Disclaimer - long, and I'm speaking generally here about the fanbase, not to anyone personally. Though if you're offended, a bit of introspection might be in order.
I think it's a little more nuanced than just rabid dogs. I was in the band in the late 80's and 90's, and in grad school after that coming to games as a regular student. We have always had a particular trait as a fanbase that has frustrated me. Yes we travel well. Yes we donate. Yes we are rabid, passionate fans when things go well. But when things start to not go well, even for a series or two, Neyland immediately turns off, sits on its hands and becomes a tomb. Never mind that the fans are the biggest part of our home field advantage and can play a huge part in momentum. A large part of our support has always been much more transactional, with an intensely negative, head for the exits in the third quarter mentality bubbling just below the surface. It's not everyone, but the degree of binary on/off support displayed in person and in the moment is shocking in comparison to a place like TAMU. Maybe 15-20% of the folks who came to an otherwise wet, miserable game were actually still in the stadium to see Stoerner fumble - in an undefeated season. The Legions of the Miserable are real, and many of them are season ticket holders. And now they have twitter and the rest of the internet, and are dead-set on voicing their grievances to the world.
In the interim, the fanbase has taken repeated hits - weak ADs, weak admin leadership, promising but failed hires, unbelievably bad hires, booster shenanigans - it has taken its toll, and the negativity has grown dramatically. I've lurked through every coaching search in here since Kiffin with rapt attention, because it's fun, and trying to piece together what's happening behind the scenes and gaming out possibilities for the future is addictive. It's my only connection with the program at this point besides watching every game, as I've been on the west coast for 20 years. With each search, the negativity in here has naturally grown. Someone in here made the comment a couple of evenings ago during one of the candidate freakouts about us being bipolar, and that's when I put it all together. We're not bipolar, we're borderline.
Look it up. I had to work under someone who was borderline for just 2 months, and I can honestly say that it was the most miserable thing I've ever had to go through in a work setting.
When things are going well, we're that crazy hot girl at the club who is wild and fun, shows a lot more cleavage than anyone else, and immediately falls head over heels for you (coach, administration, program). Intense, passionate, hard to resist.
Right now, we're at the phase where you (coach, admin, program) come home to find that your crazy hot girl has been cyberstalking you and all your friends and acquaintances, has poisoned the dog, is wearing only panties and one of your button down shirts that is soaked with tears and mascara, and is busy cutting the mattress in half with a chainsaw.
I'm underwhelmed with the hire, but hopeful that we can have an offense again, and that maybe the right staff can bring the defense around. In retrospect, with our current set of circumstances, I think we're likely lucky that Heupel said yes and we didn't end up with someone with less chance of success. I'm hopeful that with our recent housecleaning, our AD, admin and booster situations are more stable, competent and functional than in the past. That leaves us as a fanbase, and I think we've got some work to do to become attractive again. Someone actually emailed Sonny Dykes telling him we weren't interested? WTF? It's not just perception - we are toxic. Words matter, tweets matter, actions matter - particularly to someone we're trying to convince to come here to play or coach. Admin just burned this whole thing down because it has been rotten since soon after Dickey left. We need to put away our matches, or we'll never be able to rebuild.
We need some good news soon lol
