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Post by Outsider on Sept 11, 2022 15:47:02 GMT -6
Our run defense is pretty salty, since after two games, our opponents are averaging just 2.7 yards per carry. Run defense has definitely been a strong point so far. Prarie View ran for 404 yards rushing in their first game against Texas Southern. ACU held them to 93 yds PVAM came in with a completely different game plan against us. Their coach said that they were going to throw against us and they did. PVAM threw for 240 yards to our 225 yards for an avg of 6.5/att to our 6.6/att. PVAM had a total of 333 offensive yards to our 335. PVAM also controlled the possessions 32:39 to our 27:21. By around the 2nd qtr mark, PVAM had a TOP of over 14 minutes to our 3 minutes. I don't think I would compare the first PVAM game too much to ours. PVAM beat us in several stats, which further shows how ugly a game it was, but we did the right things at the right times to come out on top.
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Post by bucfan on Sept 11, 2022 15:54:25 GMT -6
It’s hard to have a pretty win when you throw three interceptions in the first half. We will need better play from the QB position to see the improvement we want. He should have had at least 2 interceptions last week had that defense been better. Overall, better than last year, but still much room to improve across the board. This was my exact thought. He threw into very good coverage a number of times last week as well. He is lucky to only have 3 ints on the season as there were three last week that were ripe for the taking and last night our receiver made a heck of a tackle to knock a 4th away. I am begging to wonder about his pass selection as he seems too confident in his ability to throw into a tiny window. He did throw a good back shoulder fade to the end zone to our 6'5" receiver that should have been caught. To me there are three possible answers for this questionable pass selection: 1. He has a Brett Farve gun Slinger nature, and this is just what he is. You take the good throws with the bad and hope it evens out somewhere to the positive.
2. He has not started since high school and has to adjust to the speed and complexity of college DB's and converge. In HS his arm could hit he window before it closed but the defense is just too fast now and he will have to learn which window are worth the risk at this level. One of his picks was to a LB and I wonder if he even realized he has dropped into that coverage. When they showed that throw from the end zone camera is looked like there was no possible way he was going to be able to get that ball to the WR.
3. The OL has just not been good so his ability to read coverage and windows has been compromised by him running for his life half the game.
We shall see as the season progresses. I think it is a combination of all three answers. I was beginning to wonder if we needed to let the backup have a go in the second half but things improved and I was glad we stuck with him.
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Post by Outsider on Sept 11, 2022 15:54:40 GMT -6
To me, the saddest number was 6236. That was the number in attendance for the game after the previous week's sad attendance of 5800+. After our 1-0 start, we could only muster 6200 people to show up for a military appreciation game day on a Saturday. We barely beat the Thur. evening figure...
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Post by EastTexasWildcat on Sept 11, 2022 17:06:00 GMT -6
To me, the saddest number was 6236. That was the number in attendance for the game after the previous week's sad attendance of 5800+. After our 1-0 start, we could only muster 6200 people to show up for a military appreciation game day on a Saturday. We barely beat the Thur. evening figure... That’s an increase and I’ll take it, for now. With the fair and rodeo in town, I really thought the attendance would be down. They’ll have to string a few wins together before “fans” jump on the bandwagon and start showing up.
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Post by Outsider on Sept 11, 2022 19:02:49 GMT -6
Week #2 post-game interview.
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Post by Outsider on Sept 11, 2022 19:25:39 GMT -6
To me, the saddest number was 6236. That was the number in attendance for the game after the previous week's sad attendance of 5800+. After our 1-0 start, we could only muster 6200 people to show up for a military appreciation game day on a Saturday. We barely beat the Thur. evening figure... That’s an increase and I’ll take it, for now. With the fair and rodeo in town, I really thought the attendance would be down. They’ll have to string a few wins together before “fans” jump on the bandwagon and start showing up. I still think that we can and should be doing better. Heck, what better way to top off a day at the fair than an evening at a D1 football game?
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Post by rc on Sept 11, 2022 20:51:15 GMT -6
Yes, we should be doing better. Poor protection and while the defense has been good, we seem a bit slow in the secondary. If one watched PVAM warming up, they ran the same pass play over and over and it was their primary pass route during the game. We seem vulnerable to the slant, and to an active running QB.
I am actually impressed with McIvor and think he will continue to get better. He has no time to read the D, and is usually running for his life. I was pleased to finally see some misdirection in the 4th quarter. Our early game first down was typically an off tackle, up the middle. The reverse was energizing, as was the amazing catch by our 6'6" tight end!
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Post by texas48 on Sept 12, 2022 8:20:23 GMT -6
That’s an increase and I’ll take it, for now. With the fair and rodeo in town, I really thought the attendance would be down. They’ll have to string a few wins together before “fans” jump on the bandwagon and start showing up. I still think that we can and should be doing better. Heck, what better way to top off a day at the fair than an evening at a D1 football game? So how? What would you do/should ACU do to get more people there? Even back in the day when ACU went to the playoffs, they had just over 6,000 people at Shotwell when they were 8-2 (2007) against TAMUK, and then just over 7,000 when they hosted a playoff game. In 2010, they hosted a playoff game and had just 6,458. In 2011, they were 8-2 and finished the regular season at home with two games of an attendance of 6,500 and 5,115 respectively. ACU was winning then, and they couldn't get people to come to the games. So what do you expect when the culture has been the opposite with only one winning season since 2013 (when they finished 6-5), and that winning season was 2018 (6-5 as well). First, ACU can do all it can to attract people, but it's first and foremost going to take WINS and exciting to watch offense and stifling defense to get people who don't have true purple skin in the game to come to the stadium. But what is the second step and third?
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Post by mavsman53 on Sept 12, 2022 9:03:51 GMT -6
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Post by wildcat1997 on Sept 12, 2022 10:10:52 GMT -6
I still think that we can and should be doing better. Heck, what better way to top off a day at the fair than an evening at a D1 football game? So how? What would you do/should ACU do to get more people there? Even back in the day when ACU went to the playoffs, they had just over 6,000 people at Shotwell when they were 8-2 (2007) against TAMUK, and then just over 7,000 when they hosted a playoff game. In 2010, they hosted a playoff game and had just 6,458. In 2011, they were 8-2 and finished the regular season at home with two games of an attendance of 6,500 and 5,115 respectively. ACU was winning then, and they couldn't get people to come to the games. So what do you expect when the culture has been the opposite with only one winning season since 2013 (when they finished 6-5), and that winning season was 2018 (6-5 as well). First, ACU can do all it can to attract people, but it's first and foremost going to take WINS and exciting to watch offense and stifling defense to get people who don't have true purple skin in the game to come to the stadium. But what is the second step and third? I know ACU already does some of this but we need to do all we can to market the team to the Abilene area as a whole and not just ACU grads. First the wins need to come of course. Then after that start putting up lots of billboard’s, run commercials, put up ads on all social media. Have the team do community events all around town and not just only high fiving at schools, even though that is a good thing. Give away free tickets to schools, churches and youth football teams. Serving alcohol at the stadium would go a long way too. There’s a lot you have to do if you want to become the de facto team in city and it’s not easy but if we want to become Abilene’s team, we have to put the effort in.
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Post by OscarWildeCat, Admin on Sept 12, 2022 10:34:30 GMT -6
So how? What would you do/should ACU do to get more people there? Even back in the day when ACU went to the playoffs, they had just over 6,000 people at Shotwell when they were 8-2 (2007) against TAMUK, and then just over 7,000 when they hosted a playoff game. In 2010, they hosted a playoff game and had just 6,458. In 2011, they were 8-2 and finished the regular season at home with two games of an attendance of 6,500 and 5,115 respectively. ACU was winning then, and they couldn't get people to come to the games. So what do you expect when the culture has been the opposite with only one winning season since 2013 (when they finished 6-5), and that winning season was 2018 (6-5 as well). First, ACU can do all it can to attract people, but it's first and foremost going to take WINS and exciting to watch offense and stifling defense to get people who don't have true purple skin in the game to come to the stadium. But what is the second step and third? I know ACU already does some of this but we need to do all we can to market the team to the Abilene area as a whole and not just ACU grads. First the wins need to come of course. Then after that start putting up lots of billboard’s, run commercials, put up ads on all social media. Have the team do community events all around town and not just only high fiving at schools, even though that is a good thing. Give away free tickets to schools, churches and youth football teams. Serving alcohol at the stadium would go a long way too. There’s a lot you have to do if you want to become the de facto team in city and it’s not easy but if we want to become Abilene’s team, we have to put the effort in. Here is a simple thing to boost attendance- change the faculty ticket rules to a more family friendly structure- charge half price for faculty spouses and dependents. If the University of Georgia can do it, so can we.
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Post by Outsider on Sept 12, 2022 10:57:26 GMT -6
I know ACU already does some of this but we need to do all we can to market the team to the Abilene area as a whole and not just ACU grads. First the wins need to come of course. Then after that start putting up lots of billboard’s, run commercials, put up ads on all social media. Have the team do community events all around town and not just only high fiving at schools, even though that is a good thing. Give away free tickets to schools, churches and youth football teams. Serving alcohol at the stadium would go a long way too. There’s a lot you have to do if you want to become the de facto team in city and it’s not easy but if we want to become Abilene’s team, we have to put the effort in. Here is a simple thing to boost attendance- change the faculty ticket rules to a more family friendly structure- charge half price for faculty spouses and dependents. If the University of Georgia can do it, so can we. I was thinking of something along the lines of family ticket pricing, plus food trucks and/or other food options for a family eve out. Dinner and a game type of thing for the family with family events? As well as advertising to the community, you have to make the game friendly to the community exactly because they don't have a connection to ACU. SO you need other things to draw them in.
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Post by buckeyecat on Sept 12, 2022 13:06:51 GMT -6
I agree totally. We need numbers and atmosphere. We are not going to make much more in ticket sales until our games become much more popular.
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Post by 123acufan on Sept 12, 2022 13:15:20 GMT -6
If you really want fans to show up selling alcohol will help.
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Post by acutrackfan on Sept 12, 2022 13:36:07 GMT -6
If you really want fans to show up selling alcohol will help. I don't argue that selling alcohol might help. However, McLane Stadium at Baylor still does not sell alcohol and they have managed to get some pretty good crowds. Having a good product on the field is still the big draw, although savvy marketing can also help. For the past few years, ACU has had a FB head coach who steadfastly refused to speak to alumni groups in Abilene or outside of town during the last 2 years of his tenure. Keith Patterson has shown very encouraging signs of wanting to share the ACU football story with community groups, alumni groups, students, etc. during his first months at ACU. KP has seen up-close how fans can help a program financially if they feel they are part of the "team". I hope to see that community-mindedness continue.
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