Bennett: "Recruited Aldridge But Couldn't Get Him Into SMU"

[SMUer]

Don't you think Bennett is going to say whatever he wants now to divert the attention from his TOTAL failure as a head coach? Is he not telling the truth now, or was he not telling the truth several times before when he said that he could get anybody in school. Some people call this sour grapes.

I also think this is an important suspicion to have. I certainly wasn't sitting there panting and waiting for PB's diagnosis at the "I'm fired" press conference ready to assume its validity. Obviously, it's in Phil's interest to cushion his fall from grace with whatever it would take to make him seem competent, knowledgeable, yet doomed from the onset so that he can move on to his next job. Say what you want about his niceguyness or the fact that he's coached on some pretty impressive teams, one thing that is abundantly obvious is that he has put some pretty awfully coached kids on the field and said that he has done his job. To me that's more telling for me about what kind of coach he was and what kind of program he lead than some of his/these excuses. Is recruiting harder as SMU? I bet it is and we can debate how much so/to what extent if we wanted. Do our transfer req. or majors offered limit some of our recruiting options? For some athletes sure. But none of these excuses justify the absolute junk fundamentals and lack of creativity that saw exhibited every season that Phil was so enthusiastic about.

[SMUer]

If PB is really coach-competent and his players were put on the field as good or better than when he first "found" them, then phew! maybe we should turn out the lights on Gerald Ford Stadium for awhile, completely renovate our academic programs, move down to FCS, or something else drastic. Fortunately, I saw a lot of evidence that he was not and so I'm not so doomsday about all this. I think a good skipper would fix most of the major leaks of this slowly sinking ship.

[jtstang]

All I am saying is I haven't trusted a thing Phil says for some time. I am sure there is a grain of truth to what he says, but what that truth is I haven't a clue.

Well, both Orsini and Bennett talked bout some of the same things yesterday, including the education major, or at least that's what I thought I heard.

[Stallion]

This Train to Hell never ends - it just changes conductors (or at least their names change) spouting assumptions and conclusions about topics they don't even pretend to know a thing about. You all deserve another 20 years of this. A Head Coach got up in front of the Media in front of his AD and President and told you in clear terms that SMU is not competitively on an equal playing field with its opponents. The last 18 years establish the ineptitude of the SMU program ranks arguably as the worst in the Country. And yet we get a poster on here for a week who claims that Bennett just must be making this up. Its time for each of you to decide if you want SMU play Division 1A Football or not.

[abezontar]

This Train to Hell never ends - it just changes conductors (or at least their names change) spouting assumptions and conclusions about topics they don't even pretend to know a thing about. You all deserve another 20 years of this. A Head Coach got up in front of the Media in front of his AD and President and told you in clear terms that SMU is not competitively on an equal playing field with its opponents. The last 18 years establish the ineptitude of the SMU program ranks arguably as the worst in the Country. And yet we get a poster on here for a week who claims that Bennett just must be making this up. Its time for each of you to decide if you want SMU play Division 1A Football or not.

I would argue that you are more deserving of the continued ineptitude than anyone else on this board. You claim to have known the problem for 18 years and yet you have been content to do nothing more than shout into the darkness. Until you are ready to do more than tell your friends on the blvd. and the posters on ponyfans what we need to do to change, you are just as much of the problem as those who deny that there is one.

I ask you which is worse, not understanding that there is a problem, or knowing the problem and being unwilling to take proactive steps that will actually create change.

[EastStang]

Stallion was Aldridge an NCAA qualifier on signing day? If not, then the question is whether SMU wanted to burn/defer a scholarship in hopes that Aldridge would qualify. It is my understanding from many of your posts that you have been and still are opposed to SMU signing non-qualifiers. Is it now your belief that SMU should take one or two fliers per class on NQ's hoping that they qualify before classes start in August? Was Forte a qualifer on signing day? Was the UTEP kid a qualifier on signing day? If SMU wanted to say, yes, we'll start making limited conditional offers to NQ's like TCU in hopes that we don't get burned often, I could probably support that. Just realize that in those cases, given our luck, those guys will never break 400 on their SAT's.

[mr. pony]

Alridge was never recruited by SMU.

Really.

Bennett said he was.

[MustangIcon]

Mustang Icon:

"Bennett is a terrible head football coach. Put him at UH and they won't have had near the success they have had under Art Briles."

I'm pretty confident you don't know what the hell you are talking about or you wouldn't have made such an asinine comment. You don't know the first thing about the players Art Briles gets in that school.

So you think if you put Bennett at UH he would have gotten just as good of players as Briles has? Then you think he would execute just as well as Briles has with those players? I call BULLSH*T on that.

[Pony94]

This Train to Hell never ends - it just changes conductors (or at least their names change) spouting assumptions and conclusions about topics they don't even pretend to know a thing about. You all deserve another 20 years of this. A Head Coach got up in front of the Media in front of his AD and President and told you in clear terms that SMU is not competitively on an equal playing field with its opponents. The last 18 years establish the ineptitude of the SMU program ranks arguably as the worst in the Country. And yet we get a poster on here for a week who claims that Bennett just must be making this up. Its time for each of you to decide if you want SMU play Division 1A Football or not.

Is Stallion Jerry Bennett or some other relative of the coaching staff. Many have asked you, oh exulted Mr. Stallion, how in the world do you explain last years 6-6 if this years record is all due to YOUR "MODEL"?????

Was last year a fluke?
Is inconsistency the trademark of a poorly coached team?
Why aren't we losing by 50 points every game?

I think it is obvious, Stallion is truly a ONE TRICK PONY!! The argument that this team is poorly coached does not contradict the "Model" argument.

Is there anyone on here that believes that instituting VARIOUS changes that will result in consistency with all other D-1 school's admissions and academic standards is a BAD thing? NO...we all know changes need to be made. Without these changes, could we be a top 25 program, absolutely NOT. However, under the status quo, we can win more than 6 games in a year.

I am spent...

[mr. pony]

Tweeeeet! We have a BULLSH*T call. Step away, gentlemen.
This is going to the booth for review.

[Stallion]

Yes I think the difference between winning and losing in a conference like CUSA can be the 8 star UTEP backfield of BCS transfers like Thomas(Parade All-American BCS transfer) and Lorne Sam (the Florida St Transfer 4 Star BCS transfer) and the difference between UH kids like Anthony Aldridge, El Ash(Tennessee BCS transfer), WR Jeron Harvey(a top California JUCO) to name a few. In fact, I can almost guarantee UTEP never would have been able to stay on the same field with Phil Bennett's SMU team w/o 400 yards of Total Offense from only 2 of its BCS transfers. And I can almost guarantee you SMU wins last year's game against UH w/o Aldridge getting 2,000 yards rushing against us. And I can guarantee you that the TCU program would not be where it is today w/o Ladanian Tomlinson. THAT IS THE DIFFERENCE-at least in many games we play. I'm saying that you could document the same type of significant handicap against schools like TCU, Tulsa, Southern Miss., Marshall, UAB, ECU, Texas Tech, Baylor, and most of the teams on our schedule. I'm saying SMU gets beat by the same players the uninformed claim SMU doesn't need. What i'm trying to figure out is how ANY of you can deny the performances of Thomas, Sam, Aldridge and Tomlinson were NOT a significant disadvantage.

[FordtoTolbert]

..look what Memphis did for a couple of years with DeAngelo, or what Tulane did in a short period with Shaun King...all we need is a handful of studs to compete in this weak [deleted] league.

[Pony94]

I'm saying SMU gets beat by the same players the uninformed claim SMU doesn't need. What i'm trying to figure out is how ANY of you can deny the performances of Thomas, Sam, Aldridge and Tomlinson were NOT a significant disadvantage.

First, can you please point me back to the posts where ANY ONE has said that we don't NEED a certain player. I have to believe all of us are all for having better players. You, however, state we have lost games only because we don't have a certain player. I just dont think it is that black and white. There is so much more involved. Again, I ask you the question, when we win...how are we doing it? If our competition had 22 players that were elite athletes that could not get into SMU, then I would agree with you. But it just isn't the case.

With these C-USA games that we are losing, it's not like we are playing against Jim Brown, Bo Jackson and Herschel Walker. In fact, these are players that would not be able to play on a Top 25 team, would you agree with that? (I concede I don't know every player, so it might be a weak argument). If these players are so great, why aren't they on better teams?

Alright...I am losing steam...but just understand, we dont disagree with the model, just that it's not 100% of our problem. Will you at least evaluate the X's and O's performance for the last several years?

[UHCoog27]

A coach publicly discussing the academics of a player who doesn't even attend your school...

Well, we'll see if Alridge can improve his score on Sunday.

[Pony94]

..look what Memphis did for a couple of years with DeAngelo, or what Tulane did in a short period with Shaun King...all we need is a handful of studs to compete in this weak [deleted] league.

Exactly, but just because you are a STUD, doesnt mean you cant get into SMU. I know I dont read every rivals report or most of the recruiting sites, but how often does it say that some one CAN'T get into a specific school? Besides EXTREMELY isolated cases will anyone EVER know the admission-ability of a student.