The rumors are out there

[ClassOf81]

Sounds like Venables would be good. From what I've seen at practice, there seems to be more in-your-face yelling than teaching going on.

[smudad]

I think Cavan will be retained, primarily because it is rumored he has 3 maybe 4 years remaining on his contract. Further, I think Copeland and Turner may be inclined to give him another year with the new facilities.

Having said that, it may be time for him to go because of the following:
*He seems to have lost control of the team. They don't seem to respond to whatever he's doing. I'm not sure, given what we hear, he's even attempting to motivate these guys.
*If as has been reported, he abdicated control of the functional areas to assistants, he lacks the leadership required to win. Poor personnel decisions he's failed to override, alone, have been enough to undermine his authority.
*Fundamentals are lacking. Even if talent level is not what we had expected, many fundamentals haven't been there all year and there is no improvement in that area.
*Caustic/sarcastic coaching rarely leads to long-term success. Even J. Johnson knows his methods wear thin after a while. Cause your assistants to 'teach' the things on the head coach's agenda. Head coach should be a primary motivator with real motivational techniques - not yelling and threats. Jimmy used up the athsma field card.

But at this point, who knows. The next three games' crowds could tell a lot of the story.

[This message has been edited by smudad (edited 10-23-2000).]

[Red+BlueDude]

I read where the team spent much of the off-week working "on fundamentals." Shouldn't that have been a priority in August?

[HorsePower]

Maybe the first move should be to lure that Mad Dog strengthcoach guy away from Texas. It might take naming the stadium after him and a few million bucks, but he'd be well worth it.

[GrapevineMustang]

Did you all see that Cavan is going to be inducted into the Florida-Georgia Hall of Fame (whatever that is)????

[Rayburn]

Forget Stallings, he's in the rocking chair and can't be pryed out...

Forget those Bowden-types, they aren't coming to SMU no matter how much money we flash at em...

How about Hal Mummie at Kentucky? He's a Texan, he's a pretty fair coach and he may just about ready to leave basketball territory for a land where football is king. Sure, the guy is a head coach at a state institution in the SEC but the Wildcats are hoop fans first and foremost, they couldn't even keep Bear Bryant and he was the last really successful football coach they had there. I wouldn't want to have to keep trying to win the SEC from Lexington, it's not quite like Vandy but it's pretty near the same.\\

I am disappointed that no one has mentioned my name for the job. Don't worry, I love SMU too much to take it, but I'd like the opportunity to say, "thanks, but no thanks."

[SMUguy]

Rayburn -

Mummie may be hanging out in hoops country, but there's no way on earth we get him to leave Kentucky and the SEC for SMU and the WAC -- especially when Kentucky pays him FAR more than we ever could.

Nice idea though - I like the way you think.

[BleedingRed+Blue]

Give me Hardy McCrary (DE coach at Texas) - and let him start recruiting today.

[HorsePower]

A couple of weeks ago, I was hearing rumors that Cavan was gone.

After we beat Nevada, I was hearing that Copeland was ready to give Cavan one more year.

What about now? If we'd lost to Rice by a point or two, that would have been one thing. Or if we'd gotten run off the field by someone like Nebraska or Florida State or Oklahoma, that would have been tolerable. But getting killed by Rice? Come on, they're horrible.

Was this loss the nail in Cavan's coffin?

[ponytalk]

I truely would not bet one dollar on whether Cavan will stay or go. Neither decision will surprise me.

[PonyTales]

Does the name Bruce Snyder do anything for anyone? Just announced he's getting canned at the end of the season. Can we afford him? Can we get him? Does he have anything left in the tank that might make us think he can come in and do a good job here? Can he recruit in Texas?

[91Stang]

Does this mean Coach Fran is heading from TCU to the dessert to take over at Arizona?

[Charleston Pony]

I go back and forth on this issue. On the side of retaining Cavan, I only need to look at his history with us and his contract. He came in and took us to our 1st winning season since the death penalty, then was rewarded with a 5 yr extension (meaning 2 more years on that contract). Next year's team will be ENTIRELY his recruits and we will have several seniors playing on both sides of the ball (last time we had that much experience was his 1st year here). I also look to the FACT that our offensive line woes have been our undoing these past 2 yrs, and I don't know if that can be blamed on Cavan. Bandy, Davis, Murphy, Williams, etc...I'm sure I'm forgetting some others. How many career ending injuries can any program overcome in one unit? It sounds as if we are now afraid to run any contact drills in practice and that surely hasn't helped this team.

My main concern with retaining Cavan is whether the players still respect him and his coaching staff and whether they are motivated to work hard in the off-season. I've seen good effort in most of our games, but we clearly quit at Rice and that concerns me.

Assuming the money is there to buy Cavan out if necessary, all I know is that Jim Copeland has a very tough call to make. If that decision was mine, I'd be talking to the players and to Cavan to make sure the desire and motivation is still there. If I was convinced the fire is still there, then I'd simply reflect on "what might have been" if Va Tech had fired Frank Beamer after the Hokies went 2-9 in his 6th year there, and I'd tell him to go out and "get it done".

[SMUFan]

Note to Jim Copeland:

Please, please, please stay away from Paul Hackett and Larry Smith. Think Mike DuBose wants to coach badly enough that he would accept what we can pay?

[Charleston Pony]

Have you seen Alabama play recently? While everyone criticizes Cavan for the silly mistakes this team makes, Alabama has looked just like us (in terms of making costly mistakes, looking disorganized, etc...). Only difference is, they are doing it with much higher caliber athletes. Anybody can recruit there because of their conference, their tradition & history and MOST important, their fan support. Dubose is NOT the answer.