Wha, wha , wha...

[SoCal_Pony]

Great…someone is lecturing us about ‘it is only a game’ who has 2,190 posts.

You are entitled to your opinion PK, the problem is I don’t think you will find 14,999 others who agree with you. Personally I don’t think you can even find 50 people on this board who agree with you….not if you were more honest in your original post. For SMU, it is not simply an issue of ‘win some, lose some’ it is that we lose almost all the time, especially if our opponent isn’t as inept as we are. To boot, many times the losses are downright humiliating….Navy, Oklahoma State, Rice, Fresno State and TCU come immediately to mind.

I don’t want to jeopardize our D1-A status on the PK theory that winning doesn’t matter. Try that line in Ann Arbor, College Station, Tallahassee, South Bend or even Fort Worth and you would be laughed out of town. Don’t believe me?...go to the State Fair of Texas next October and sit in the orange section.

Mexmustang had some good posts about his trip to Houston last year when Rice handed us our heads on a platter. I drove over 5 hours one-way to Fresno to see the Bulldogs score 7 TDs on their first 7 possessions. Winning matters, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

[PK]

SoCal_Pony, you make good points and it's an interesting take on my post. I never meant to imply that winning doesn't matter...of course it does. I've been a season ticket holder since '89 and have only missed a couple of games during that time. I hate not winning, but I also know it is just a game being played by basically kids. I'm still going to support these guys if they are making the effort, including the coaches, the AD, and the President of the University.

As Stallion has so eloquently pointed out (over and over), the Pye model was a disaster and in the process the Faculty Senate was given way to much control over the recruiting process which has harmed us for years. The situation today is better than it has been in a long time...but certainly not where we would all like it to be, but you can't undo all the damage done overnight. I can only hope it will continue to improve and at a faster pace. If I were a wealthy alum, which I am not, and had great connections, etc. I could probably do something to get the changes made. As it is, unless someone can come up with a plan that will work to get all the changes in place, I am going to support the program as best as I can and hope the changes keep coming and the fruits thereof start showing.

Having said that, to blast every little thing all the time is counter productive. Criticism is great if constructive and more so if accompaned with realistic solutions to the problem that we can all join in pursuing to making it happen, but way too much of the criticism on these boards are not constructive. They are just plain [deleted] and self-serving in many instances.

[Mexmustang]

Well, let's see what this season brings. I am now months away from the Rice game and ready to see us improve. Improvement on the field is the only way to judge our coaches.

I do think back to this winter when all these head coach positions were up in the air at even major programs, as to how lucky we were not having to try to hire a new coach at the that time!

I like Bennett, I think most of us do and hope he can bring success to the program. I think he is growing in the job, and one day, perhaps even this year will mature enough to to be one. Two years ago, I think he realized that surrounding himself with assistants that were his friends was not going to "make the cut". This year he may even have to make more changes. I do feel his best asset to the school has been his ability to patiently help make the changes from the Pye disaster. He does not intimidate the faculty, and has tried to make his staff and the team part of the university, not elietists. I was impressed by making the team sit and welcome the new students and Freshman convocation, etc. He has reached out to the fraternities and sororities and the student body as a whole. He works with the alumns and tries to make us part of "our team".

Having said that I am truely frustrated with Copeland...who seems to be the opposite. I believe he has weak people around him and is as poor a saleman for our athletic program as anyone I have ever met.

He has not reached out to our alumns, and with the exception of a half dozen truely big donors has not even sought out our mid-level donors ($5-50,000 givers). He honestly seem afraid of us! Bringing back our alumns as well as former players of all years, should have been his first priority.

His record on new hires is extremely poor. He closed the track program without a hearing of the school's alumn.

When we approach him, my friends and I hear his most famous line, "well that's a good idea, lets get together and have lunch next week, I call you" and never, ever, ever call or nor even look us in the eye at the next athletic function.

[jtstang]

When we approach him, my friends and I hear his most famous line, "well that's a good idea, lets get together and have lunch next week, I call you" and never, ever, ever call or nor even look us in the eye at the next athletic function.

Most of what you say is probably accurate, the track program was a bomb he dropped without warning as far as I know, but in his defense he did call me once in response to an e-mail I sent to Turner's office about the football program.

[Mexmustang]

I believe the key to your story was that your e-mail went to Pres. Turner, who in turn asked him (Copeland) to reply. Copeland wasn't responding to you, but to Turner's reqest!