SMU in a Bowl?

[mrydel]

I think we get to 6 with an outside chance at 7. Of course this depends on health and attitude after the first 4.

[PoconoPony]

In my opinion this is the easiest year to predict in awhile-no bowl. That's the consensus from the preseason experts too. SMU is a longshot this year

Too many question marks at key positions coupled with no depth. Hate to be a pessimist, but a 6 win season would be a huge success.

[jpe747]

In my opinion this is the easiest year to predict in awhile-no bowl. That's the consensus from the preseason experts too. SMU is a longshot this year

Stallion while I respect your opinions I don't think ANYONE has enough information on this team to make an accurate judgement. With such low expectations the low prediction is the easy one. However, I played on a college football team that wildly outperformed expectations and won a conference championship. Perhaps my eyes are clouded by that experience. However, if you can tell me with any certainty how the qb and receivers will preform, if you know enough about what the defense will do, if you can say with certainty that the offensive line will stay healthy or suffer injuries than I will accept the fact that the so called experts know what will happen to SMU this coming year. I will bow to the low expectations and accept the 'fact' that we are doomed to a terrible year.

[ojaipony]

I, for one, have very low expectations for this season. We have youth and unproven personnel all over the place. You need SOME veteran leadership - I don't see ANY on this team. Burcham, I think, is not really ready and Davis is new to the system (the competition will be good for both of them though and this will be the most interesting thing to follow both in August and throughout the season). I think we are strong at RB and that's about it. I'm interested to see how this OL performs as it has potential but there are simply too many question marks in other places (shockingly, even WR is suspect outside of DJ). Don't get me wrong, I want to us win the damn NC and I HOPE some studs arise (Minor, Davis, Gaines, Lancaster, Richardson squared, Yenga, Sanders?). But, it probably won't be enough to get to 6 wins. I'm still predicting 4-8 and I'm not a hater.

[dirtysouthpony]

D line returns eveyone. We have a couple of new stud lb's coming in on defense. DB's will be a question. We have a former NFL running back coaching running backs now, and we've added Pope and Gresham to the mix at rb. We will run the ball this year. This will help Burcham and the defense as a whole.

Aggie lost a lot this year. Baylor was worked by one of our conference teams. We have a puncher's chance against our P5 opponents. Seven wins is my prediction.

[sbsmith]

The first six games are going to doom us. We'll be 1-5 tops before we know what hit us.

[Stallion]

We have no shot at any P5 team. We are a good 17-35 points behind all of them

[B1GPonyFan]

This is going to be a referendum year for Patterson and TCU. QB has no sure answer. WRs outside of Boykin are anybody's guess. RB has no sure thing IMO. I would suspect their defense will be fine but those JUCOs in the secondary better transition quick. A leader has to emerge. If they come to Ford looking odd - heck, we may look more odd - then that game has a different tone.

[JoeKidd]

What really gets tiring is the amount of people on this board who are hoping for us to lose 7+ games and miss a bowl game.

Agreed, everyone is entitled to their opinion whether or not they have the experience and acumen to back it up, but don't root against your team bc you don't like the coach or anything else about the program. I mean personally I still hate that SMU is located in the Park Cities or that the Park Cities grew around SMU and everyone ties us to this area, but doesn't mean I'm gonna root against my alma mater.

[PerunaPunch]

We will run the ball this year.

While June has shown more willingness to be flexible than in the past, I wouldn't bet the farm on this.

Here's the deal, for as long as I can remember this team has had question marks. For example, last year we had a QB but a young line and what appeared to be a spotty, unproven supporting cast. The year before, we had the supporting cast, but no QB (the one who was given the starting job before ever throwing a pass on the Hilltop was coming off a major shoulder injury).

So this year I see it about the same as always with the Mustangs... too many question marks to make an educated prediction. However, I will say I like the potential of our current question marks as compared to what we've seen in the past. So I see another year of being marginal early, and making a bowl run late. Keeping fingers crossed because I think SMU athletics has something good going now. Seeing lots of Moody Magic shirts around town and hearing a lot of Pony talk, which I hope will translate into improved local recruiting across the board.

[Charleston Pony]

6 wins this season would be a huge accomplishment for these guys. I look at our schedule and fear we could open 0-6. To get 6 wins, I think they have to win 2 of those 1st 6. I know there are several on this board who think we will beat UNT and Cincy but until I see how we play in that 1st game, I can't say I'm among the optimists. I keep waiting for this team to prove me wrong, but I'm not expecting us to compete beyond maybe the 1st 30 minutes against Baylor and I'm certainly not expecting a bowl this year. Prove me wrong Mustangs. Please prove me wrong!

[PonySnob]

6 wins this season would be a huge accomplishment for these guys. I look at our schedule and fear we could open 0-6. To get 6 wins, I think they have to win 2 of those 1st 6. I know there are several on this board who think we will beat UNT and Cincy but until I see how we play in that 1st game, I can't say I'm among the optimists. I keep waiting for this team to prove me wrong, but I'm not expecting us to compete beyond maybe the 1st 30 minutes against Baylor and I'm certainly not expecting a bowl this year. Prove me wrong Mustangs. Please prove me wrong!

Seems like a lot of money has been paid to be hoping for a 6 win season in year 7.......

[SMU 86]

In my opinion this is the easiest year to predict in awhile-no bowl. That's the consensus from the preseason experts too. SMU is a longshot this year

Too many question marks at key positions coupled with no depth. Hate to be a pessimist, but a 6 win season would be a huge success.

I don't think 6 wins would be a huge success because most of the teams in the conference are going to be down for the next couple of years imo. SMU could get 6 or 7 wins in conference alone as weak as the conference is.

[Charleston Pony]

In my opinion this is the easiest year to predict in awhile-no bowl. That's the consensus from the preseason experts too. SMU is a longshot this year

Too many question marks at key positions coupled with no depth. Hate to be a pessimist, but a 6 win season would be a huge success.

I don't think 6 wins would be a huge success because most of the teams in the conference are going to be down for the next couple of years imo. SMU could get 6 or 7 wins in conference alone as weak as the conference is.

that's what all the lower level AAC teams are probably saying about SMU, i.e., that we will be down this year after all the starters we lost

[ghost]

Would be surprised to win 3 games but that is why we play them and to see the new guys and how good the older ones have worked to improve. not to mention how bad the players AND coaches want it. I want to see Mustang Mania 2. Those were exciting times, not to mention the Fry days.