I don't hate rupp but the people who are loved are the ones who come out of nowhere and have personality. People like Geb and Tergat were greats because they were amazing runners and had personality. Hall is loved by people because he was a bridesmaid in college who came out of nowhere to run a sub 60 half. He also comes off as a laid back surfer stoner so it is kind of funny.
I feel like rupp's issue is that he has always been billed as the next big thing. In many ways he has been a huge success but if people spend 5 years saying you will win NCAA XC or get the 10k AR and you do it is kind of anticlimactic. On the otherhand when a guy who weighs like 160 and has never made an olmypic team runs 26:59 in his debut it is exciting. He won cross and no one cared because they were more excited about a guy like chelanga who has personality and pushed the pace like crazy than rupp who sat on him and raced smart.
Ritz has long been the next big thing but he made it exciting by breaking the 5k AR after everyone had him pegged as a marathoner/10ker who had lost his speed.
I think rupp's issue is that everyone expects the world from him so it wont be exciting until he does something unexpected. I admit that if rupp ran 26:50 today I would have been happy for him but it would not have struck an emotional chord with me, and I do not dislike rupp.
All the race venue and condition drama has to stop too. No one likes a selfish person and Rupp's handlers essentially made both the oregon and stanford meets all about him with the weather/pollen drama. Rupp should keep out of the limelight and train for something, show up and crush it, then people will like him.
If I were his PR guy I would have him train to break hall's half marathon AR but keep it quiet and low key. Show up and let your legs do the talking. If he came out of nowhere and ran 59:20 people would be excited.