Eric Dickerson

[Stallion]

a sample on the most comparable Big 12 school-Baylor- shows 60 African-Americans on this years team.

[Stallion]

our most comparable opponent TCU(presently in the Top 25) has 54 African-Americans

[KnuckleStang]

Hear you loud and clear, Stallion, your point is made. And don't worry, I'm not here to call Dickerson an *ss. But he definitely is missing the boat on this one. When Pye instituted his admissions policies, I'm fairly certain the racial make-up of our team was not a consideration. Academic achievement was. And, yes, I'm a little disappointed that E.D. would drop a race card on his alma mater, when he has to know full well that's not what this is about. If he wants SMU to lower their (or his dated percieved) academic standards for athletes, he should just say that, rather than open up a whole can of unneccesary race worms.

[Stallion]

you might have a point if the SMU scandals had ANYTHING to do with academics-they didn't. My point has been that SMU has had a Model which makes it impossible to compete on an even playing field with its natural and traditional rivals. Now you can say that that is false and show some evidence to back you point up up or you can admit it and simply say that SMU doesn't care about the policies of its natural and traditional rivals and will stick with its Model. There are lgitimate arguments on both sides. Draw your own conclusions from the above information-if SMU wants to play Ivy League Football that's their decision-but don't tell me every 4 years that its the Head Coaches' fault or that SMU has had a Commitment to play Division 1A Football with its natural and traditional rivals. More information from which each of you can draw your own conclusions. I tried to find a relatively unbiased source on the racial makeup of the top players in Texas. I used Texas Football because it was handy. 15 of the Top 26 players on Texas Football All-Texas College team were African-Americans. 17 of the top 26 players on the Texas Football High School Super Team were African Americans.

<small>[ 10-03-2003, 06:44 PM: Message edited by: Stallion ]</small>

[methodistmustang]

That's all great Stallion but Dickerson was very recently asked why he hasn't done a dang thing for his program. His response,"there's nothing I can do." I love Eric Dickerson but when you say things like that it really hurts the fans. And don't mess with non-alum fans. One of the biggest reasons we suck is that we do not have enough non-alum fans. In the late 70's when we were terrible a little marketing program prompting support from non-alums called "Mustang Mania" started. That is a prime example of how showing up to the games gives us a boost. It has nothing to do with bogus comments about the race of our players. I do not have near as much respect for Emmitt Smith as I used to for comments he made and I won't make an exception for Eric Dickerson. Screw him. I would've settled for being mediocre if we could have just gotten rid of greedy people like him that took the money. I would be glad to be winning 6 to 8 games a year in a respectable conference. BUT NO!!! Greed and impatience came into this program and destroyed it and now big alums like dickerson continue to ruin the program with their lack of support!!

[Stallion]

Hey that's a popular and legitimate position to take-but when are people like you going to face up to the fact that under those circumstances SMU doesn't belong on the same field as Tech, Oklahoma St.,TCU, Baylor, UH, Louisiana Tech, Southern Miss, Memphis, Hawaii, Nevada, Fresno St, San Jose St, and our other rivals and potential conference mates and if that is the Commitment perhaps we should consider dropping down to play schools with our mission. That's the choice? Either put a competitive football team on the field once every 15 years or so or face the fact that SMU is not willing to make the compromises to stay in Division 1. Certainly we should stop this ridiculous musical chairs we play with our head coaches and should consider granting tenure status to our coaching staff to carry out the cited academic mission of the athletic department. And Eric is Correct-there is nothing he can do to overcome the obstacles created by the Model other than speak out and point out why it is a farce in a Division 1A Football program.

<small>[ 10-03-2003, 07:06 PM: Message edited by: Stallion ]</small>

[fbdad]

This program has enough problems without raising the race issue. I believe Dickersons wrong in doing so. The point of SMU's entrance requirements having a bearing on the racial mix of the team is correct as we all know. Those standards should not be lowered anymore than they recently were nor should SMU create PE 101 majors.SMU should maintain its academic standards before all else.Anybody know Dickersons SAT scores,GPA,etc.,we know his salary...Stallions reference to teams that we have beaten or played close in recent years makes no sense. I think we beat La Tech last year,Nevada and San Jose the previous year, took Hawaii to OT the previous year,almost beat Baylor this year,probably kick UH's *ss on any given day..Whats your point Stallion on why you think we shouldn't be on the same playing field with some of these teams?This is what happens to your pontifications once you wander from fact to fiction...

[KnuckleStang]

Stallion I agree with everything you're saying (except for that last part about there being nothing Dickerson can do to help). But as I understood it, his statements were not about the model, which we all agree doesn't help us. He said, and correct me if I'm wrong, that he couldn't help because there aren't enough African-Americans on SMU's team. I'll admit that our model is holding us back (and I do), if you'll admit that his racial cop-out is an unmitigated load.

Dickerson's name carries plenty of weight. If he wanted to, he could help us. He would help our program if we had an all-white football team full of Rhodes Scholar computer geeks. (We would stink, but he could help us.) I'm not saying he's obliged to, but to say he couldn't is...well, I don't get it.

Dickerson is a great, but when he makes statements like that, he needs to be called on it, Mustang or not.

[Stallion]

The facts for those interested in the truth: since the DP SMU is 0-9 against Tech, 0-8 against Baylor, 4-10 against TCU, 1-4 against Hawaii, 1-6-1 against Houston, 0-2 against OSU, 1-1 against Louisiana Tech, 1-3 against Fresno St, 1-2 against San Jose St, 1-3 against Nevada. Heck we are even 1-5 against Tulane and 3-11 against Rice. 10-48 against the teams I mentioned and if you add in Rice and Tulane SMU is 14-64-1 against all the above teams. You must be SO proud. And yes Eric Dickerson IS TALKING precisely about the MODEL-he's just not as articulate as the great and wonderful Stallion.

<small>[ 10-03-2003, 09:07 PM: Message edited by: Stallion ]</small>

[MrMustang1965]

Originally posted by Stallion:
then if you are such a great fan of SMU maybe you ought to cool it when taking pot-shots at the Greatest Player in SMU History. I expect that on our opponents board but I'm really getting sick and tired of SMU fans cutting the man down. Some of you Loyal SMU Fans are the biggest backstabbers around.

Doak Walker is the greatest player in SMU history. A Heisman trophy speaks volumes. :thumbupcool: ED was a great player while on The Hilltop. :whistling:

[Stallion]

Doak Walker couldn't carry Eric's jock strap and everybody not living in a dreamworld knows it.

[EastStang]

Man, I go bowling for one night, and you guys are all over each other. Sports Illustrated named the top 100 football players, I seem to remember that Doak was pretty high on the list, ED was not. ED was a great player who improved in each of his four years here. Doak played for the Lions and led them to an NFL title, the Rams never seemed to get past the Redskins, Bears and 49ers when ED was there. Then there were some other notables, like Forest Gregg and Raymond Berry. One thing we can all agree on, we have a small herd of Mustangs in the pro football Hall of Fame. I wish we could draw on all of them to lift this program back out of the doldrums. Craig James takes heat every week about our football team, but at least he gets the school mentioned on national TV every week. It would be great to have a football hall of fame day, when all our living Pro Football Hall of Fame members came to a game to be recognized. I hope the Phil Bennett called Dickerson after that broadcast and said something, like, Eric, if you want us to increase our number of black players what are you personally gonna do to change that percentage. Its easy to talkabout problems, I hope that ED steps up to the plate on this one.

[SoCal_Pony]

Personally, I don’t like the insults to either Doak or Eric.

Eric Dickerson and Craig James have been our only opportunities for national exposure over the past 15 years and will be probably be our only opportunity for the next 15 years; yet some still ridicule Eric, I don’t get it.

For those on this board who criticize Eric’s performance on MNF, do you realize how many ex-jocks he had to beat out for ABC to give him that job? And if you don’t think ABC knows how to evaluate talent, think ESPN.

And to compare Doak to Eric is no different than comparing Joe Louis to Lennox Lewis. Lennox and Eric may be the better athletes, but nobody has meant more to boxing than Joe Louis and nobody has meant more to SMU athletics than Doak Walker. It is simply a matter of being from different eras.

[MrMustang1965]

Originally posted by Stallion:
Doak Walker couldn't carry Eric's jock strap and everybody not living in a dreamworld knows it.

Question is: why would DW want to?