Just curious. Since Tech fans are generally ..

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...considered more serious about life, is that the reason Tech is thought of as poor travelling? I mean that even when we do travel well, do outsiders believe that we as a whole only care about the game, and will penny pinch on hotels and drink less than the more raucous blue collar fan bases that want to really whoop it up on their rare opportunity to get out of town and let their mullets down?

I happen to think its true. Others?
 
Hot dang,
PW, now you've done it!! You have expanded my horizons, yes you have. My thinker just never has thunk along those lines but you may be right on target.
For my part, I like to thing along the lines of "Frugal" instead of "Pennypincher".
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/hugelaugh.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/hugelaugh.gif
Have a nice day!!
 
My opinion, right or wrong, is a little different. I think that the fans of other schools who travel to away games are not from the 'blue collar fan base', but are the monied, successful alumni who have the bucks to spend on such things. The exceptions would be the students and most recent graduates, who pile in the car and drink themselves silly throughout the trip, but I would guess the majority of the travelling fans for any college are pretty well-heeled.
 
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...the more raucous blue collar fan bases that want to really whoop it up on their rare opportunity to get out of town and let their mullets down?



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I resemble that remark! HAHAHA

GO JACKETS
 
I think that there are a few factors that explain why we are a poor traveling team:

1) The fact that we are not the state’s football school, when you are the university of college football in your state it generally means that every child grows up idolizing your program and there is a strong rooted tradition that fuels popular desire to see the team and travel with it. This is the case for Ugag not us.

2) Winning tradition, in the “what have you done for me lately” world of sports (or anything for that matter) the neutral fans gravitate toward the team that is successful, and by successful I mean the big stage (conference championships and BCS). The fact that we have not contended since the days of Joe Hamilton and that Ugag has been on the rise and steady at it just swings the neutral fans/capital in their favor.

3) The makeup of GT students and alumni, we are a small selective school were a huge part of the student body (would really like someone with ethnic breakdown stats on the GT student body to post to support this point) is made-up of foreigners who grew up in a different culture and just don’t care about football.

4) Location, were in an urban campus if you check some of the urban campus schools around the country you will find out that their fans do no travel well (Pitt and Miami are examples) simply because there are other entertainment options out there for them. In small towns like Athens, Stillwater, Oxford, Columbia and countless others there is a rally around the flag syndrome, a sense of belonging that the college team creates with the community due to the fact that it’s the only game in town. That doesn’t happen in the big city since once again there is much to do and there are also many people who come to the city for the opportunities that it offers and bring along their own allegiances.
 
5.) The fact that 3/4 of our student body doesnt know what football is or care too...the biggest factor of them all, IMO. How can we expect to travel well (or be attractive to bowls) when we have trouble filling our own stadium through out the year!!!!!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/pat.gif
 
We must have travelled in vastly different circles as undergrads. But I guess I can believe the number, if a little exagerated, because the women 20-25% don't give a crap for the most part, 20-25% foreign (this includes people west of texas or north of Virginia), and 25% who are "academics" as we seems to like to call them around here who would rather play Quake, or whatever the hell it is those kids play now, than go to a football game.

...no wonder we're one of the most likely schools to have a drinking problem, gotta get away from the other 75% somehow /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/drink1.gif
 
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3) The makeup of GT students and alumni, we are a small selective school were a huge part of the student body (would really like someone with ethnic breakdown stats on the GT student body to post to support this point) is made-up of foreigners who grew up in a different culture and just don’t care about football.


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I have been told that by many of my friends that graduated from Tech and THEY ALL don't really follow Tech sports.
 
Maybe I would have been a better human being if athletics, and particulary Tech athletics weren't a very big part of my conscious being, but that is something I can't even fathom.
In a way, I see a similarity with the movie "It's a Wonderful Life".
 
That's very well-thought-out, GTYJ12. I think if we could overcome Reason #2, then #1 might not be so important (for example, Notre Dame is not "the University" in its state), but all of these make sense. I am especially conscious of Reason #2, in fact; I grew up in Atlanta in the Bobby Dodd days, and Tech football was huge all over the state. Since Dodd retired, even though we've had some good years here and there, we aren't considered a powerhouse anymore as we were then. The result has been that we've lost an entire generation of kids - who now have kids of their own - to the Dawgs fan base.
 
So based on what you're saying that most of our student body isn't that interested in our athletic program, most of the fans around the state are not, and our alumni base is fraction of what the large universities enjoy, what will it take to field a program that consistently matches the performance of the countries top programs? Can it be done? Do our dreams match reality?
 
Buzzed, this has been one of the hottest topics on the board. IMO, it won't be easy but it is certainly achievable considering the last 100 year period of Tech, and where we are seated geographically.
That said it won't be done if serious change is not the path we take.
Times have changed, and we need to step it up with the right guy in charge.
 
Who says we travel poorly? I went to the GT-Auburn game this year and there were 10,000 GT fans. I went to the GT-UVA game this year and I had a horrible time getting a ticket. The GTAA sends back unsold tickets in the summer to UVA. I had to get a ticket through a friend at UVA and there were others of us scattered throughout the crowd.

We have always travelled well to post Chritams bowl games within 300 miles and as far as Orlando as well. I would go to the Emerald bowl but I can't get a reasonably price plane flight (without and 8 hour layover on each leg).
 
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Who says we travel poorly?

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That wasn't my point to the question, and it was only a question.
What I was asking was when Tech fans go out of town do they party enough to make the host city bars, restraunts and upper priced hotels happy.
It was more about if our fans were just travelling fans, or if we were rowdy fans that dropped big bucks like others.
Again, I was asking a question and not making a statement.
 
You mentioned one thing that I think is our saving grace, and that's our geographic location. We are sitting right in the middle of some of the finest football talent in the world. Ugag can't get it all. There's an overflowing well of talent that we need to get back to tapping into. We've done it before and there's no reason we can't regularly in the future.
I remember when Georgia Southern first got their football program going and how quickly Erk won a national championship. Basically he won it with players that were being discarded by area D1 programs. I believe that many of those kids could have played at many D1 programs outside of Georgia, but few opportunities for post-secondary football existed at that time beyond the top programs like GT, UGA, AU, FSU, ect. We then saw football sprout at places like GMC, West GA, and many other schools as they realized this talent surplus.
Well, our state is much bigger now than in those days--almost twice as big. We could infer there's probably twice the football talent base as well. There's no reason we shouldn't be able to get loads of great players looking for an opportunity to play the kind of schedule we have against some of the country's finest teams. Not all these top tier athletes will get offered by Miami, FSU, TN, Ugag, AU, ect. Scholarship limitations are working to our advantage.
The players are there. We just need a coach that knows how to get them.
 
ND is in a very unique situation they are and have always been a NATIONAL SCHOOL we are not nor are we the dominant in State Univ and it does make a difference.
We have had since Dodd one Coach who was able to recruit the state of GA well and that was Bill Lewis.

At Tech we are who we are it's unfortunate but about a third of the SA's in the state are off limits for us. We have a coach that evaluates raw talent BETTER than any we have ever had and today given our situation that ability is a must. We are finally begining to build depth in both the OL and DL something we have not had in my lifetime.

There are too many that compare Coach Dodds record with those of today but to make a fair comparison, IMO you have to look at his record from the mid 50's on and it was not as good as most think and for many of the same reasons our coaches face today, We have not been a powerhouse since then.Personally I think Bill Curry could be the one that gets us over the hump.I believe he understands Tech and who we are He after all was one of the Saviors of our football program.

Now back to the original thread pw could be on to something about how we travel we I don't think have ever been a party hearty bunch.
 
Woody, I enjoted your thoughts, and agree that Bill Curry is what we need now.
I am not so sure about his abilities at other schools, but who cares. We need his character and charisma. I am sure, like many here have pointed out, that Bill would hire a great team to handle day to day admin functions.
 
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