As the team prepared for the poster photo shoot, I started to think about some of the current challenges BC faces marketing the program. Who will be the focus of the poster? Can a casual BC fan name our best players? With the team coming off its worst season in over a decade, it would be nice to have a focal point. A person who fans could rally around. With Kuechly gone, BC doesn't have that player or coach.
Spaz is not a compelling public speaker. BC uses coordinators in their Youtube videos. No BC player made the ACC's preseason all conference team. They have two likeable but rather unknown Seniors on the cover of the media guide.
Perception matters in college football. Obviously tickets sales are part of that, but lacking a star player hurts when TV networks are selecting our games. Even if some of our players have breakout years, they will have a hard time winning national awards.
BC created some new and unique ticket packages to help attendance for the less attractive games. If we are play well, TV networks might pay attention during the last month of the season. But if the team struggles, it will be hard to sell anything. You can't force players to be great or be dynamic personalities. Even if players aren't well known, I am consistently proud of how they handle themselves. But BC can ask its coach to sell the program. Spaz doesn't and won't. But I hope that when we hire a new coach that sales and marketing aspect are not ignored. Coaching is primary, but representing BC should always be a factor.
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Who's the best player on Wake?
Who's the best player on Maryland?
Who's the best player on UVA?
Who's the best player on Miami?
Who's the best player on UNC?
stumped? I was too.
It's college ball. You don't have to have a big name. Still, I think most BC fans could tell you who BC's starting QB is.
We do have a face of the program. It has a mustache. And it can't be sold.
Lets not ask for too much involvement from Fenway Sports Group. Money is their God.
Keuchly was a once in a generation type player like Doug Flutie. Some would argue(not me) that Matt Ryan was a once in a generation type player. By this math we have had three once in a generation type players in the last 30 years. I will take that in terms of faces of the program.
That being said(i think flutie and keuchly are icons and decent human beings) none of these guys have won a national championship, played for a national championship, or won played in a topflight bowl. So having a face of the program DOESN'T REALLY mean anything other than it can fill empty seats and make money for the school. I would rather win a prestigous bowl or get to the new 4 team playoffs than sell the program.
I like the "no-name" situation we are in this year and will be in next year. I think we are around
.500 this year and then get back to a 8 win team the following season with a large group of "no-name" Seniors with alot of experience.
Winning..and winning against teams no one thinks you can beat solves many many problems...its been a long time since BC played a big game on a big stage (2007 VT?)
Just win baby
@Knucklehead: As Ronnie R would say, "there you go again". Look at the results from 1984. BC was 9-2 for the regular season and then beat Houston in the Cotton Bowl. They lost by 1 at W.V. and by 7 at Penn St. They finished the season ranked number 3 and Flutie won the big trophy. But for those two close games on the road, they would have won the National Championship. Guess what? Miami was the defending NCAA champ from 1983 and that was the "Flutie game" at Miami. Oh yee of "little faith". BC has walked the walk and done the talk before and will do it again given the right "cannon balls". As the "Bad News Bears" said after they lost in the championship, it's good news for the Eagles and bad news for everyone else.
Knuckle - Glenn Foley and Pete Mitchell and others weren't bad either. We've had more than 3 "once in a generation type players" in the last 30 years.
I think several names will emerge this year, but I like the team concept as well - the "no-name" situation.
I am hoping for at least 7 wins this year.
Go BC - Beat Miami. Let's come flying off the blocks.
We're due for a year will few serious injuries.
JBQ,
The Cotton Bowl was a good bowl in 1984 and BC had 25,000 fans at the game. I still have the old school painters cap and maroon cotton bowl t-shirt that my parents bought at the game. I was 5. I graduated from BC in '01. The game in 84 wasn't the Orange, Rose, or Sugar. Not minimizing it just stating a fact.
There are alot IF's in your comment. If we didn't lose to team x,y, or z etc. Fact is, we did lose games in 84. We had a GREAT team full of NFL players and one of the top 5 most talented/iconic players in college football history and we were not able to go all the way.
We lost out on the Sugar Bowl in 93 when we lost to WVU at home(night game absolutely sick atmosphere. Guy literally has a heart attack a section behind me after the fumble. Easily 50,000 people in the stadium that night. People snuck into the game.) on a David Green fumble. That BC team was loaded as well. Foley, McManus, Boyd, Mitchell were all on that team. My favorite BC team ever. Awesome.
We lost to Syracuse at Home in the 00's with a Orange Bowl on the line.
We lost the ACC championship games with Ryan, Herz, etc. That would have put us in the Orange Bowl more recently.
All those teams were loaded with sellable iconic players but never put it all together. MAYBE it is good that we don't have individual players to rely on this year so everyone feels obligated to give 100%. MAYBE then this team will OVERACHIEVE unlike the teams mentioned above.
Read what I wrote originally again. it is as faithful a Boston College football take as you are going to get from anyone who knows anything about the history of BC football.
By the way, I will be at all the games this season like I have for the last 15 years.
We finished the season ranked 4 in 1984, I believe.
I don't think you can put Luke on the same level as Flutie and Ryan. You can go anywhere in the country and mention the 2 QB's and people know who you are talking about. If you ask someone outside Boston and Ohio if they know who Luke Kuechly is, you hear "Who?" Also, Ryan and Flutie led their respective teams to the best seasons BC football has had in the modern era. Can't say the same for Luke. I love the guy, but he is not at the level of the other 2. This can certainly change if he becomes a dominant NFL player.
JBQ, Knucklehead is right, BC has never won at the high-level national stage. I would say the '84 Cotton Bowl is the closest BC has come, but nothing since (a nearly 3 decade drought!)
Knuckle, I beg to differ about the Cotton Bowl. I didn't hear about from my parents, I was there. There were 40,000 people from Boston at the game, the largest airlift from Boston since WWII. In 1984, the Cotton Bowl was on the same level as the Orange, Sugar & Rose. It wasn't second tier.
EagleBoston, you might not consider it a "high level national stage," but the 1940 Sugar Bowl, when Chuckin' Charlie O'Rourke led BC over Tennessee, was for the national title.
My point is let's not diminish our achievements, rather let's savor them.
Scoop,
There were 67,000 people at that game. No way BC had 40k and HOUSTON had 27k. The BC attendance was 25k.
Stick to scoopin poop.
I was at the 1985 Cotton Bowl as well. The 67,000 figure may refer to tickets sold; but there were way fewer people in the seats because it was very cold. The weather refused to cooperate and we were treated to snow, ice, and cold. There were a lot of empty seats.
I had tickets from a friend at CBS, which televised the game; but they were "nosebleed" type because of the extensive sales; but on game day, an upgrade was easy (scalping was legal in Texas at that time). A hundred bucks got me "Corporate Box, Tickets 1 and 2". They were great seats on the 50 yard line. This is anecdotal proof that the "fair weather" fans in the corporate boxes did wimp out.
Those of us who participated in "...the largest movement from New England by air since WWII..." were hardier souls, although it was damned difficult to find long underwear in Dallas, so we froze.
There were happy BC folks in all the major hotels and every other place in town. I didn't count'm; but we "traveled well" and had a great time. I have no trouble agreeing that there wee 40,000 of us in Dallas--maybe not all in the stadium.
BTW those elevated freeways in Dallas freeze ran and Dallas has no salt trucks and only a few garbage trucks with plows. It was an adventure on ice getting back to the Anflac Hotels at DFW.
"Those were the days my friends, we thought they'd never end..."
Fire Spaz-Fire GDF--Beat Miami
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