In Reply to: Attendance issues were started well before Kelly was HC. posted by hotspot on December 03, 2025 at 11:44:41
Kelly massively screwed up his 'hiring bounce', didn't recruit off of it at all (we really should have had a top 5-10 class after hiring him, and we were somewhere in the 30's, as I recall), and then he suspended his best Offensive lineman, etc and started 0-5. The avoidance of recruiting would only get worse. He did do well (VERY well) in the portal - we probably don't start 0-5 if our starting transfer qb hadn't gotten injured and missed most of the year (echoes of how Neu had to try to get going down his top 2 QB's and having to start a walk-on all year). Kelly was really good coach, but awful recruiter (tho he was great at ID'ing talent in the portal) and steward of the program.
Back to future attendance tho. I'm kind of dreading the season ticket donations/bill and possible personal seat licenses if we transition to SoFi. Plus, the tailgating experience will be much worse than the golf course.
And, the other factor not mentioned is all of the garbage pac-12 after dark start times TV demanded and got. That impacted the Rose Bowl experience a LOT. Hell, homecoming last year was a Late Friday game in LA traffic in the dark - it should never be that.