Coaching????

[LA_Mustang]

I keep reading where it will take Bennett 2, 3, 4 years to get this around and we should give him time. Someone forgot to tell TCU and Coach Fran about it taking 2, 3, 4 years. He came to a program in trouble that was coming off a 1-10 season and in his first year he lead the frogs to a 7-5 record playing in a then much tougher WAC and a Sun Bowl victory over USC. The rest is history. TCU is currently light years ahead of us. My point? Coaching is not our problem. Stallion has said this all along, then he gets ripped for being truthful. Bennett probably will be a good head coach and he has already proven to be a very good recruiter but he is in a no win situation, just like Cavan was. We still have no athlete friendly major(s). We still restrict our coaches from getting JUCO players because of the ridiculous policy of transfer credits that we will accept. Explain to me how a coach who has used JUCO players as much as anyone comes to SMU and adds no JUCO players in two years?? And this is on a team that has serious holes. I think Bennett likes it here and he wants to make it work but his hands are tied and he is not working on a level playing field. We can continue to go 0 for September, win 3 or 4 WAC games, and then talk about how it is going to be better next year, or this administration can quit jacking us around and make a true commitment to being competitive.

[GoRedGoBlue]

Please recall that TCU had much better recruiting classes than did SMU during the Pat Sullivan era...Sullivan was just a bad coach (also, see John Blake at OU prior to Bob Stoops, in the future please see Fran at aTm (Slocum had a Top10 class this year)).

Bennett's hands are not at tied as you think...it is true that transfers are less desirable since we don't have P.E. for the JUCO's...it's the NCAA rule that says you have to have 'transferable hours' to be eligible from a JUCO...by default, if you don't have the JUCO-like majors, it is harder to get JUCO's to transfer.

The administration made the commitment 2 years ago...begining with CAVAN's 'last class' (Bennett's 'first' class). If you will recall we have not had any commitments prior to December since the DP, but in CAVAN's last year, we had 13-14 for Bennett to keep. WHY? Because the administration, under TURNER's direction, had already reversed it's arcane policies and procedures that required any prospective athlete to virtually be 'accepted' prior to having even a campus visit -- who wanted to go through all that paperwork when TCU was saying "Come on down and see OUR campus!!" and we were saying "Well, if you have all of your letters of recommendations, SAT scores, and transcripts sent to school, plus our 'Senate' admissions panel thinks you have a reasonable chance of graduation in 5 years, then you can come on an 'official' visit to SMU"

Those days are long gone, and we have seen two improved classes since. Yes, it will take time, but let's also note that for 2004 we have 5/6 commitments (STALLION, what are their rating? all 3/4 stars?),
and for 2005 we already have two TOP prospective commitments.

Bennett redshirted his first class and is redshirting as many as he can from this class...note our roster of heavy boys is almost entirely Fresh, RS-Fresh...

This team will get better for 2004 and 2005. We need to see a 2004 Recruiting class that is at/above our 2003 class and the momentum will have continued.

[SoCal_Pony]

During Tom Landry’s first 5 years as head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, his record was 18-46-4. That translates to 4-10 per season. Fortunately for Cowboy fans, Tex Schramm and Clint Murchison had patience.

This is what we know about Coach Bennett so far:

Given our off-the-field admission obstacles and pathetic on-the-field recent history, he was still able to recruit the top non-BCS class in the nation.

He had choice coaching gigs at K-State, OU, LSU, A$M, Purdue and TCU, where his defenses were always among the best in the nation. The man knows how to coach.

I am as frustrated as anyone by Saturday’s debacle, but far more important than the outcome of that game, Coach Bennett is laying the proper foundation through his superb recruiting skills.

The most constructive thing anyone of us can do is write President Turner and ask him why we don’t have Kinseology and or PE majors for our athletes, or why our JC admission policy is more stringent than UT’s or A$M’s, our in-state academic equivalents. Turner was there in Lubbock. I doubt he was too happy with the outcome either.


[This message has been edited by SoCal_Pony (edited 09-02-2003).]