Mark Hollis

[Spartanmack]

Interesting that nobody here is talking about the monumentally stupid move by Hollis to call out the fans on twitter. We've been screwed out of enough BCS bowls as it is, now he's on record telling the world our fans suck when in fact it's more his fault that they left early and the teams fault for coughing up a huge lead and putting themselves in the position where they needed crowd noise. Personally, I never leave early but I get that on Saturday night, in the freezing rain after enduring most of game that took nearly 5 hours and was well in hand, that students left early.

 

[tomdalton22]

Interesting that nobody here is talking about the monumentally stupid move by Hollis to call out the fans on twitter. We've been screwed out of enough BCS bowls as it is, now he's on record telling the world our fans suck when in fact it's more his fault that they left early and the teams fault for coughing up a huge lead and putting themselves in the position where they needed crowd noise. Personally, I never leave early but I get that on Saturday night, in the freezing rain after enduring most of game that took nearly 5 hours and was well in hand, that students left early.

how is it his fault that the fans left early?

 

[Sbee]

they're making way too big of a deal out of this, the game was 27-3 to start the 4th and 27-9 with 6 minutes left. Some people want to talk about the badge of honor for watching every snap of a game but there is a point where you think the outcome is decided and it's safe to leave. it just happened that MSU did a poor job offensively late in the game, had some special teams lapses and almost blew it. Langford made the decision to avoid a tackle for a loss late in the game but that caused him to cut outside and get pushed out by Gregory in pursuit. Hey, hollis and MD, shit happens, just move on.

I guess I can understand a focus on the students because they have less responsibility and travel time than anyone else. I can't say that as a 20 year old I would stay to the end of a game that I though was in hand when the weather was shitty though. it was a big party weekend up there i'm sure with a lot of out of towners coming in for the game and parties afterwards.

i was at a wedding and sold my tix but I sure as hell wouldn't have stayed with the score at 27-3. I'd have an hour plus drive home and deal with traffic coming out of the stadium. People do have lives outside of MSU football

 

[Spartanmack]

how is it his fault that the fans left early?

It's more his fault than the student's because he knows nationally televised games take over 4 hours - in this case almost five so he knows having a night game in October is a bad idea. Also, the athletic department that he runs made the student section general admission where it used to be assigned seating so now students are queuing up and entering the stadium where they can't drink as much as 2.5 hours before game time to get a good seat. so when you add up all the tv timeouts, most of the kids had been standing in the cold and rain for over 6 hours when they left a game that was 27-3 and by all rights should have never been close.

 

[Spartanmack]

Yes they're making too big a deal of it and that's the problem. The AD should know better than to call out the fans on Twitter - now it's on record and getting coverage everywhere (ESPN, MLive, the papers, Barstool, Deadspin, etc) that the MSU AD says Spartan fans suck. Keep it in the family - write an editorial (print version only if you can) in the State News.

And the focus on students has little or nothing to do with travel concerns - Hollis knows he can't alienate the folks that make donations, attend fund raisers with auctions, pay seat licenses and buy season tickets.

Plus, if not for stupid mistakes, bad play calling and penalties, the team wouldn't have needed a loud crowd in the final minutes and nobody would be talking about this.

 

[jwlcosu]

It's more his fault than there's because he knows nationally televised games take over 4 hours - in this case almost five so he knows having a night game in October is a bad idea.

Prime time games are the rage. MSU vs. Nebraska was one of the showcase games on the schedule. Hard to blame the guy for scheduling a night game on October 4. Could easily have been a beautiful fall evening. He's making way too much of students leaving, I agree, but criticizing him for putting Nebraska at night is pushing it, I think. November 8 is a night game as well. Is that a bad idea?

 

[Spartanmack]

Prime time games are the rage. MSU vs. Nebraska was one of the showcase games on the schedule. Hard to blame the guy for scheduling a night game on October 4. Could easily have been a beautiful fall evening. He's making way too much of students leaving, I agree, but criticizing him for putting Nebraska at night is pushing it, I think. November 8 is a night game as well. Is that a bad idea?

could easily have been a beautiful fall evening in Columbus but in E Lansing the chances of it being miserable - like it was - are much higher. No one should be surprised by that. And it's not just the night game. It's a combination of the night game, the duration, the weather, the change in the student section seating policy that led to the fans being stuck in bad weather for over 5 hours by the end of the 3rd quarter in 27-3 game. So yeah, considering all of that, none of which should have been a surprise (except the 3rd quarter score), it's pretty stupid that he goes to twitter to call out the students for leaving.

And yes, I think a night game November 8 is a bad idea and I fully expect the student section to be half empty if the either team has a 4-score lead after 4+ hours with a full quarter left to play. One thing about November that may help is E Lansing will have probably had at least one snow fall so students will hopefully be better prepared for the weather and the game will likely decide who goes to the B1G champ game - but I still think if it plays out like the nebraska game, people will leave early.

And like I said above, if it was warranted I don't really have a problem with him saying something to the fans - but say it to the fans in the student paper or something. Don't call them out on twitter and create a stupid PR shit storm.

 

[Michchamp]

Isn't Hollis friendly with Dave Brandon? That's a bad sign. The company you keep and all that.

 

[Spartanmack]

i have no idea who he pals around with but a lot State fans are willing to cut him some slack because he's done a lot of good things for the program - or at least because he's been AD during the resurgence of the football program, he looks like a success. Unlike michigan, we needed a rebranding campaign since we were so bad for so long and Perles, Williams and Smith did so much damage to the name. Hollis seems to have done a lot for that although he did almost go overboard w/ that horrible campaign to redesign the logo.

I don't hate the guy but I also don't love everything he's done - in today's game it's nearly impossible to not go along w/ a lot of what Delaney and the scumbags at the NCAA are doing to the game and the direction they're taking it in. And I can't deny that I'm part of the problem. With the BTN (which isn't going away) every game is going to be 4 hours long but I love that in New Jersey, I can see every game without leaving my house. If I was a season ticket holder freezing my ass off in November, I might have to rethink my position.