They say offense, most specifically passing offense, is what truly sells tickets.
It’s not just a cliche. Look at how the NFL has completely rewritten its rule book in order to facilitate new and bigger passing record milestones. The principle holds at the college level too, who doesn’t love watching those late night Pac 12 games, or the afternoon Big 12 contests where the QBs light up the scoreboard?
If you’re an Illinois Fighting Illini fan who bought tickets fir this fall, you no doubt hope that QB Wes Lunt will come up huge his senior year.
New Head Coach Lovie Smith will attract the fans, but winning games, and doing it with panache, is what will make sure they actually stay for four quarters and then later return to Zuppke Field. a big part of getting people in the Memorial Stadium seats this fall.
Lunt has done more than sell tickets metaphorically this season; he also literally shilled them this spring during an internship. Check out this Wes Lunt video feature produced by the school. Lunt aspires to be more than just an accomplished passer; he’s a business man in the making.
The senior Sports Management major hopes to be an Athletic Director at a small school someday, his internship in the school’s ticket office. He’s also worked directly with the I-Fund, the school’s fundraising apparatus. Lunt pressed the flesh with donors, and he witnessed the Lovie effect first hand.
Both Donations and ticket sales shot way up once the Lovie Smith hire was announced.
Lunt actually worked the phone lines, and as that video conveyed, occasionally, somebody on the other end realized exactly who they were talking to.
“The first eight weeks, I worked in fund-raising, went to a lot of basketball games, met a lot of donors, getting to know the people that supply everything for us at Memorial Stadium,” Lunt said.
“The last eight weeks was in the ticket office, and really I got to know the people that buy the season tickets and come to cheer us on, on Saturdays so it’s been a really good experience.”
I appeared on CLTV’s “Sports Feed” at WGN Studios with Jarrett Payton. We discussed Illini football, Lovie Smith and Wes Lunt. Video below:
And at Big Ten Media Day I discussed lunt’s internship, as well as the Athletic Director aspirations, with him at B1G Media Day. Audio of the interview is below:
https://soundcloud.com/p-m-banks/wes-lunt-b1g-media-day
Lunt has a wonderful potential mentor for that position in Josh Whitman. The new Illini A.D. took the job in February, at the age of just 37. That’s very young for a power five conference A.D.
“I’m excited for what’s to come after football. Those are conversations we’ll definitely have after (football/school is complete). I haven’t talked to him in depth about that yet, just because there has just been so much going on these past few months,” Lunt said.
“And going forward I think he’s a great person to have on your side, and he can give you the ins and outs of everything. He’s very well spoken, and somebody who’s good in front of a camera, can really preach and get his message across, and I think that’s what he’s done really well.”
There’s no doubt that Lunt is gaining the valuable experience and making the important connections he’ll need for his life after football. However, in the immediate future, Lunt’s senior year will require yet another adjustment for him.
Lunt has had four different head coaches during his college football career and this spring brings a shift from the no-huddle, spread attack to a pro set formation; which often employs a huddle. He’s also had several different quarterback coaches and offensive coordinators; so there’s been a lot of turnover for Lunt to adjust to.
Wes Lunt enters his final season at Illinois having thrown for 4,524 yards, 28 TD passes and 9 interceptions over his two seasons in Champaign-Urbana. There’s been a lot of talk about his NFL potential. Lovie Smith knows what NFL quarterbacks looks like, and at Big Ten Media Day, Smith indicated that Lunt has those characteristics, but of course he needs to produce the numbers to go along with it.
As of now, I haven’t seen any NFL mock draft anywhere with Lunt’s name in it, but obviously you know how inaccurate mocks are in the summer before the season even starts. You can hear Wes Lunt talk about his NFL aspirations and Lovie Smith discuss Lunt’s NFL stock in the two audio files below:
WARNING: there are some other media people giving him a lot of “talk abouts,” which is what lazy hack reporters who have given up trying (or have always just been plain awful) at their job often do.
https://soundcloud.com/p-m-banks/more-wes-lunt-b1g-media-day
https://soundcloud.com/p-m-banks/lovie-smith-at-b1g-media-day
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes regularly to the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye publication and Bold Global.
He also consistently appears on numerous radio and television talk shows all across the country. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram and Sound Cloud.