Some thoughts from being in Waco yesterday

[JasonB]

Just wanted to give some thoughts... I am not sure if all of this was obvious on TV.

- The offensive line was just a mess, which we all saw. To me in practice, Myers looked okay at guard, but at tackle he is really slow. That was obvious even in practice. Really disappointed in both tackle positions. I mentioned this in another thread, but the tackle play was so poor that it would be worth throwing that Bo guy or Holloway or Reich into the game. Everyone got beat at points, but the left side of the line was a complete disaster. Simple stuff too. I was watching the line during the game and it wasn't like Baylor was running stunts. There were some delayed blitzes that really screwed us up but a lot of the time they were just swimming inside and had a straight path. For the last three years (ever since the really experienced line graduated), we have been in a position as a program where we have only 1 or 0 upperclassmen as OL that are really in the mix, and the other upper classmen are either not capable, hurt, or have dropped out/transferred. If anyone has the time, I would love to see the run-down of where all of our line recruits have gone to. The kids are big enough and have talent, but so-fr-jr-fr-so is a disaster for any team.

- It is really hard to judge the effectiveness of the receivers. DT had two drops I think, and Deion had one. Other than that, there weren't any "coverage sacks", so it is impossible to know if the guys were unable to get any separation or anything. That said, Nelson runs good routes and has great hands, but the athleticism isn't there to be a starter IMHO. Gaines doesn't look quite ready in practice. We have a ton of slot guys and that is fine, but we need another player on the outside who can stretch the field. The inability to motivate Ace before he transferred, and losing Dieter and Taylor to transfer are killers. If one of those three is running at an outside receiver, the WR corp looks a lot better. Someone has to be accountable for losing all of those guys. The two freshman who played last night, Shelby and Malone, are going to see the field a lot this season. We need someone who can make a play.

- At QB, impossible to tell who played best. Burcham got rattled easily, and kept rolling left, right into the pass rush. He also rolled left twice when all of the receivers were on the other side of the field. Davis doesn't know the offense. Kolney has a gun, as we all saw, but Baylor wasn't blitzing anymore, had a lot of backups on the line, and he was the only QB who could actually step into a throw. But I just want to point out that everyone on the board was claiming that Jones sticks with a guy too long. As I said before, Jones has 5 capabile QBs on campus. He is going to have a quick trigger until he gets a QB in the game who shows up with the lights on.

- Again, don't know if it was obvious on TV, but we played an enormous number of players on defense. I counted 7 middle linebackers who played. Bordano started, struggled in space which I think we all knew was going to happen. The Rice kid took over and I thought played pretty well in the late first and second quarter. Horton didn't play and is in the mix, so it will be interesting to watch him and Nwosu battle it out for a starting spot. Even though we played a ton of people on the d-line and LB I thought the group was pretty darn physical. Lots of hard hitting out there and they did a decent job for the most part.

- We played a ton of guys in the secondary also. I counted at least 8 CBs that played. The frosh, Sutton looked like he has nice size but was picked on during one of the TD drives in the third. I don't think corner was a huge problem out there. Should have had a couple of picks I thought.

- Greenbaur had a nice pick, but he really struggled. Got beat on a bad angle a couple of times when supporting the run, but he also bit [deleted] a few passes. The receivers would cut a little inside, he would bite on a post, and they would just run straight up the field and be wide open. He was the player who got beat badly on the long TD pass, and he was also the one responsible on a lot of the overthrows on long plays where the Baylor QB just missed a reciever. Castle also got toasted a couple of times on those. I thought DR looked good out there, and Shakeil and AJ also did decent. I don't think HG should keep his starting position after that performance. Nice guy, and I thought he was good against Tech before he got hurt last year, but he really struggled overall. SR they actually would line up at corner in goal line situations, I thought that was interesting. A lot more nickel in the past where they would have 3 safeties in the game. Goal line, they would only have one corner in the game, 3 safeties, and a full set of linebackers and I thought that looked pretty good.

- The freshman punter was poor at the beginning, but improved as the game went on. Started out kicking straight down the middle and short against the wind, which was a disaster, but angled it a lot better with more air as the game went on. That said, he is going to get a punt blocked this year. His release is really really slow.

- Most importantly, I think it is important that the administration take note that last time at Baylor, the fan base was excited about a potential upset. We had two tents worth of people and filled our seats. This time, we had half as many people head down, and mostly parents of players. Very few students (last time, tons of students made their way down). The talk on the bus ride wasn't about if we could win, but if we could beat the spread. The amount of faith the fanbase has lost in June over the last two years is shocking, and is something everyone should take note of. Because of that, I don't think there is any way June survives the year unless there is a drastic turnaround, starting this weekend.

[Rebel10]

Offensive line has mostly redshirt sophs not true sophs. Looks like Bennetts offensive line recruit played better in the same amount of time (or even less).

[redpony]

I don't think we can count on a big turnaround even if we beat the iggles. At best we will be 1-3 going into conf. play. As they have predicted we will be bottom 1/3 of AAC. I wouldn't be surprised if cougar high even beat us. And we saw how bad they are.

[Hoop Fan]

Agree on most all. If you watched last year or look at their scores, alot of the Big 12 is completely over overmatched by Baylor. We obviously were overmatched, and they were jacked sky high for the occasion. Having said that, i would have liked to have seen more emotion from our guys and some swag on the field. The Oline, did they eat some bad burritos for lunch or something? It was the kind of performance that made you wonder what the heck was wrong. The defense stood up and competed and made some hits i thought, including on Petty. We played the run pretty well really, they felt us, but struggled with the short passes out in space. All in all, i think the defense can be AAC caliber good this season, much better than last year. If one unit had to struggle in Game 1, i would rather see it be the offense which i think can improve more as a season goes along. If your defense is bad, its usually just bad and no amount of work can help it much. Its up to JJ to fix the Oline and make the season a moderate success, ie 7 wins. If he can't do it, he will probably pay the price, but the season did not end yesterday.

[Planter's Punch]

I think the defense showed a lot of heart and kept playing, even after the offense give Baylor the ball back in the red zone twice.

[gostangs]

I think JJ is done personally. One of his big faults is over loyalty to some pretty average position coaches. The O line coach has been a revolving door for us - which is not good - and they are not getting much coaching that they did not receive in high school. I would guess they are pretty frustrated as a group.

Baylor might be the best team we play this year, or it might be A&M - but either way they will crush most of the Big 12 this year and some will look almost as bad as ours. Not making excuses since there really are none for that game -

We all know what needs to be done and can only hope the administration sees it also. Rick has to know it - but it will take outside money to fix so he will need some buy in. RGT will be fine with whatever they can cobble together - as long as it doesn't increase any of our risk for trouble which might be tricky as we get down the road.

[Rebel10]

We sound like UNT fans, defense played well offense struggle but can pull it together.

[ponyscott]

Good football observations Jason. Thx.

[dirtysouthpony]

I think these games are bad for the psyche of of the fanbase. We get out butts kicked at the beginning of the season and the fanbase is done for the rest of the year. A full stadium against Aggy and the Frogs is not in the best long term interest of this program. I would recommend the removal of all of the legacy SWC programs and replacing them with the service academies. You would still fill the stadium, and they could recruit the metroplex during game week. Right now we are racing our Yugo in the INDY 500 and complaining about our lack of success.


Everyone points to the basketball team as an example. They don't schedule Duke, UNC, Syracuse, and Kentucky as their OOC. They will play one powerhouse program and try to make hay in the conference. Start playing lower tier Big 12 and SEC teams first. Beat them and gain a national rep,the build. Temple beat the dog out of Vandy and it was national news. North Dakota State beat Iowa State and again burnished their reputation as giant killers. Raising our national profile will increase the long term fortunes of SMU football, and also raise the level of interest in the metroplex.

Let's move on and beat UNT.

[sbsmith]

Right now we are racing our Yugo in the INDY 500 and complaining about our lack of success.

Simple fix, get a better car.

[Stangs1970]

Ok enough!

We will beat the iggles.

This team will improve against alike teams and lower. We were going to get battered by TAM and Baylor. It actually happened shocker. No it was the way we lost. Horse crap. If I am baylor I am thinking thats the best we can do after all the we have 85 5 star players? We see elite athletes up and down this roster 3 deep at practice everyday. Our QB is the most accurate passing Heisman candidate since Andy dalton at tcu all on the Baylor tv network / big 12 network also known as fox sports 1.

One game in an overwhelming new stadium Heisman in the house trumped up event. I expected this only worse and I didn't expect the defense to be that deep and that good. We can fix offense its June jones I think I read somewhere he can coach offense.

[smusic 00]

You can read all you want, but the proof of the pudding is in the tasting.

[TidePony]

I think these games are bad for the psyche of of the fanbase. We get out butts kicked at the beginning of the season and the fanbase is done for the rest of the year. A full stadium against Aggy and the Frogs is not in the best long term interest of this program. I would recommend the removal of all of the legacy SWC programs and replacing them with the service academies. You would still fill the stadium, and they could recruit the metroplex during game week. Right now we are racing our Yugo in the INDY 500 and complaining about our lack of success.


Everyone points to the basketball team as an example. They don't schedule Duke, UNC, Syracuse, and Kentucky as their OOC. They will play one powerhouse program and try to make hay in the conference. Start playing lower tier Big 12 and SEC teams first. Beat them and gain a national rep,the build. Temple beat the dog out of Vandy and it was national news. North Dakota State beat Iowa State and again burnished their reputation as giant killers. Raising our national profile will increase the long term fortunes of SMU football, and also raise the level of interest in the metroplex.

Let's move on and beat UNT.

Yes!

[SMU 86]

Ok enough!

We will beat the iggles.

This team will improve against alike teams and lower. We were going to get battered by TAM and Baylor. It actually happened shocker. No it was the way we lost. Horse crap. If I am baylor I am thinking thats the best we can do after all the we have 85 5 star players? We see elite athletes up and down this roster 3 deep at practice everyday. Our QB is the most accurate passing Heisman candidate since Andy dalton at tcu all on the Baylor tv network / big 12 network also known as fox sports 1.

One game in an overwhelming new stadium Heisman in the house trumped up event. I expected this only worse and I didn't expect the defense to be that deep and that good. We can fix offense its June jones I think I read somewhere he can coach offense.

You expected 64 yards of total offense?

[sbsmith]

We can fix offense its June jones I think I read somewhere he can coach offense.

Maybe you should stop reading about June and actually watch his offense. It kind of sucks, he's been shut out in two of his last three games. I'm sure that awful o-line he assembled will get much better against the bombardment of blitzes our opponents will throw at us (if they're smart).