Coach Rossley

[GoRedGoBlue]

Tom Rossley was a complete failure as college football coach. WOW! he had a 5-6 season in the WAC in his sixth year as coach-I guess we should just ignore his 4-26-3 record in his previous 3 years which equals a superlative 12% winning percentage. What a GENIUS! And if its fair to point out that Tom Rossley played a tough schedule it is also equally fair to point out that he got to offer recruits the opportunity to play in the SWC. SMU was a MUCH improved team under Cavan the next year-they won because they did the exact opposite of Rossley by instituting a tough running game and getting rid of Rossley's pansy defense. Any SMU coach who goes 0-6 against Rice should unquestionable be CANNED immediately.

As you point out, he had that horrible record mostly in the SWC - a better conference by your own admission.

The very next year, with Rossley's recruits, Cavan goes 6-5 and goes downhill from that point in the WAC and 1/2WAC.

Rossley had even WORSE recruiting restrictions than CAVAN. Recruit TO the SWC??? It's VERY HARD to convince a kid to come to SMU and lose when they could easily go to aTm and win. C'mon!

TCU built a winner by NOT having to play in the same conference as the BIG BOYS. The alternative conference MASKS their true ability week in and week out. (Once TCU got better, then it was easier to sustain).

[GoRedGoBlue]

Stallion why be such a hater. The fact remains Rossley was outmatched with athletes in the SWC but he would play some tight games with the big boys and pull off an upset every now and then. He goes to the WAC and goes 5-6 his first year and is fired, it makes no sense. Then Cavan wins in his first year with all of Rossley's players and then the team goes downhill in a second rate league. Rossley would have been successful had he been allowed to stay because of the change in conference and weaker teams SMU was playing, proven by his first year in the WAC. And he did LOVE SMU and it was easy to tell this. And I guarantee you he had no better players than Cavan or Bennett, he just knew how to find the diamonds in the rough that the larger schools looked over and get the most out of his players. Stallion, who are your to call anyone a failure when the only time you have probably stepped between the lines is to perform at halftime with the band.

Exactly, the genius of Rossley was how close he was in many games, including TOP10 aTm. He didn't have the talent BECAUSE OF THE MODEL, and he was still able to compete some of the time.

He had to go after 5 years simply because of losing. Losing requires a change regardless of whether it is your FAULT or not.

[Stallion]

Tom Rossley's regime was easily the worst, fundamentally unsound defensive coaching this school has seen in 40 years. ZERO PERCENT winning percentage against running teams like Baylor, Rice and Tech 0-16 is evidence of his ineptitude. Heck against those mid-level teams he only had two games where SMU stayed within a touchdown-both against the vaunted Rice Owls. Almost all others were blowouts because he couldn't stop a running game (or coach a running game) to save his life. SMU showed vast improvement on both sides of the ball under Darrell Dickey as Offensive Coordinator and Schumann as defensive coordinator. I swear the only season since the DP when I've seen an SMU offensive line push anyone around was under Dickey. His running success at NTSU shows he knew what he was doing. And the term "Model" is the intellectual property of Stallion, Inc and may not be used against Stallion w/o his expressed, written consent.

[GoRedGoBlue]

Tom Rossley's regime was easily the worst, fundamentally unsound defensive coaching this school has seen in 40 years. ZERO PERCENT winning percentage against running teams like Baylor, Rice and Tech 0-16 is evidence of his ineptitude. Heck against those mid-level teams he only had two games where SMU stayed within a touchdown-both against the vaunted Rice Owls. Almost all others were blowouts because he couldn't stop a running game (or coach a running game) to save his life. SMU showed vast improvement on both sides of the ball under Darrell Dickey as Offensive Coordinator and Schumann as defensive coordinator. I swear the only season since the DP when I've seen an SMU offensive line push anyone around was under Dickey. His running success at NTSU shows he knew what he was doing. And the term "Model" is the intellectual property of Stallion, Inc and may not be used against Stallion w/o his expressed, written consent.

The VAST majority of Rossley recruits were done so under the non-MODEL. How can you criticize Rossley's lack of success BECAUSE of this and still point to the MODEL as the only way to achieve FUTURE success?

Rossley didn't have a FULL class until his last year when they went 5-6 and were within ONE play in three games of going 8-3. Their OL was LARGER than all but Nebraskas that year.

Cavan's MYTH and propaganda was that he was going to RUN the ball more than we THREW the ball, but ROSSLEY asserted this in each of his LAST TWO years on the hilltop.

[PlanoStang]

SMU was a MUCH improved team under Cavan the next year-they won because they did the exact opposite of Rossley by instituting a tough running game and getting rid of Rossley's pansy defense.

Woo woo! We won exactly 1 more game the next year with Rossley's recruits.

Yep, it was the MODEL with NO JUCOS that got Rossley too, and he did have TWO 5-6 seasons.

[OldPony]

Funny that Stallion blames the model for all other coaches' losses except Rossleyand Rossley had to put up with the harshest of rules. Sorry you didn't like the passing game Stallion but we flat didn't have the hosses to do much else. Rossley has a good job. How about your hero Cavan? I think the football world has spoken on this one.

[Stallion]

I repeat ZERO and SIX against the Great Rice Owls. How sad when we have supporters with so little expectations for the program that they are satisfied with being dominated by Rice.

[huntnfish]

Stallion Schumann was and is a defensive genius. Without him Cavan would not have won any games. And the defenses under Rossley were hurt by the fact they had to practice aqgainst the run and shoot and did not get to see a true running game until game day. Rossley knew we were outmanned and could not run over people, the '97 running game under Dickey was against the WAC, surely you don't believe that would have worked against the SWC schools? Also, remember Cavan's staff benched Ramon Flanigan. At least under Rossley you had a chance in any game if Ramon had his A-game working. Stallion your logic is very flawed, think about it for just a second before you make a reply.

I am not saying Rossley was the best coach ever, but since he left the teams have gone the opposite direction, at least there was a build up to 5-6(8-3 was possible, 3 games came down to the last play of the game agianst NAvy, Mizzou, and Utah)and 6-5(Cavan's first year but Rossley's players) under Rossley's players. Also, think about some of the very good players, names that you remember watching who were recruited by Rossley, and who always played with alot of heart.

[GoRedGoBlue]

I repeat ZERO and SIX against the Great Rice Owls. How sad when we have supporters with so little expectations for the program that they are satisfied with being dominated by Rice.

0-6 vs a TOP5 running attack when 4 of those D's were extremely YOUNG.

Rossley's only way to compete at all was recruit talent that he could on the O side of the line.

Rossley's LAST TWO YEARS, I repeat, they RAN the ball *** MORE*** than they THREW the ball - why? Because he finally got some BEEF on that OL.

And, like he said, CAVAN won exactly ONE MORE GAME than Rossley, with Rossley's recruits one year older.

[jtstang]

And the term "Model" is the intellectual property of Stallion, Inc and may not be used against Stallion w/o his expressed, written consent.

I have to turn it in--Stallion just made me laugh out loud. Funny, man.

[Peruna_Ate_My_Rolex]

Stallion, who are your to call anyone a failure when the only time you have probably stepped between the lines is to perform at halftime with the band.

I hope you meant that he was performing as a twirler or as a member of the pom squad,which by the way, is a rather frightening thought.

[OldPony]

There is no need to be ugly to Stallion. He loves the program. For some reason, he did not like Rossley and loved Cavan. It defies the logic he shows with other posts.
No one had more ridiculous rules under which to work than Rossley yet we did have a couple of big wins and played some big boys close. He couldn't even get his payers to be able to register for classes early so he could get them all to practice at the same time. I do think it was easier to recruit when playing old SWC teams but the competition under Cavan was the much easier too. Since the KU game under Cavan we have had little to cheer about. Even that game was tarnished by Cavan caliing it the "Biggest win in SMU history". Even the KU fans thought that was funny. Cavan showed very little imagination and was a QB's nightmare.
Cavan will never see a head coaching job again in D=1. Rossley is a respected OC in the NFL. It seems obvious that football people see something in Rossley but not Cavan. In this one area, Stallion is blind. It takes nothing from most of his insights though.

[PonySnob]

At least Rossley or Cavan never had a season in which we did not get at least one win. What was the longest losing streak under either coach? Did Rossley go 3-21 his first two years? At least with Rossley, the team played hard week in and week out compared to what we saw after Cave-in's last 2 years. He was clearly the worst SMU coach post DP although if Bennett can't get something going this year, he might get that title.

[GoRedGoBlue]

At least Rossley or Cavan never had a season in which we did not get at least one win. What was the longest losing streak under either coach? Did Rossley go 3-21 his first two years? At least with Rossley, the team played hard week in and week out compared to what we saw after Cave-in's last 2 years. He was clearly the worst SMU coach post DP although if Bennett can't get something going this year, he might get that title.

Even Rossley didn't have the youngest team in the NCAA.

[VarsityShop]

Yeah Stallion's boy Cavan is still collecting unemployment checks while Rossley coaches in the NFL. Stallion's boy Cavan ran off Josh who is also playing in the NFL but wasn't good enough for ole Mike Cavan! Cavan "ran off" NFL talent while Rossley put players like Bordano in the NFL! Cavan benches Donte Womack and we get our butts kicked by TCU. Stallion blames the "model" unless it's Tom Rossley.