Why did ULM pass on Hop? It could have been a dream to coach at an FBS school without being far from your hometown. I really like and respect Hop(as well as his family)...he and I grew up in the same town...I think he and Tony Smith were teammates in high school...so he knows and recruits MS well....turned Alcorn around and nearly beat USM....etc, etc, so you'd think ULM would gave jumped to give Hop a chance. I honestly see Hop's ceiling where Bower's was: average with an occasional big victory; but right now things must drastically improve if this team wants to ever win this terribly weak conference.
A serious question....
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This is more of a Jim Carmody comparison than Jeff Bower. Carmody was a 5-6 win coach that had stagnat offenses and attendance dropped as well as interest in his product. The upper decks were completely empty when Carmody was here and we are reverting back to that now. We are and will average 6,000 to 7,000 less fans this year and it is only going to get worse in the years to come because he can't or won't put the right player in the right position on offense. This crap may be because his OC wants to make the call, but Hop is the man in charge and if he can't see what the problem is then he ain't head coach material. Now go out there in offseason and find you a OC that can coach at this level, hell it ain't got to be a million dollar guy, just a guy that can call a decent game and know which player can and cannot play at a certain position.
He turned Alcorn around by building a solid program in 4 years...not 2. This program was decimated by the EJ years and Monk's desperation year of JUCOs which worked but left the cupboard bare again. This conference may be considered weak by some, but has a lot of parity among its members and has had some strong competitions with highly talented teams from the Elite conferences. He is working on building a strong and lasting program for USM and he is smarter than some give him credit.
Bluebelle you have a point but you can't lose fans by the thousands along the way. Fedora didn't, Monken didn't, because they had exciting offenses but Hop chooses to force the QB position on a certain kid that really can excel at another position. We go from averaging 29,000 in 2015, to 27,000 last year to 20,000 -22,000 this year, that is a trend that we are getting in that is alarming. Closed minded decisions at the top loses fans, playing your best players regardless of age gains fans because you are more exciting and are more competitive. We have lost multiple games this year because of this.
H.E., I asked around campus about the lower attendance. He said the reason is that new AD Gilbert said that the giving away of so many free tickets is ending. He wants people to start buying tickets. I don’t know how you figure this but he said that revenue is doing some better from this decision. But overall the lower attendance is mainly a result of not alloting free tickets to local businesses.
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There’s an article out on the attendance issue. And Seth gives the summary of it correctly.
