its really unfortunate how little excitement there is surrounding this program- at least on this board- so close to the season. i truly hope its not a reflection of the larger fan base.
Four consecutive losing seasons will take all the wind out of your fan base. We're already a school that struggles greatly with fan apathy. Imploding every year due to horrid QB play and mediocre offensive coaching will only make it worse. We're the dedicated fans and if we're not even excited, just imagine how the average student and/or fan feels? We'll be lucky to win three games this season.
Our style of play doesn't help us either. People prefer to watch the high scoring spread offenses, or at the very least watch competent QB play if you're running a pro-style system. We haven't had a good QB since Essington graduated. It's such a damn shame, because this program has talent and the defense has been elite.
Had we had even a halfway competent QB we'd have surely made some playoff runs these past couple seasons with Hemphill running the defense. Letting Hemphill run off to Wake Forest rather than promoting him to HC will haunt this program for a long time. He'll be the HC at a very good G5 program within the next five years mark my words.
Building hype around your program is a 3-4 year process. We'll have to start over from square one since none of the current students or players have experienced a conference championship season while at SBU.