When Arizona Football wins, the Fans still don’t Show

TUCSON, AZ - OCTOBER 28: Quarterback Khalil Tate
TUCSON, AZ - OCTOBER 28: Quarterback Khalil Tate /
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The No. 15 team is visiting, Arizona Football having one of the most exciting players in Football, and Bowl Eligibility at stake, the fans still don’t show!

Annoying. That’s what I would call our fan base, a bunch of excuse-making phonies. A community that has long bonded over good basketball, Arizona Football only dreams of the media craze attention that Arizona Basketball draws.

On homecoming night, with the No. 15 Washington State Cougars visiting, us having one of College Football’s most electric players, and bowl eligibility at stake, the fans still don’t show!

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Even with the promotion of $1,000,000 dollars potentially being given away, roughly 42,822 entered the gates of Arizona Stadium, with a portion of those leaving at halftime. Perhaps with the plans of a more eventful evening in Tucson.

Long have we heard, “well, the team always disappoints”, or “we aren’t relevant”, or “we’re not a big program”. The list of excuses is longer than our tradition of winning, and relevancy in the Pac-12.

Since 2012, the team is a combined 42-31, with what will be five bowl appearances in six seasons. That has arguably been one of the best stretches of Arizona Football in the schools’ limited history!

The only other comparable runs? From 1989-1994, when Dick Tomey went a combined 43-27-1, with five bowl appearances, including a Fiesta Bowl berth during the ‘Desert Swarm’ years. The other? Probably between 1981-1986, when Larry Smith was head coach, and guided the team to a 43-22-3 record with only two bowl appearances, and fewer bowl games being in existence then.

Football attendance for Arizona isn’t just a problem, it’s an epidemic!

BERKELEY, CA – OCTOBER 21: Khalil Tate
BERKELEY, CA – OCTOBER 21: Khalil Tate /

Blame the late start times if you will, but fact is, it’s Arizona. The conference will never give us a home, day game in September, and for the better part of October too! At that point, it is still pushing 85-90 degrees around midday, just as it was yesterday. Fans still wouldn’t show up then either, out of pure discomfort.

What else needs to happen? Consistent winning? Hard to build a tradition, when your fans won’t even show support of the program during the good and bad times.

It’s not like this team is boring. Those Tomey teams were predicated on strong defense, and focused more on a powerful running game.

This year, the team is averaging 45 points and over 523 yards of offense per game. Amidst their four-game winning streak, and Khalil Tate’s subsequent rise to stardom? The team is averaging nearly 49 points per game.

Also during that same four-game span, Tate has 1,580 yards of offense, 840 of them being solely from his elite rushing ability. He also has 14 total touchdowns!

As the team ran over a talented Washington State team last night, and a marquee matchup for first place in the Pac-12 South versus conference rival USC awaits next week, the fans still didn’t show!

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At Zona Zealots, we are proud of this team, and the fans that do show. We can only hope the rest can get it together. There’s only one home game left, and with a chance to really do something special this year! Bear Down, Arizona