Tim Fitzgerald didn’t mince words when he talked about the climate around college football fandom, and he made clear he thinks social media has made things uglier around Kansas State and beyond.
Appearing earlier this week on KFH Wichita radio, the GoPowercat publisher was asked about whether Chris Klieman may be underappreciated in Manhattan. Fitzgerald agreed, then widened the lens to the way fans now react online when a team doesn’t deliver.
“I was really disturbed by the way some fans reacted. Fans in this era, and we're seeing it play out with Texas Tech, have grown to have an absolute entitlement to victory.
When they get it, they're insufferable, and when they don't, they're insufferable. Not all fans, but social media has done this, because you only get attention on social media by being insufferable.
That's the great downfall of social media.”
He said the platform rewards the loudest and most aggravating voices, and that cycle has spilled over into college football and sports in general.
“Someone's got to find you insufferable to engage with your content to be pushed out by the platform to more users who get more upset, who push it out to more users. That's what social media is doing to us, and that's what it's done to the fans of college football and all sports.
There is no tolerance for a process. There's no tolerance for things just didn't bounce our way.”
Fitzgerald said fans now want immediate change, with no patience for a program working through bumps.
“They immediately want gratification of a head being chopped off and someone new taking over and being highly successful, and if they're not, let's chop off that head too. It's gotten to be really brutal, but with all that said, the coaches are extremely well paid to go through that environment. That has now become part of the job, and among other things, Chris Kleiman decided that's not the job he wants to work with, and I think we'll see more coaches come to that belief, they're getting paid so much more money now, that in two seasons, three seasons, they really are set up for life.”
He added that coaches who manage their money wisely can come out ahead quickly, but he still sees the current atmosphere as too much for some.
“If they’re smart with their money and don't just spend it, you know, as soon as they get it. If they just stow it away, three seasons as a power level head coach should get you over the hump financially for the rest of your life. I will gladly serve one season, fail, and take the buyout, because my profession doesn't have that, so it's kind of a give and give, but I got to tell you, the hostility of some fan bases and the obnoxious nature of some fan bases, like Texas Tech, right now, is just a little bit overwhelming to the senses.”
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Lewis and Snell are both deep into crowded recruiting battles, while Snow is also hearing from some of the biggest names in the sport. Even the younger names in the mix show how wide Kansas State is casting its net as it tries to stack talent well ahead of time, and the real question now is how many of these early relationships the Wildcats can turn into something more down the road. [Read more 🡒]