Had the pleasure of attending Monday’s Corporate Sponsor luncheon with Coach, and he made a request of attendees I’ll honor here:
I’ll preface this request by acknowledging the “chicken or the egg” trap we have all considered during the last decade of suck. “Just win and the sleeping giant of fan participation will be unleashed”. Coach has a different perspective.
Coach McGuire feels passionately that fan attendance, and rowdiness FUELS wins. The team feeds off that energy, the opposing team is drained by that energy, and fan attendance and rowdiness leads to more wins. To Coach, our fanatical attendance is the first step to this rebuild, and will lead to success on the field (along with good football).
Coach reminder attendees that as he came up through the HS ranks and attended college coaching workshops held by the likes of RC Slocum at A&M, Jones Stadium was notoriously a nightmare for opposing teams, regardless of our potential for conf championships. RC would tell HS coaches that it wasn’t just the fans, he felt the altitude in Lubbock, the highest in the conference, played a part. A&M and the rest of the conference HATED coming here, it was legitimately scary. It’s where their own hopes of championships came to die, where despite Tech’s record, anything could happen.
Coach, and the athletic department need us to take the first step in bringing back that fear. Regardless of our record in this first year of the re-build, it’s time for us the fans to set the stage for what Tech football can become. Do we beat Texas in 2008 without that stadium atmosphere? What are we willing to do to ensure that in the near future, that 2008 game is not the best Tech football game in history, and make a new memory?
If you have bought tickets, thank you! If you find yourself starting sentences with “I haven’t been back to a game since…”, it’s time. This season, make the trip, book the travel, make the commitment.
We are a sleeping giant. It’s time for the fans, not the team, to turn off the snooze button. Time to wake up, we’ll have the cocktails iced down⚡️
I’ll preface this request by acknowledging the “chicken or the egg” trap we have all considered during the last decade of suck. “Just win and the sleeping giant of fan participation will be unleashed”. Coach has a different perspective.
Coach McGuire feels passionately that fan attendance, and rowdiness FUELS wins. The team feeds off that energy, the opposing team is drained by that energy, and fan attendance and rowdiness leads to more wins. To Coach, our fanatical attendance is the first step to this rebuild, and will lead to success on the field (along with good football).
Coach reminder attendees that as he came up through the HS ranks and attended college coaching workshops held by the likes of RC Slocum at A&M, Jones Stadium was notoriously a nightmare for opposing teams, regardless of our potential for conf championships. RC would tell HS coaches that it wasn’t just the fans, he felt the altitude in Lubbock, the highest in the conference, played a part. A&M and the rest of the conference HATED coming here, it was legitimately scary. It’s where their own hopes of championships came to die, where despite Tech’s record, anything could happen.
Coach, and the athletic department need us to take the first step in bringing back that fear. Regardless of our record in this first year of the re-build, it’s time for us the fans to set the stage for what Tech football can become. Do we beat Texas in 2008 without that stadium atmosphere? What are we willing to do to ensure that in the near future, that 2008 game is not the best Tech football game in history, and make a new memory?
If you have bought tickets, thank you! If you find yourself starting sentences with “I haven’t been back to a game since…”, it’s time. This season, make the trip, book the travel, make the commitment.
We are a sleeping giant. It’s time for the fans, not the team, to turn off the snooze button. Time to wake up, we’ll have the cocktails iced down⚡️
