Relax

[smusic 00]

Chad and staff worked their butts off for this raise. Good on them. Sux for us.

[skyscraper]

[peruna81]

Thanks, Aaron...

[sbsmith]

It's the sad reality of SMU in an eternal catch-22. We can never be a P5 team due to not having great attendance and putting a solid product out and we can't get a coach to do that because if he's on track he will get poached by another team...

Maybe it's time to ditch the excuses and realize we need to get to the games no matter what to have any chance at keeping a good coach.

[ebrooks11]

The alumni base is just to small to have good attendance. SMU needs t-shirt fans like myself to fill the stadium consistently.

[sbsmith]

The alumni base is just to small to have good attendance. SMU needs t-shirt fans like myself to fill the stadium consistently.

Gotta be perfect to get t-shirt fans (many of our own alums are waiting for perfection to show up) and since they're not loyalists they'll trash their t-shirts after the first loss.

[Charleston Pony]

Chad and staff worked their butts off for this raise. Good on them. Sux for us.

agree wholeheartedly; I suspect Chad got tired of giving students rides around campus and practically begging them to come out and support their classmates only to realize not many care about football.

[Charleston Pony]

The alumni base is just to small to have good attendance. SMU needs t-shirt fans like myself to fill the stadium consistently.

local alumni base is actually large enough to come close to filling a small stadium like Ford but the problem is that we've now had 30 years of a student population that did not come to SMU because they were the least bit interested in our athletic programs. That long term damage is really going to manifest over the course of the next 30 years if SMU doesn't get it's act together. For too many years, SMU's leadership failed to recognize that (like it or not) strong football and basketball programs are the proverbial "front porch of the university". Too much elitist "Ivy League" thinking from a school that is not even close to sniffing those levels of academia...at least that's my view from the bleachers.

[smusic 00]

Chad and staff worked their butts off for this raise. Good on them. Sux for us.

agree wholeheartedly; I suspect Chad got tired of giving students rides around campus and practically begging them to come out and support their classmates only to realize not many care about football.

I think he actually enjoys the salesman role. But he'll enjoy 4.9 mil a lot, too. You don't coach for the fans, you coach for the players and the money.

[Charleston Pony]

The alumni base is just to small to have good attendance. SMU needs t-shirt fans like myself to fill the stadium consistently.

Gotta be perfect to get t-shirt fans (many of our own alums are waiting for perfection to show up) and since they're not loyalists they'll trash their t-shirts after the first loss.

my fear is that we now have a whole new generation of alumni who won't have enough pride in successful football and bball programs to ever come out and support them. I hope we can cultivate more support from students and future alumni SOON or otherwise I think you are right that we are going to depend on t-shirt fans who really have a hard time identifying with SMU. It's easier to be UT fans or a host of other schools

[smusic 00]

Those of us who graduated late 90's to early 00's encounter it every time we talk to a fellow classmate. They just don't understand why we bother showing up at all. That's not going to change. I think if we won the rose bowl 80% of them still wouldn't care. They're just not interested.

[03Mustang]

Those of us who graduated late 90's to early 00's encounter it every time we talk to a fellow classmate. They just don't understand why we bother showing up at all. That's not going to change. I think if we won the rose bowl 80% of them still wouldn't care. They're just not interested.

Agreed, it's a novelty to most alums at best


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[orguy]

The alumni base is just to small to have good attendance. SMU needs t-shirt fans like myself to fill the stadium consistently.

local alumni base is actually large enough to come close to filling a small stadium like Ford but the problem is that we've now had 30 years of a student population that did not come to SMU because they were the least bit interested in our athletic programs. That long term damage is really going to manifest over the course of the next 30 years if SMU doesn't get it's act together. For too many years, SMU's leadership failed to recognize that (like it or not) strong football and basketball programs are the proverbial "front porch of the university". Too much elitist "Ivy League" thinking from a school that is not even close to sniffing those levels of academia...at least that's my view from the bleachers.

Well put. Could not have said this better myself.

[Lebanese4Life]

there are only about 6K students enrolled. Even if every single one of them attended, we wouldn't be close to filling the stadium. need a 10-win team for there to be a local buzz about SMU football, and we're not getting that if we don't have a hungry and committed coach for the long haul. Morris is the ideal man for the job, so i'll be really disappointed if he leaves. the SMU boosters and higher-ups need to pony up and pay the man

[Charleston Pony]

there are only about 6K students enrolled. Even if every single one of them attended, we wouldn't be close to filling the stadium. need a 10-win team for there to be a local buzz about SMU football, and we're not getting that if we don't have a hungry and committed coach for the long haul. Morris is the ideal man for the job, so i'll be really disappointed if he leaves. the SMU boosters and higher-ups need to pony up and pay the man

the point is that SMU puts out between 1,000-2,000 graduates every year and many of those stay in the DFW area or within a few hours drive of Dallas, so there are plenty of SMU students & alumni to fill Ford, especially when you consider how many have families that serve to multiply the numbers of eligible attendees. By comparison with most schools that play Division I - FBS football, a lower percentage of our students and alumni over the past 30 years are interested in sports. The evidence post death penalty is obvious and it just seems to be getting worse. Chad Morris is/was THE GUY to change the culture around here but I think most of us realize just how serious our condition is right now. I'm not sure Chad or any coach fully appreciated how little interest there is and how difficult a job this is. If Chad is in fact bailing on us, next coach has to know he's going to have to recruit kids who don't care about the in-stadium game day environment. I'm more concerned than ever.