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Thursday was Media Day for SMU football. And the Austin Morning News blesses us with a front page story about a UTexas freshman -- granted, a very talented, high-profile freshman -- moving into his dorm in Austin. The editors should be embarrassed to have the word "Dallas" in the paper's name.

And how hypocritcal are they? They have a DMN sign on the scoreboard in Ford Stadium, and they always get some announcement over the PA about how the Morning News is "keeping you in touch with SMU sports" or something. That's a complete lie, unless the Ponies are practicing in Austin and College Station and have stupid orange cows on their helmets.

Wake up, Steve Smith. Rick Alonzo is a good writer. Give him the space he deserves.

I second the opinion

Hey, you should be thankful SMU makes it in at all - between furthering Jerry Jones' agenda and massaging Mack Brown's resume, there's hardly any room for the daily American Airlines Center story.

It could be worse - you could be Joey Harrington's mural in Times Square.

Nice work, Fowler. Always nice to see another literary SKUD missle from PonyFans.com's reigning cynic.

Then again, you're right - New York City isn't exactly the hotbed of college football. I'm sure since the Ducks put up that billboard, the coaches at Columbia are kicking themselves for letting Harrington get away in what must have been a hotly contested recruiting battle between Oregon and Columbia.

Of course, the Ducks don't care if a single player or coach sees the thing. They want the East Coast media to see it, and realize who Harrington is. Must be working, since Harrington and Oregon State's Ken Simonton are on the cover of this week's Sports Illustrated.

Harrington is Andre Ware without the siren after touchdowns ...

Without getting too tangential here, Harrington's best chance at hype for the Heisman isn't across from Madison Square Garden, it's 2,000 miles west of Madison, Wisc. Oregon gets Wisky at home in September, and the Big Ten press corps is bound to take notice.

But bottom line, while no NYC citizen will recognize - or care about - Harrington come December, his mural does get more run than a magnet each week this fall.

At least the Cougars were gracious winners ...

Ken Simonton is the best player in the state of Oregon, by the way.

Harrington is Akili Smith without the minor league baseball career. Bill Musgrave for the Spread Offense Era of colege football. Danny O'Neill without the Rose Bowl appearance.

Just to find the obligatory SMU segueway, the difference between Harrington and Richard Bartel is the difference between Mike Bellotti and Mike Cavan.

Draw your own inferences here.

So you're basically saying Akili Smith is the second coming of Jay Schroeder? College stud, minor league baseballer and wannabe NFL player with the size and arm to be great and the presence/intelligence to be awful?

I'm not sure I agree. From all the early reports, Bartel looks like he has the tools to be a good one down the road, if he continues to play football instead of going full-time to baseball.

Akili Smith is Jay Schroeder with more pigment.

Nice banter guys, but I think more to the point is the fact both oregon and o state could beat us no problem. Wish we could attract that kind of attention, player, and coach. I grew up in LA. oregon st. used to be the biggest joke ever. oregon wasn't much better. Now look at them. They come into the area I live in now, and get top recruits. Oregon is nice, but come on. Couldn't we get some talent like that to Dallas?

Go Ponies!

Props to you, NoCal, for pointing out the fact that Oregon State and Oregon also used to be laughingstocks, which is exactly what they were. I think Oregon State made its huge jump into the upper echelon when they started loading up on JUCO talent, so they were taking kids who were already 20 or 21 years old, physically bigger and stronger than other newcomers (read: freshmen) and perhaps were not as heavily recruited by other schools. Should SMU decide to go that route (assuming we're able to find JUCO kids who can get in), a rapid rise could be expected. As for Oregon, their rise has been fairly meteoric, and started right about the time Belotti took over (actually a little before, but he pushed them into the top tier of teams). He's sort of Bob Stoops west - a young, enthusiastic, charismatic coach who's able to sell his enthusiasm to recruits and who also hit the lottery on some recruits and transfers who blossomed into stars. Look at their tailback: Maurice Morris wasn't exactly being pursued by all the top teams in the nation, and he's widely viewed as one of the top tailbacks in the nation. If Jay Taylor becomes the next David Terrell, or Marcus Walker becomes the next Richard Seymour, or Tommy Miller becomes the next Leonard Davis -- especially if they blossom really early in their careers -- other top players will want to play at SMU for the chance to join a major star. There's no substitute for hard work in recruiting, but a little luck helps, too.