Oklahoma State

[Casey]

How does this Rashaun Woods guy compare to some of the other receivers we've faced this year? He looks to me like Anton Paige of Texas Tech - big, strong and fast.

Hope KG and Jonas are ready.

[MustangFan]

Woods is a lot better than Paige. He's faster and has much better hands, and he runs better routes. Paige might be good in the long run, but he's still kinda raw. Woods is the real deal.

[SMUFinns]

We have gotten burnt by Navy, T.T & T.C.U who were all able to complete critical passes to wide open receivers for big gains or TD's. Is it that our defense is unable to provide tight coverage ( bend not break ).
Our LB's & Safeties are being asked to crowd the line leaving the corners on man to man, this has opened the area behind the LB & Safeties.
Secondly, if we are crowding the line this should set us up to pressure the QB, as I see it this is not happening, thus the QB gets time to pick his receivers across the middle.

Rashaun Woods should be picked up and leveled each and every time he attempts to get near a ball.

P.B and his staff are doing a great job.
Go Mustangs beat OSU...............

[This message has been edited by SMUFinns (edited 09-16-2002).]

[JasonB]

I have only been able to attend the Tech game, but in that game, we played a 3-4 man/zone in passing situations, with both CB locking up on the outside, and the safteys and LBs playing zone. From what I understand against TCU, on the long pass we blitzed and nobody rotated to cover the open slot, so the guy was wide open with nobody around.

[JasonB]

Several times in the Tech game, rather than going to a true nickel defense, he substituted one end and Adami out, and inserted Lee and Beard. In fact, he played that defense more than bringing an extra DB into the game. We played a 3-4 man-zone. The corners, Garrett and Rutledge were in man coverage on the outside recievers. The safteys played a deep zone over the middle. We did one of two things with the linebackers - we either blitzed and sat the linebackers in the middle of the field, or we spread them out wide.

To counter this, Tech sent their outside recievers deep, basically taking Jonas and/or Rutledge into the same areas as the safteys. They all were deep. KK had plenty of time in the pocket to let this all develop. Then they just read the zone. If the backers were in the middle, they waited for the corners to go deep and then had a guy drift into the flat, who would be open with nobody around. Or, if the linebackers were spread to the flats (the two outside backers would spread wide, and the two middle line backers would either both be back in a deep middle zone or one would blitz and the other would be in the middle alone), KK would hit a receiver short and over the middle.

[SMUFinns]

Coach Bennet is calling things as IS.....
He has admitted his mistake and now he is challenging the players ( you may say calling them out ) but no the less, he is doing something. He and his staff will get this right if we can ALL give him space & time.

I do not profess to know much about the game but if you have a 3-4, 4-3, cover 2, or Man
you must be able to stay disciplined......

Garrett responsible for coverage mistake

UNIVERSITY PARK – Senior cornerback Kevin Garrett was responsible for the blown coverage on TCU receiver LaTarence Dunbar, whose 64-yard touchdown catch that put TCU up, 17-0, early in the fourth quarter. SMU coach Phil Bennett said Garrett was supposed to play man-to-man coverage, but Dunbar was left all alone over the middle of the field.

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Go Mustangs "In you face football" is here...

[91Stang]

Jay Creel, one of the editors at o-state.com, breaks down the Cowboys like this:




Basically you can break our team down like this.

Wide Receivers: They are the only consistent playmakers we have on offense. Rashaun Woods will destroy you if they chose to go single coverage on him and he will still beat you if you double team him. Please don't take this as being arrogant but Rashaun is just that good. John Lewis (when 100%) is a very good WR and TD Bryant is best in traffic.

QB: Josh Fields will be starting his 4th game so he's still a bit green. He can make some really nice plays and he can make some plays that have you scratching your head. I'm sure Phil Bennett will try to have something planned to show him as many different looks as possible but if Bennett's history shows us anything there will be plenty of man-to-man opportunities.

RB: We have 3 that have seen the majority of the time at HB but all 3 seem to be nursing some type of injury. This might be the week that you see RS Freshman Greg Jones. It would be a nice treat if he was able to play because the Cowboys need to rest Seymore Shaw because when he's healthy he's probably the best combo of power and speed the Pokes have.

OL: To be honest with you I have no clue who will actually be starting at Oline on saturday. They were a young group to begin with and had very little experienced depth but after 3 games into the season about 10 different guys have all spent some time on the first team unit. If SMU has any type of pass rush they might come away with a couple of sacks.

DL: If all SMU can do is run then this should be a fun game for the Cowboys because it seems like thats about all the dline can really do is stop the run. They gave up some yards late against UCLA but I'm not expecting SMU's oline to be like UCLA's. For some reason if you look over the last few years the Cowboys have been able to shut down most of the good running backs they have faced. Now if SMU had a QB that was wanting to win some weekly conference honors then OSU is the team to play.

LB: With them being so young (1 Sr. 3 Fr or RS FR) it's hard to judge them to harshly. They are still learning and if a big run is to be made it will be because one of the youngsters is probably out of position.

DB's: I'm not sure if it's talent or coaching. Somehow our CB's almost always fail to turn and find the ball. They are generally in decent enough shape to make a play on the ball but somehow they just never do. Probably won't be exposed too much but if I was a betting man I would say that Tate Wallis will probably have his best night as a QB on saturday.

Special teams: Still no clear winner at punter but Cole Farden did average 41.6 yards per punt but his hang time could be better. TD Bryant and Chris Massey are two of the best return men in the country. So far most people have kicked away from Chris and it's not a bad strategy.

We have yet to establish any type of consistent running game but it doesn't mean we are void of talent it's just that we can't get anyone healthy. I think the line is 15 or something like that and if I was guessing I'd say the score would be something around 31-14.

[oSuJeff97]

Hey SMU fans!

Just as an add-on to Jay's comments about our wide receivers.

I think Jay is actually underplaying our wide receivers.

After the collective performance against UCLA (probabaly one of the top secondaries in the nation) I can say this...

Rashaun Woods is probaby one of the two or three best receivers in the nation. He's not a physical specimen like Roy Williams of Texas that will just run past everyone, but here is what Woods brings to the table:

-He runs flawless routes and creates EXCELLENT seperation from defenders.
- He adjusts to where the ball is thrown better than any college receiver I've seen in a while.
- He has extremely soft hands and catches EVERYTHING thrown near him.
- Once he catches the ball he breaks up field for yardage QUICKLY.

Case in point:

One play during the OSU-UCLA game, Woods was running a short post. The ball was deflected at the line and Woods <B>immediatly</B> corrected and came to the ball, picking off his shoelaces and darted up field for about a 10-yard gain.

Also, having John Lewis, our speedy deep threat back is huge. The UCLA game was his first game this year and he showed how valuable he was, grabbing deep ball after deep ball.

T.D. Bryant is an absolute playmaker. He's one of those guys who is just hard to tackle for some reason. When he gets his hands on the ball, he makes plays.

If OSU can eliminate the turnover problem that it had against UCLA, we can have a <B>very</B> good offense -- we're talking one of the top offenses in the country.

Look at it this way: we had 5 turnovers against UCLA and still only lost by 14 points, plus had about 3 opportunities in the 4th quarter to cut it to 7. This is against one of the top defenses in the Pac 10.

That's it... looking forward to a great game!

[Hoss]

Thanks for the insight. I hope Garrett and Rutledge are up to the challenge.

See you in Stillwater.

[ClassOf81]

If Woods is as good as advertised, should we abandon Coach Bennett's preference of having the corners each play a side of the field, rather than a specific receiver. Woods is supposed to be very fast, so maybe we should take Kevin Garrett - our most experienced and fastest corner - and have him shadow Woods all over the field. Have KG follow him into the lockerroom at halftime. Stand next to him during the national anthem. Shadow the trainer when he's taping Woods's ankles. Garrett is our best chance to keep him from haviong a big day.

And, of course, we need to figure out how to get pressure on Fields, and hit him hard (even at the risk of a penalty) and often.

"The quarterback must go down, and he must go down hard." -- Al Davis

[Lotus]

My brother-in-law went to OSU, so we're making the trip to Stillwater.
I'm looking forward to a celebratory beer at Eskimo Joe's after the upset.

[Jim Rome]

What kind of coaching do they have going up at OSU? Not calling out Les Miles ... I'm sure he works hard and all ... but this a team with serious talent. You don't beat the Sooners, as OSU did last year, without having talent. But if the talent is there, how come they're about 5-9 under Miles? If they have the talent, there should be more consistency. Starting NEXT week, of course.

[SMUFinns]

At least this goes towards an explination of the TCU game, hopefully we will show a dramatic improvement or .............. Woods will have a field day.

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Talent / coaching is not our problem, TIME IS !!!