suppose a person is rather "old school", as I think many VT season ticket holders / marginal fans are. They don't spend a ton of time on twitter, or if they do, they are following official accounts like @HokiesFB, @TechSideline, @TheKeyPlay, etc and not individual players. They mostly get their info from media sources (TSL news feed, local TV news, newspaper links, TKP, hokiesports.com, etc).

When those media sources are silent, because the program is silent, Hokies Football ceases to matter to that person.

If the coaches are talking, even a little bit, that gets reported. The news, meaningless as it may be, gets out into the media stream. And fans are going to click those links, and be more engaged than if they aren't clicking those (nonexistent) links. and maybe, just MAYBE, the coach says something like "Divine is really looking good so far". Throwaway comment. But that comment can spark discussion on twitter, at the water cooler, on TSL/247/rivals/TKP, etc. Again, it all serves to drive interest and discussion.

Alternately, we can get "crickets" and all sit around talking about the NBA, NHL, golf, and Buzz Williams. And completely forget that the season ticket ordering deadline just came and went.