McCall: Fans need to get out and support Jaguars
Jaguar Nation?
More like Jaguar County.
Sorry — Jaguar Parish.
The table was set for Southern to make a run at the Southwestern Athletic Conference West division title on Saturday night, and while the Jaguars essentially spilled the food and smashed all the fine china in a 50-21 loss to Arkansas-Pine Bluff, at least they came and sat down.
That’s more than can be said for their fans.
A crowd of 13,500 was on hand, just more than half of the number from the previous week, a 34-7 homecoming win that drew a rockin’ 25,400.
In the biggest game of the season, the group of fans that’s fond of pounding its chest and saying it’s the largest and most devoted in the conference didn’t show up.
It was barely more than the 13,289 that came out for a loss to Mississippi Valley State, and the total dropped the season average to 17,396, likely killing SU’s chances of averaging 19,000-plus for the first time since 2005.
This is not an indictment of those who showed up. They paid, parked and tried to make the best of a bad game, and those who left early can’t be blamed for that, either.
For the rest — those who stayed home — there are many excuses that could be used, but none hold water.
You could say the attendance numbers at SU are always fuzzy (they are), but the simple fact is the stadium was very nearly full last week, and it was half-filled Saturday.
What’s more, there was no traffic. Cars trickled down Harding Boulevard and onto campus, and if there were legions of fans tailgating, they never made it inside.
Some complain that ticket prices are too high since the school raised them. That happened in 2003. Nine years ago.
You could also say Southern’s caliber of play didn’t deserve a huge showing, and you’d be right.
But heading into the game, no one knew that would happen. The setup was enticing: The Jaguars playing for a chance to take over first in the West — which it hadn’t won since 2004 — and doing it against a team they got into a huge brawl against last year.
If that doesn’t put butts in the seats, what will?
Homecoming, apparently, is the only way to do it. That’s likely due, at least in some part, to displaced alumni moving out of state after Hurricane Katrina and coming home only on the weekend designated for such a return.
If that’s the main problem, then the Jaguar Nation simply doesn’t have the manpower to be what it once was.
That may be an issue, but surely SU fans could do better than 13,500.
LSU wasn’t even in town, and it’s not like the Human Jukebox was playing a free concert somewhere else.
They — the iconic band so synonymous with Southern’s respected following — were in their usual place. The band has to show up. That’s its job.
But that’s the same view the Jaguar Nation used to take toward games when SU was leading the nation in attendance.
Not anymore.
Not even when their team had something, everything, to play for.