Welcome to C-USA from a Pirate fan

[Matt97]

I wanted to welcome y'all to Conference USA. Although your program has been down for awhile... It does not take a genius to recognize the enormus potential y'all have. I stopped by your official website and checked out your facilities... WOW! Your football stadium and sports building in particular. With C-USA affiliation the Mustangs should make huge strides in the years to come. Recruiting should really take off. We all know Texas is loaded. I am looking forward to seeing the Pony Express rise again.

And one other thing... Your basketball arena looks awesome. From the picture I saw, it looks like the fans are right on top of the court. It must be one tough place to play for opposing teams. The atmosphere must be out of this world when y'all pack 'em in.

Stop on by piratefans.net and say hello sometime.

Go C-USA! Go ECU! Arrgghhh!

[Matt97]

A coupleof questions....

Are your football coach and hoops coach on solid ground?

How have your recruiting efforts gone over the past couple of seasons? How about this season? The kids have to be impressed with your facilities.

Any plans to start a baseball program?

[Mustangs35SMU]

Thanks for the Welcome!! I know we're all hoping we can become a member of the C-USA!

How have your recruiting efforts gone over the past couple of seasons? How about this season?
This is Coach Bennett's 2nd year here on the Hill Top and were all hoping he can bring glory back here!! This was one of SMU's greatest recruiting classes of all time but yet for the 2nd straight year we're 0-7! God we need to a quarterback that can play!!

[The PonyGrad]

Thanks for the welcome.

I would say that our coaches are on solid ground though some may disagree if we have a bad bball season.

Recruiting has be solid for years in basketball. Our football coach is in his second season with two recruiting seasons, one full season, behind him and last years class was considered by some as the best non-BCS class.

The football facilities are new and imoressive.

The basketball arena is nice but it is a bit long in the tooth and will probably need some updating soon.

So you guys not a candidate for the missing BC spot in the BE?

[The PonyGrad]

Originally posted by Mustangs35SMU:
This was one of SMU's greatest recruiting classes of all time

:hmm:

It was a very good class but nothing like some of the classes from the 80's. Some of those were definitly top 10 classes.

[FloridaMustang]

Our football stadium is first class and provides a great game day atmosphere. Unfortunately, it's been to tough over the last two years. I'd imagine many of the C-USA teams bring a larger fan base, which would help (winning of course, will also help). If you hadn't heard, our starting QB is transferring. Our prized true freshman will be starting against Tulsa. Hopefully he'll provide a spark on offense.

As far as Moody Coliseum is concerned, there are plans to renovate it, as it's starting to show its age. However, I would never replace it. When its packed, its amazing. Right now, it holds something like 9,000, although it used to hold more.

I, for one, am a huge ECU fan, and almost transferred there after I left SMU. Greenville is a great town, also. Good luck in CUSA in the coming years as well. We know better than anyone just how it feels to be down and out.

[Cheesesteak]

Matt the Pirate -

Thank you for the good wishes.

SMU's football program has been walking the plank for several years.

Hopefully, we now have a captain who will lead our Mustang crew to future treasures and broadsides against pirates.

Arrggh!

[Matt97]

Originally posted by FloridaMustang:
Our football stadium is first class and provides a great game day atmosphere. Unfortunately, it's been to tough over the last two years. I'd imagine many of the C-USA teams bring a larger fan base, which would help (winning of course, will also help). If you hadn't heard, our starting QB is transferring. Our prized true freshman will be starting against Tulsa. Hopefully he'll provide a spark on offense.

As far as Moody Coliseum is concerned, there are plans to renovate it, as it's starting to show its age. However, I would never replace it. When its packed, its amazing. Right now, it holds something like 9,000, although it used to hold more.

I, for one, am a huge ECU fan, and almost transferred there after I left SMU. Greenville is a great town, also. Good luck in CUSA in the coming years as well. We know better than anyone just how it feels to be down and out.

Good luck with the freshman QB. Try to be patient. Freshmen, particularly QB's, often tend to play like freshmen. :hmm:

About ECU... Being down and out does suck. But we have a brand new coach and we are in transition. Coach Logan did not leave JT with much in the cupboard. But we are seeing baby steps... next year should be better... the year after we should be back in business. We are extremely young, currently.

We have an outside shot at the Big East. But if we don't get an invite... we'll be jst fine in C-USA! Those idiots in the Big east seem to be trying to fix a football problem with hoops.

Welcome aboard Mateys.

[Charleston Pony]

Matt the Pirate: thanks for the warm welcome. Sure hope by the time SMU arrives in CUSA we field a more competitive team than currently respresents this school.

Pleas excuse Mustang35's comments about coach Bennett's 1st recruiting class. He's very young and apparently has no knowledge of SMU's football history prior to the death penalty. To say we had one of our greatest recruiting classes in history couldn't be farther from the truth. The truth is we used to go toe-to-toe with Texas, A$M and Arkansas for the top players in the country. Of course, the big boys didn't like us beating them at their own game and we got the death penalty. Unfortunately, we didn't know it would last 15 years. Bottom line for football is that we all hope the current coach is the guy who can turn this trainwreck atound, but all is not swell on the Hilltop (nickname for SMU). Time will tell.

As for Bball, you'd be interested to know that Mike Dement is an ECU grad and hails from N.C. Our Moody Coliseum is vitually identical to Duke's Cameron Indoor (except for the gameday atmosphere). We are farther along in hoops and should at least be competitive, but are a long ways from competing with top 25 teams. I hear things are looing up for ECU udner coach Herrion. I enjoy watching his brother coach here at College of Charleston.

We would like to see he return of baseball someday, but it's not very promising, given the lack of land on which to build a suitable on-campus facility and the budget issues associated with doing so. I have wondered if that was a factor in CUSA's decision to invite SMU and Tulsa, neither of which plays baseball.

I know I'm looking forward to an occasional roadtrip to Greenville. Not too many games I can get to in WAC play from Charleston.

[Matt97]

Originally posted by Charleston Pony:
As for Bball, you'd be interested to know that Mike Dement is an ECU grad and hails from N.C.

Is Mike Dement your head basketball coach? Or is he an assistant?

[Charleston Pony]

head coach. here's the rest of the crew, including former Dukie, Robert Brickey

http://www.smumustangs.com/coaches.asp?sport=bballm

[Southern Miss Alum]

I wanted to join my ECU comrade and welcome the Mustangs to the Conference USA family. I've got a friend here in Hattiesburg (an SMU alumnus) who is fired up about getting to see his 'Stangs on a regular basis.

Besides, with USM and SMU, it will be interesting to see if the media has any trouble telling us apart!

Best of luck the rest of the season.

<small>[ 10-21-2003, 06:49 PM: Message edited by: Southern Miss Alum ]</small>

[Cheesesteak]

Southern Miss Alum - your good wishes are appreciated. As you know, SMU isn't in CUSA yet although most Mustang fans are hopeful that we become full members.

I am excited about SMU's prospects in CUSA and I would be enthusiastic about contests in any sport against USM.

Good luck (11/20 - ESPN national TV) against TCU.

[Charleston Pony]

Hey Eagle: I've got a good friend who graduated from USM and he called today to say his "Chicken Hawks" wanted to welcome SMU as the new doormat of CUSA (replacing Army). Hopefully we will be competitive by the time we start play in CUSA.

[Spaz]

Yarrrr Matt! Glad ta be welcomed aboard...
Just remember what the Pirate with the steering wheel in his pants always said...

YARRR it's driving me nuts!!!