stories in the Wall Street Journal and other media outlets about student attendance plummeting -- like at Alabama -- ours continues to set records.
Saturday night, sitting in section 119, I have never heard noise like that at Jones on TCU's last two drives. Never. Not even, IMO, in 2008 against Texas. It was seriously at rock concert level on a couple of third downs. My ears were ringing. God, it was great.
And I thought later, how many of those fans, screaming their lungs out, trying to will Tech to a win, have come back year after year with no championship payback, sort of like the carrot in the face of the horse?
Yet, we still keep coming back.
I want a championship season for the program and players, for my alma mater, and damn sure for me who's been following Tech since 1965 as a 7-year-old. But as corny as it may sound, I want one for all of you guys, my mostly anonymous fellow Red Raiders who have made the same type of emotional investment year after year. It would be a thrill to see all of your reactions to get that one special season for all those years of coming up short. That would be fun.
We complain, support, question, and suggest after tough losses because that's what fans do who want it so bad. But, in the end, we still keep coming back.
Because that's what we do.
Guns Up, my friends.
