Sonny Supporters Unite Here

[78pony]

I don’t post on here a lot, read all the time. But I will say this (preemptive apology for being long-winded)...

I know Sonny’s family well, not him, but I knew his dad & I know his sister. They are really good people. & what I got from texts w/his relative I know best, he WANTS the gig.

What a novel idea, get a guy who KNOWS the situation & WANTS to be here.

I think, well, let’s say “confidently hope” that he won’t be shocked by the lack of butts in seats & understands that @ SMU you can’t rely on student turnout alone. 100% student body turnout would only fill ONE section @ Betty Ford Stadium.

* I would actually bet we get close to the same % student and LOCAL alum turnout as everyone else. But we have a TINY student body & many alums, like myself, live over 1,000 miles away.*

What you gotta do in Dallas is get DALLAS fired up. You do that by playing an exciting brand of ball (which Sonny does) & beating teams non-SMU people have heard of (which I feel like he knows).

I went back for a Temple game once, it was a shootout, tight game, etc...but most I talked to @ the game thought “Temple” was a JuCo squad from outside Waco.

All they know is we beat bad teams sometimes & routinely get smoked by our former SWC mates. If you’re not invested like us, why spend your Saturday on that???

Morris & JJ’s fatal flaw was ego. They thought they were these geniuses & were shocked when squeaking out 6 or 7 w’s against bad teams the locals had never heard of or really bad teams they had, didn’t have the gates over flowing with fans.

That simply does not work in Big D. (I’m reminded of buying $10 upper deck tickets to see my Spurs v Mavs before Dirk & sitting 10th row center.)

Do I think Sonny is as big a “splash” as June (pre-quit while still on the job) or Chad (Mission accomplished - when it totally is not)? No, but that might be a good thing.

A GOOD man, that KNOWS what he’s getting into, with TEXAS ties, not looking to jump in 6 months (he probably would be tempted by TTech, but coach Bro still has a lot of local support & their fans are delusional. They will be clamoring for Sabanesque hires, not Sonny)...

We just need to make sure we give him enough $$ for a top notch staff. Esp. Defense & Special teams. (& why not a HC in waiting, like Jank?)

& we must give him the support any Mustang deserves.

Finally, & I was thinking about making another thread just about this to get a feel from those still in town:

When are we gonna take care of the REAL problem? Gerald R Turner. He’s been there way too long, he doesn’t tell the truth, he’s just plain weak & he’s awful for athletics...I fear nothing will get markedly better until he is gone.

How can we make THAT a reality?

...told you I was long winded!

I had to read this a couple of times. Very well done. I agree with almost all. Especially the part about our genius previous HC’s JJ & Chad and R Gerald Turner. Why is it that Wall Street tears up loser CEO’s who don’t win and we’ve had the same “No FB Championships won in any conference” university president since his arrival last century? Poop doesn’t flow up hill.

[planoponyfan]

I was surprised by this choice only because it hadn't even remotely crossed my mind.
It would be easy to read the Wikipedia entry on this guy and decide he's the wrong choice to coach any football program anywhere. I think that's unfair.

A previous poster is correct: Cal may drop football due to budget problems. Whatever issues he had out there were likely due, in part, to budget contraints that he won't face at SMU. I'm not saying he won't face budget constraints here, but they are nothing like they problems Cal faces.

He's a Texas guy who wants to be here. Those are big positives in my book. He seems to be able to recruit well too.

I have no idea how he'll do. But ask yourself if you want someone who has been a head coach in a power 5 conference or someone who has never been a head coach at the college level. That's a pretty easy call to me.

[planoponyfan]

[quote="78pony"][quote="Mr Horsepower"]
Finally, & I was thinking about making another thread just about this to get a feel from those still in town:

When are we gonna take care of the REAL problem? Gerald R Turner. He’s been there way too long, he doesn’t tell the truth, he’s just plain weak & he’s awful for athletics...I fear nothing will get markedly better until he is gone.

How can we make THAT a reality?

...told you I was long winded![/quote]

I had to read this a couple of times. Very well done. I agree with almost all. Especially the part about our genius previous HC’s JJ & Chad and R Gerald Turner. Why is it that Wall Street tears up loser CEO’s who don’t win and we’ve had the same “No FB Championships won in any conference” university president since his arrival last century? Poop doesn’t flow up hill.[/quote]

I agree with 100% of what you had to say about Dykes. However, I think suggesting that the President of the school should be fired for the lack of conference championships by the football team is a bit much. There may be reasons to question Mr. Turner's leadership of the school, but you can't base his employment on how the football team does.

[Mr Horsepower]

There may be reasons to question Mr. Turner's leadership of the school, but you can't base his employment on how the football team does.

Turner has been awful. The day he got run out of Ole Miss, my friends that went there were dancing in the streets.

When he came to SMU they said: “He’ll raise a lot of money for fountains, but he has no backbone & he’s a cancer for athletics. Sorry bout your luck.” - & they were right!

His lack of delivering on “promises” has been a problem going back to pre-Bennett days.

You may be right that “wins & losses” isn’t grounds for dismissal of a college president, but athletics is the front porch of any university (esp. in Texas). So, yeah, I’d say a bad reputation, people not wanting to work with you, not acting in the interest of what your students/alums want & staying no less than 10 years too long while doing an all around poor job...is.

[Charleston Pony]

Bump...what do the naysayers think now? From where I sit, Sonny's hiring is looking better and better, although we should wait to see how this season plays out before declaring Sonny a sucessful hire. I'm more optimistic than I have been since the program's return from the death penalty, but I will admit I had moments when I felt pretty good about Cavan, Bennett, JJ and Chad.

[Nacho]

Remind me to remind everyone at the end if the season that I was one of about 2 SMU fans who was all for Sonny's hire.

[leopold]

Can we at least wait for the chickens to hatch?

I was actually happy about the Sonny hire. Not elated, but happy given the options.

If ole boy goes 8-4 and wins his division then he's definitely done his job. Anything more and I'm elated.

But let's actually play the games first.

[leopold]

Turner has been awful. The day he got run out of Ole Miss, my friends that went there were dancing in the streets.

When he came to SMU they said: “He’ll raise a lot of money for fountains, but he has no backbone & he’s a cancer for athletics. Sorry bout your luck.” - & they were right!

His lack of delivering on “promises” has been a problem going back to pre-Bennett days.

You may be right that “wins & losses” isn’t grounds for dismissal of a college president, but athletics is the front porch of any university (esp. in Texas). So, yeah, I’d say a bad reputation, people not wanting to work with you, not acting in the interest of what your students/alums want & staying no less than 10 years too long while doing an all around poor job...is.

*snort*

I'm very familiar with the Rebels. Turner was the least of their problems, especially athletically.

[Paladin]

From my limited knowledge base, I can't think of a single thing that Coach Dykes could or should do differently to improve our chances to dramatically improve football at SMU. Best hire since Ron Meyer (and with none of the downside due to recruiting practices). I understand he donated a not insignificant amount of $$ to building the new Indoor Practice facility. And he's a good guy, wants to be here in Dallas, and has had success in the past. What is there not to like ?

[PonyTime]

Think I am now in this camp - posted this elsewhere - but here is why...

The win total increases at both LA Tech and Cal are as impressive as Chad's. He has also won more conference titles and Bowl games than Chad. Did not realize that he took over at LA Tech after Derrek Dooley bolted for Tennessee...interesting similarity there...

More importantly, the teams that he beat are MUCH MORE impressive than Chad's wins...

At LA Tech - he beat Ole Miss, Houston, Illinois, Virginia, and almost knocked off TCU and A&M (lost by 2 to Johnny football I believe).

At Cal - Beat University of Texas TWICE among an assortment of Pac 12 teams.

The season he was fired - he beat #11 and #18 teams.

He obviously was not a good fit for Cal.

^^^^So I must have been the other Sonny Supporter (along with Nacho) who was all-in on Sonny, and I maintain that anyone who wants to see where we are headed, go watch some of the aforementioned highlights of his Cal or La Tech teams.