first heres a little something to help you negotiate the area for your trip to maximize your fun and activities efficiently (think you'll find the locals quite welcoming);
http://www.texanmarktailgate.blogspot.com
As for what's up with the fanbase you bring up an issue that though while talked about a lot, no one has firm answers. We have theories. And here's one such theory(ies).
Historically we're actually a football town with great success (NC, Heisman, great NFL players in the 50+60's), but we became a basketball town with the dome, our coach and with the 80's with Pearl Washington and the gang, this occurred as the school allowed the football fortunes to deteriorate, literally with facilities in the 70's.
My perception (emphasize mine as other will surely refute) is rooted in several theories with one being its is simply logistically and financially easier to properly support a basketball program and this is where the emphasis has been with great success and success begets success.
We are an instructive example for business and sports programs of what NOT to do when it comes to maintaining success of winning program. The decline of the football program was the perfect storm of several factors not the least of which was not maintaining competitive facilities. This was (and still is to a lesser degree as it is finally being addressed), this issue was combined with a administration that wasn't forward thinking enough/modern thinking enough however one wants to phrase it, this in conjunction with coaching blunders.
Whether the case of a staff where the game has passed them by on the field and off and not good enough of leader/CEO type (the end of the Pasqualoni era), resulting in a worsening into mediocrity (.500ish over the last several years with poor recruiting - again somewhat helped out by bad facilities). This, sans the facitlities part, is what just played out over at UConn. Not relating to the players anymore was a part as I knew first hand treating many SU players at the time in my health care practice.
Anyway that's where the slide into the abyss started contributed to in part by a admin. that being too old school was never proactive and rather reactive NOT doing what they needed to do. And then flat out contributing to the alienation of an already somewhat front running fair weather fan base the admin. literally in a front page article told the community "To get a life" ostensibly and assumably outside of following their football team.
This as many in the community had the temerity to want more than mediocrity as that was were things were with no end in sight with it likely to worsen, so many wanted a coaching change. Bad Bad business. And all of that resulted in many doing just that re football as people stayed away in droves while many somehow made the rationalization not to let that apply to hoops (the success of the hoops team vs. non success of football aided in this).
Add in some trying economic times with lost population due to the national transition from a industrial economy to a service economy with a population decline here, general higher costs of living and the fact that the northeast is more of a pro town (us included) than a "college type of town", and all together the result is a foregone conclusion of what's happened here. Like I said earlier the perfect storm.
To make matters worse we then fell head long into the abyss with worst hire in the history of college football, the very nice, but very incompetent GRob error. Enough said on that. So that's nearly a decade of poor football on the field, inept managment and leadership on and off the field and that's what we had to come from. Thats A LOT to overcome. With this game enough time has passed from all that, a savior in coach Marrone pulled the program from the ledge and now things are returning, albeit slowly and maybe/maybe not this weekend, to the success we've had here for decades (40's, 50's, early 60's, 80's and 90's).
You can read the byline of a poster named Tomcat for just how much success we've had here. So companies and programs would be well suited to learn from our past as as I said all of that is a lot to overcome. The good news is now all of those factors have been addressed and changes made and hopefully a future game of this type will not have any problem getting butts in the seats.
And that's we are. In fact this weekend will tell us exactly where we are. Enjoy your time and trip up here.
