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I have been a BG fan since 91. I feel like no matter what we do, we are always 'close' but not the best. We don't win the basketball tournament, and we are kept out of the Big Dance. We win our division, but not the conference.

Maybe it is all these 3-loss years in a row, but it sure seems like we will never put together that dream season and run the table. We aren't the best team on our schedule...one of our opponents is always better...Every year we are "good," someone in the MAC is better.

I know it is asking a lot, but dang, I would LOVE to have that unblemished year.

F-30, I was thinking the exact same thing. If we ever hope to be the "best" we need a big season like Utah. Maybe next year...

Well, I've got a pretty darn good feeling about next season.

We can beat Boise and we can beat Wisconsin.

Also, we're running the table in the MAC next year. You heard it here first.

That's what it will take....Utah won ALL their games this year.

On the field, we can be as good as any mid major school out there and probably be better than a majority of the "big" programs in 1A.

Can we develop the rabid local following that a Boise State or Utah seem to have developed? Out of the 1,000,000+ people that live within an hour or two of BG can we develop enough interest to count on 23,000 people showing up to augment the usual 7,000 students.

As stupid as it sounds, all the current evidence points to "no"...

You need to have mountains to be like Salt Lake or Boise!

Flipper wrote:Can we develop the rabid local following that a Boise State or Utah seem to have developed? Out of the 1,000,000+ people that live within an hour or two of BG can we develop enough interest to count on 23,000 people showing up to augment the usual 7,000 students.

As stupid as it sounds, all the current evidence points to "no"...

I thought the same thing as I drove around NWO this past week, reading the Blade, listening to the jokers on 1470. I thought it was great that I heard what were apparently regular interviews with Dakich and Paluch, but Monday afternoon, the day before a HUGE game for the area, all they wanted to talk about was a two-day old OSU-UM game and a three day old Pistons-Pacers fight. Big stories, for sure, and it was the first day they were on air after each had happened, but for the 20 minutes I listened, there was one very casual mention that the BG-UT game even existed. I don't know what Tuesday was like, but there is no reason in TOLEDO that the UT-BG game should have taken a backseat to ANYTHING. As long as the Toledo media feeds the OSU and/or UM needs of Toledoans with such huge helpings, I can't see EITHER school's fanbase growing without a monumental effort from the marketing departments of each school. (And that gets us back to the dead horse abuse of the last two months around here.)

And then on Thanksgiving, with the BG-UT game still as fresh as the Pacers or OSU-UM, the top of the fold on the Blade Sports section was an editorial about the "turkeys of the year" (I got really tired of that angle about the fifth time ESPN.com broke it out this year.), and all about OSU. Granted, they have had their share of turkeys in the past year, but why not write an article expressing "thanks" for what Toledo and Northwest Ohio has to offer, instead of bowing to Columbus?

I was only there Monday through Thursday, but I was about ready to pull my hair out!

redskins4ever wrote:You need to have mountains to be like Salt Lake or Boise!

We also need to find some alums/donors with bottomless pockets.

That both Utah and Boise St. have absolutly no other schools to compete with for fans. Its all Utah or all Boise St. or nothing as far as college fooball in those states. Not so here, unfortunatley.

Utah has to compete with the ever popular BYU Cougars and the Utah State Aggies...

Boise competes with the Idaho Vandals (WHAT A COOL name of course I think that should be OSU's name personally.)

There is an upside that everybody sees in the skill positions for next year. Having the entire offensive backfield is going to push us forward, However, the point we're all forgetting is the loss of the dominant seniors on the offensive line. Without those guys to protect the pocket and the runners, will we have enough to step up?

Not saying the new guys CAN'T do it, but it will be very tough to replace and could mean a comparatively tough year.

thedrum wrote:However, the point we're all forgetting is the loss of the dominant seniors on the offensive line. Without those guys to protect the pocket and the runners, will we have enough to step up?

The loss of Scotty Mruczkowski will definitely hurt the line, but the 5 Blocks of Granite are going to have to step up. Lichtensteiger and Warren proved to be studs this year and we'll need both to be healthy next year. Any update on whether Andrew Hart can get a 6th year like Brandon mentioned a month ago or if he would even want to play another year?? I think Nystrom will step up, along with Markray to fill holes and hopefully 1 more from the 5 Blocks will step up to fill the last spot. I think everyone has virtually given up on Jonathon Culp becoming a solid starter, so it's up to the young guys.

To get back to the original point of the thread, I think falconboy brings up a good point about their fan bases. I'm sure BYU has a good following, but competing with OSU and Michigan, not to mention the 5 other MAC schools in Ohio is really tough.

Someone somewhere else mentioned that Andrew Hart's mom, an occasional AZZ poster, said Andrew wasn't going to seek a sixth year. He's been through a lot of pain, and if he's graduating, I don't blame him. He only deserves our thanks.

Back to the main point, Falconboy did inadvertently uncover a good point. Utah doesn't have the big ten to contend with, and neither does Boise. There are other colleges around at their level, but they aren't playing in anyone's shadow.

Not to say we can't draw better, but we're never going to be the regional focus.

orangeandbrown wrote:Falconboy did inadvertently uncover a good point.

this could be one of the funniest unintentional lines of the year.

orangeandbrown wrote:Not to say we can't draw better, but we're never going to be the regional focus.

Never say never, but our challenge is apparent.