Unfortunately the current state of affairs for the two major sports at RU is pretty poor.. The Maryland thread got me thinking as to what schools are at a low point with both sports at the P5 level.. I know in the ACC it would be Wake Forest and BC.. Big Ten I don't think really has one in both.. Big 12 I don't think has one either, Sec would be Vandy perhaps (not sure how the hoop team is doing).. Don't follow the Pac 12 to comment on those teams.. My point is with those other schools RU has WAY better resources available to them..How did RU find itself in this situation? Is it poor coaching? Poor leadership in the athletic dept? Poor university leadership? I am curious.. as a pitt guy we have struggled for years with really poor leadership at many levels (things looking up now but who knows?) that it held the football team back.. Either way hopefully things start looking better for both programs.
RU football/bball
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A - No real equivalency to our current football and basketball situation. Hoops is really, historically bad. Football it's a temporary dip on a generally rising curve.
B- "Is it poor coaching? Poor leadership in the athletic dept? Poor university leadership?" Yes, some of all of that. And a bunch of other stuff too. One example poor public support. Both fandom and real politics/funding wise. With the fandom as a Pitt fan you are familiar with having a pro team sucking up much of the interest. Pittsburghers really love their Steelers. While neither fan base is as strident, we get Giants, Jets and Eagles. Plus you have to deal with all the loathsome Nittany fans, yuck. We get it too along with heavy doses of Domers, and others, as so many people who live in NJ come from somewhere else.
More tangibly our experience with expanding the stadium was more like Temple's than yours. My understanding was the Western PA politicians worked it out ahead of time that the Steelers and Pitt would work together on the new stadium and training complex. Temple was forced to basically beg the Eagles to use their building, at a rather high rent, because none of the local powers that be cared enough to get Temple buy in or look out for their interests. Our expansion had to be paid out of bonds against future revenue because no one in the State could figure out a way for public money to help build something at the State University campus.
B- "Is it poor coaching? Poor leadership in the athletic dept? Poor university leadership?" Yes, some of all of that. And a bunch of other stuff too. One example poor public support. Both fandom and real politics/funding wise. With the fandom as a Pitt fan you are familiar with having a pro team sucking up much of the interest. Pittsburghers really love their Steelers. While neither fan base is as strident, we get Giants, Jets and Eagles. Plus you have to deal with all the loathsome Nittany fans, yuck. We get it too along with heavy doses of Domers, and others, as so many people who live in NJ come from somewhere else.
More tangibly our experience with expanding the stadium was more like Temple's than yours. My understanding was the Western PA politicians worked it out ahead of time that the Steelers and Pitt would work together on the new stadium and training complex. Temple was forced to basically beg the Eagles to use their building, at a rather high rent, because none of the local powers that be cared enough to get Temple buy in or look out for their interests. Our expansion had to be paid out of bonds against future revenue because no one in the State could figure out a way for public money to help build something at the State University campus.
Thanks for your information.. How large is your stadium? Is it typically full? In Pittsburgh you are right in the sense its a Steelers town and always will be.. There does exist a pretty good Pitt following but they typically have a pro mentality.. Win and we will show up.. Lose and we wont..looking at RU from afar will very little to go on I come away with the idea " They should be better".. I have the same idea with Maryland as well... Jersey is loaded typically with players and I think if RU could just initially get their share of homestate players things could improve quickly... Eventually keeping out OSU and ND in particular.. PSU recruiting has ruled the entire northeast for years and years.. I see that starting to change( maybe wishful thinking) .. Inclusion into the Big Ten should be a boost to RU and hopefully knock PSU down a bit... Often times PSU fans denigrate Pitt and their attendance issues but what they fail to understand is PSU is a much much larger school and branch campsuses located across the entire state....
Do you think Coach Ash and the new AD are the answer for RU?
Do you think Coach Ash and the new AD are the answer for RU?
Capacity is 52,454. Attendance is not awful.
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We get our share of that.
We've been saying that for a looong time.
We generally see ND and PSU as bigger, more frequent, obstacles. OSU is less often and more selective. Powerful parochial School football in NJ is a natural feeder to the Domers and most adults (coaches and parents) that grew up in NJ remember when the Nits were the closest thing there was to a home team here.
I agree, hopefully. In PSU's case Paterno is ancient history for kids being recruited today. They are still a good team, we'll see how they do going forward, but unlikely to have the sort of dominance they had over something once known as eastern football.
No doubt about it. We still might be little brother, but we just got a seat at the big boy table.
We hope so too, believe me, and not just because Pitt fans want it.
I do certainly, but that is really just hope at this point.
