I believe attendance has become pathetic and that most would agree. The question is why. It's not a single thing, I'm sure, but I believe the biggest thing is that the games just aren't as exciting as they used to be, win or lose.
People often quote the saying "defense wins championships", but they leave out the part that says, "but offense sells tickets". This isn't a post to bash Legg and Doc, there's enough of those and frankly I think the crowd supporting them at this point is small. My point is that Marshall fans, due to most of them cutting their teeth of early fandom with guys like Pennington and Leftwich at QB, like a certain kind of football. I would venture to say if I asked which season did you enjoy more, 2012 or 2017, most would say 2012 for a couple of reasons. First, the offense was just fun to watch and second you could see with that style and those young players that we were on an upswing. We went 5-7 that year and are 7-3 so far this year, but I would venture that more people were having fun in 2012.
I took the time to look at some offensive numbers for the past several seasons. The results are below:
Year - total off rank - plays per game - yards per game - yards per play
2017 - 82nd - 72 - 383 - 5.34
2016 - 114th - 67 - 350 - 5.04
2015 - 64th - 74 - 400 - 5.38
2014 - 2nd - 74 - 559 - 7.59
2013 - 12th - 78 - 500 - 6.41
2012 - 6th - 91 - 534 - 5.90
2011 - 102nd - 65 - 333 - 5.08
2010 - 103rd - 64 - 314 - 4.92
2009 - 81st - 67 - 350 - 5.19
2008 - 86th - 64 - 330 - 5.12
Given the numbers above, I believe fans, consciously or subconsciously, just don't have any hope. There is no difference offensively between Snyder's last two years and the last two years of the current coaches. It also shows what our staff really is because the numbers pre Cato and post Cato are very similar
People often quote the saying "defense wins championships", but they leave out the part that says, "but offense sells tickets". This isn't a post to bash Legg and Doc, there's enough of those and frankly I think the crowd supporting them at this point is small. My point is that Marshall fans, due to most of them cutting their teeth of early fandom with guys like Pennington and Leftwich at QB, like a certain kind of football. I would venture to say if I asked which season did you enjoy more, 2012 or 2017, most would say 2012 for a couple of reasons. First, the offense was just fun to watch and second you could see with that style and those young players that we were on an upswing. We went 5-7 that year and are 7-3 so far this year, but I would venture that more people were having fun in 2012.
I took the time to look at some offensive numbers for the past several seasons. The results are below:
Year - total off rank - plays per game - yards per game - yards per play
2017 - 82nd - 72 - 383 - 5.34
2016 - 114th - 67 - 350 - 5.04
2015 - 64th - 74 - 400 - 5.38
2014 - 2nd - 74 - 559 - 7.59
2013 - 12th - 78 - 500 - 6.41
2012 - 6th - 91 - 534 - 5.90
2011 - 102nd - 65 - 333 - 5.08
2010 - 103rd - 64 - 314 - 4.92
2009 - 81st - 67 - 350 - 5.19
2008 - 86th - 64 - 330 - 5.12
Given the numbers above, I believe fans, consciously or subconsciously, just don't have any hope. There is no difference offensively between Snyder's last two years and the last two years of the current coaches. It also shows what our staff really is because the numbers pre Cato and post Cato are very similar