Prediction time!

[PonyTales]

I don't care if it's 100-99 or 2-0, as long as SMU wins!

[stang_fan]

All right! No Rice win predictions! What a surprise. I'm glad no one is buying into that dumb argument "they're mad and they'll be out for blood." I cannot stand hearing that. To be totally honest with you I feel better about our talent and our coaching. I would be very disapointed to lose. I love the bulletin board material I heard about in the DMN. Hope it pumps the mustangs up. I don't like to make predictions because I want the stangs to score as many points as possible, but here goes:
SMU 28
Rice 13

[PonyTales]

[quote="stang_fan" .... I love the bulletin board material I heard about in the DMN. Hope it pumps the mustangs up.... [/quote]
What bulletin board material? What was said?

Whatever was said probably will balance out with the Owls being "angry" over their loss to San Jose.

[Dooby]

If the Ponies win, SMU alum Kathy Bates stays gone. If they lose, SMU alum Amy Acker is finito.

If the Ponies run the table, I am using a full nude shot of SMU alum Ms. Campisi from Playboy.

[Stallion]

how many of you have ever predicted a Rice victory in Houston? How many of you have been consistently wrong in each and every one of the last 8 meetings in Houston? I have never understood the braggadochio of a long time loser. Reminds me of the TCU teams of the mid 1980s wolffing at SMU players amid their 15 game losing streak. It was so pathetic. If I was a player it would embarrass me if a teammate made those kinds of predictions. Confidence should come from hard work and preparation. Save me from the weekly predictions of upset.

[KnuckleStang]

Aaawww, blow it out your @ss, Stallion. The last time we beat Rice on the road, I was a freshman. The law of averages ALONE says pick the stangs. That said, I think we're gonna need to score at least 40 points. That wishbone/triple option crap gives me hives. But hell, if SJSU can score 70 we can score 40. SMU 42, Rice 31.

[Uncle Morty]

Since Rice has had kick coverage problems this year, and Blake Warren broke one for a TD against the Owls last year, I'm going to go out on a limb and predict that he'll take another all the way for a score, this year.
On the flip side, I'm not buying all this "If San Jose can score 70, we can score......" business. Not unless you're counting on Rice turning the ball over 4-5 times, again. Their defense played very well, particularly against the run, against Houston and Hawaii. They had a mental collapse after opening up a 34-7 lead on SJSU early in the first half, and suffered the mother of all football meltdowns, but only a fool would expect that to happen again one week later. Its like being struck by lightning twice, the odds arent in your favor. Our offense got shut out by the TCU defense thats giving up 50 points a game when they arent playing us. If they can shut us out, anyone can.
What kind of "bulletin board" material was in the Morning News?

[Sam I Am]

While I don't think it is realistic to predict an SMU any time this year, the win over SJSU and the respectable loss at BSU have certainly improved the morale of the posters on this board. Taking the points ont he spread is different than expecting a win. BUT at least we now believe that winning is possible and that hope has been buried since 2002.

[JasonB]

But this will be a really tough game for the Mustangs to come away with.

We haven't been able to stop the run consistantly all year. If you watched the Boise State game, you saw our linebackers get dragged a couple of yards on every tackle. They are speedy and really work their butts off, but the only one with size is Stansbury.

The DC article states that the option wants to spread a team out wide. I disagree in this case. If the Mustangs can make the Owls take it wide, the Mustangs are doing their job defensively. Both of our starting corners can tackle, and our safeties can hit. And our 'backers are fast. The only concern I have about taking it out wide is that Stansbury struggled a bit with containment against Boise on runs to the outside.

Turning the ball inside, however, is a different manner. Against Boise, we had to try and keep up a steady pass rush. So it helped out in their run blocking and allowed them to create huge holes. However, we are just undersized on the line and our middle line backers don't have the size to fill the holes.

I don't see us giving up a lot of big plays or anything like that, but I fear that Rice will get 5 yards a pop and have long drives down the field. SMU's best chance of stopping Rice is to force them to run wide on 1 of the 3 plays in a sequence, and drop them for a loss. The only other way I think we could have the size to stop them is to have a D-line of Williams, Jones, Bonds, Adami, and play Hall at linebacker.

That leads us to offense. Rice has a strong run defense, and did especially well against the two spread offenses (similar to ours) at the start of the season. SMU, in my opinion, is going to have a hard time estabilishing a running attack.

That said, our passing game really clicked int he second half last week. It is imperative that it gets off to a strong start this week. If we go three and out on the first few possessions, and Rice has long, bruising drives, it will be a long day.

I predict that although SMU will be able to score some points due to our improving passing game, Rice is going to be able to pound away at our defense and consistantly move the ball. I believe that the only way we can win this game is if Rice commits a lot of penalties and puts themselves in long yardage situations, or if they committ turnovers, which is unlikely because we haven't recovered a fumble all year.

Final Score: Rice 27, SMU 17

[PK]

JasonB, you probably win the reality award for the day...but I hope like hell you're wrong.

GO MUSTANGS...PLUCK THE OWLS.

[stang_fan]

There was a dmn article that talked about this webpage.
It calls SMU a cupcake for rice.
http://www.collegefootballnews.com/wac/ ... hedule.htm

I cannot find the story on the dmn website and don't have the paper with me.

[Higher Authority]

There was a dmn article that talked about this webpage.
It calls SMU a cupcake for rice.
http://www.collegefootballnews.com/wac/ ... hedule.htm

I cannot find the story on the dmn website and don't have the paper with me.

The DMN talked about PonyFans.com? That's cool! Congratulations, webguys.
When was it? Today's DMN? Do you remember which story?

[PK]

I think stang_fan was refering to the collegefootballnews.com web site as being mentioned in the DMN...not PonyFans. DMN probably doesn't want anyone to know about PonyFans.com as their coverage of SMU blows the DMN out of the water!

[Higher Authority]

Then why was he searching the DMN website, and commented about "not having the paper with me"?
I've never seen either site mentioned in the DMN.

[PK]

I believe it was in the "College Briefs" yesterday or maybe Wednesday about the cupcake remark. I have no recollection one way or the other about the source being mentioned. The "Briefs" are usually hard to find on the DMN website.