41-10: Bennett, Let me guess...

[BRStang]

1) The 41-10 BLOW-OUT to La Tech was the result of poor preparation by the coaching staff...

...you forgot to coach Akinyemi to actually defend against the wide receiver; you forgot to coach the offense to actually score points after the defense forces a turnover on the opposing team's own 18 yd line; you failed to actually tell the punt team to fall on the ball after the punt returner muffs the punt...the 31-point difference against a team ranked No. 70 by CBSSportsline is not due to lack of talent, but to your failure to teach the defense how to wrap up, and the offense to not get penalized when you're on the 15 yd line.

2) They are a young team...they need time to grow up...

...no team made up of Underclassmen can be expected to actually win a football game...Rice??? Oh, yeah, nevermind...see No. 1, above.

[HixsontoLeVias]

GREAT point there...young team. Wasn't Lance a freshman when he began his great run...wasn't Mike Ford simply OUTSTANDING his frosh year....look at these TWO freshman QB's playing for Tennessee right now.... the Rice reference, right on..PLUS, PLUS, we ain't getting blown out by Ohio State here, folks, la freakin tech, RICE!, a REALLY down tcu bunch......we should be more competitive then this, I don't care about youth and the "cupboard was bare"....come on! Long Live Redman Hume.

[htownstang]

BRSTANG...
I dont think akinyemi (#12) had that bad of a game from what I saw he didnt give up any touchdowns and made some nice tackles in the open field to prevent some big runs by moats, If I can recall wasn't it brandon jones who gave up the 93 td pass in the opening minutes. Akinyemi didnt even start the game. Give the guy a break he has been going through a rough last couple of weeks according to DMN. I think he lost a very close family member. The guy is a hustle guy who from what I hear is an asset to the team...so give him a little credit...if you want to get on a guy try brandon jones (#22) he let the wind out of the sails when he gave up that bomb after the defense had pinned them back on their 7 yd line

[LATech]

It was #27 Nanbuife who chased Louisiana Tech's #88 Tram Davis 93 yards to the endzone. See the pic in today's Dallas Morning News.

[SMUguy]

For the record, Brandon Jones was beaten on the opening TD, and a little while later, Akinyemi turned in toward the center of the field, leaving his WR wide open on the sideline for a long gain. Nobody on the defense had a great game.

With that said, finger-pointing doesn't help change the score yesterday. What say we come up with some constructive ideas on how the team can play better instead?

[Stallion]

it seems as if an AMBER ALERT should have bee posted for our safeties as well on what I think were the first 3 TDs

[PK]

OK, I know no one wants to hear this so make of it what you want.

SMU starting Offense: 2-SR, 3-JR & 6-SO
LaTech starting Defense: 5-GR, 3-SR & 2-JR (GR = fifth year SR)

LaTech starting Offense: 1-GR, 4-SR, 4-JR & 2-SO
SMU starting Defense: 1-SR, 6-JR, 3-SO & 1-FR-HS

Like I said, make of it what you want.

Take out Moat's 72 yd TD run and his average was only 5.4 yds per carry for only 114 yds total. He had a couple of other long gains which skew the average play results. In other words, we did a fairly decent job of defending the number 3 rusher in the nation in yards per game, but it only takes one mistake defending him and he is gone.

Our mistakes, like the false starts, always seem to come at the most in-opportune time and that along with our turnovers are what is killing us. Until we stop the mistakes and turnovers, I don't see much chance of winning a game.

[sam]

Great point PK. If you take away 5 of their touchdowns and we win.

[QuietManDisciple]

Bennett is making progress, isn't he? We shouldn't forget the Mustangs actually won a game, never mind that it is probably the only one they'll win this season. And if they lose the last four, won't that make Bennett 4-30? Can't say that, though. Too negative.

Let's look at the positive side. Through seven games SMU has scored five more points than in 2003 -- 73 compared to 68. Of course, opponents (four of the same teams, in fact) have scored 60 points more -- 289 compared to 229 -- for an average of 41.3 per game.

Oops! That sounds negative, too. Gee, I'm just not any good at this. Not too worry. I'm sure someone will come along and tell us how great Bennett is really doing.

[ClassOf81]

I have yet to read where anyone said Bennett is doing "great."
But those folks you seem to be mocking who think he deserves a chance to see this through with a team full of guys he recruits are right.
Our youth isn't an excuse. It's a fact.

[RGV Pony]

This entire thread, and most others, are driving me crazy. Someone please help me to understand this. On the one hand, we can be concerned and puzzled as to why the team has slipped backward in three years. Season before last, La Tech was a homecoming win. Now, they jolt our boys. Last year, we had a glimmer of hope with the TCU game, then get trounced this year. I seem to remember the argument after the TCU game was "TCU is a really good team, better than we give them credit for." The balance of the season has disproved that.

The part difficult for me to grasp is why we can't hold Bennett accountable. No, I'm not saying fire him now. I am saying that he has repeatedly implored us to blame him for player preparation. The two realities of holding coach accountable (and doing as he has us to do) on the one hand and believing whatever admonishments or crap dished out when attempting to do so are incongruous.

[PerunaPunch]

In regards to the Mike Ford and Tenn. reference. Sure, there are many examples of freshmen coming in and positively impacting their teams. Like Cory Muse for example... But in both Ford's case and I imagine in Tenn (I'm admittedly not familiar with that situation), I don't think I'm going out on a limb by stating that those players were surrounded by mature, experienced teammates. We're young almost across the board.

Next, for those of you who aren't very familiar with coaches... Sometimes coaches just get out-coached. But in SMU's case, "We didn't do a very good job preparing the team this week" is coach-speak for "We got spanked by an older, stronger, more experienced team, but I'm trying to insulate my players from the media, their peers and irate fans cause we have to continue to improve and I can't afford for my player's psyche to get crushed. We only have a week (or in this case two) to put this debacle behind us and get ready for our next opponent."

That being said, I can't figure how this team can play TTech hard to the final gun then get blown out by chumps like Rice and La Tech. Sounds like the team has more growing up to do than just chronologically.

[PK]

Peruna Punch, see my post above for comparison of the age of the players on the two teams that played Saturday. LaTech was considerably more experienced across the board than SMU (including a bunch of 5th year SR's) and we have had a number of injuries to some of our more experienced players since the Texas Tech game. No excuses, just facts.

[PonySnob]

That being said, I can't figure how this team can play TTech hard to the final gun then get blown out by chumps like Rice and La Tech.

The sunshiners are putting way too much emphasis on our perfromance in that game.We caught Texas Tech at the right time with their new QB, WR's, etc. They struggled the next week, but by their 3rd game, they clearly had their offense rolling. Is there any doubt that Tech would not totally destroy us like they did TCU or Nebraska if we played them right now? The fact is, our offense was just as pitiful then as it is now as we could not even score two TD's in that game.

The same could be said about the Boise St. game as our offense had less than 50 yards in the first half. While play was better in the second half, Boise did pull their starting QB at the end of the 3rd quarter - once again, our offense had 13 points as our D scored the first TD.

Last years TCU game was no kind of indicator either - TCU had just had their whole season come apart the week before when they lost to S. Miss and they clearly were not that focused in the game. They had practically the same team back when they played us this year - and look what happened - 44-0!

For whatever reason, neither the defense or the offense has improved from game 1 of Bennett's time here at SMU. The argument could probably be made that both have actually gotten worse.

[rich_alum]

his average was only 5.4 yds per carry for only 114 yds total.

I think 5.4 yds per carry is still a ton......that would still rank us in the bottom tier of rush defense.

I would agree with the last post that our defense may be getting worse. I'm not sure who or what is the problem, but defense is the area I expected the most improvement. I think we all knew the offense would struggle.

The fact that there was man for man coverage on 3rd and 10 from the La Tech 7 blows my mind.