Paul Johnson or June Jones

[SMU_is_bowling]

[quote="StingStang"] SMU has two ceilings to me: 1) how well can we recruit top QB's, and 2) how good can the defense be. quote]

I am not so much worried about the QB's, as JJ has proven this system can work without the top notch QB having to run it (see Colt B., Bo Levi, Timmy Change, Etc.), as I am worried about the defense. However, since C-USA has never been able to recruit and build that stud defense and may never be able to due to the Big 12, SEC, Pac10 gobbling up all the talent on that side of the ball, this league is more about outscoring your oppenent than it is about stopping anybody. If Conference Championships and bowl games is what we are aiming for, as well as eventually being "Top 25 in everything", then offense is where we have to start.

[rich59]

Without getting too far off topic, I do remember when GT and SMU played often as I was in school here, after a couple of years playng at other colleges. I was small but I was slow. Jewel Wallace, my high school coach, had played at TCU( later became dean of men there) and was a great friend of Bobby Dodd. It was said that he and Dodd talked every week during football season. I have a playbook from high school(1952) that shows plays we ran out of the spead which are exactly the same as some run today. Later at a small college in South Texas, Texas A and I, we ran the belly series and the head coach at a high school nearby, Ingleside, used to come and watch us practise, I was told. His name was Emory Bellard and it is said that he got the idea for the base play of the Wishbone from watching our pracises. A friend of mine, Dave Scherer, who played at SMU, once punted ten times for SMU against GT and averaged 50 yards per punt, or something like that. Phil Bennett's first game he coached at SMU was against Navy who was playing their first game under Johnson. I flew to Dallas from Colorado to watch the debut of our new coach with high hopes. We returned almost all the players off the number one defense in the WAC the year before and the defensive coordinator under Cavan, a fellow named Schuman, had had good results defensing option teams. In fact they beat Franchione the first year he was at TCU running the option and the Frogs later went to the Sun Bowl and beat USC. Navy had won zero games the year before and I was prepared to watch a massecre. I watched one alright as Navy won, 34-7 or something like that. We never stopped their option. I walked out of the stadium with a friend, 3 year letterman at SMU, and told him that Bennett would never get it done at SMU and If were AD, I would fire him that afternoon. There is no way that anyone can convince me that it is any more difficult to recruit at SMU under whatever rules than it is to recruit at Navy and Air Force. Look at their record the last six or seven years and that at SMU, against comparable opposition. I wish we had Johnson because we would soon dominate Con USA but hopefully JJ will get it going somewhat. I hope I am all wet.

[CalallenStang]

Rich, sorry to derail this a bit further, but have to ask you: Do you favor the school's name changing back to "Texas A&I" or staying with the current "A&M-Kingsville?" Who was the head coach at A&I back then? Was it Gil Steinke?

I grew up about 30 miles from Kingsville and watched the Javelinas often.

Bellard (to my knowledge) was the first coach to run the wishbone and was UT's offensive coordinator in the 1969 and 1970 championship seasons.

To tie this back into SMU, Ingleside HS's nickname is the Mustangs. Also, Bellard graduated from Aransas Pass High School, where Bootsie Larsen now coaches (or previously coached; I don't believe he was having much success there).

[rich59]

When I was there Gil Steinke was in his second year there. He probably has the best win loss record and most national championships of any Texas college coach. I wish they would go back to A and I. Dave Smith was an assistant there when I was there and that is where I first Knew him. When Dave was the head coach at Ok State, he decided to try the wishbone during spring practise. Bellard sent some assistants to help Dave and his staff make the transition, kind of like Royal did for Bear Bryant. That year after Ok State switched to the wishbone during spring training, Dave won seven games including three victories over bowl teams, very good for Ok State in those days. Dave subsequently brought the wishbone to SMU. We were using the belly series at A and I and a goofy defense called the sliding six that Steinke inherited from Ray George at A and M. After I left, Steinke switched to the Oklahoma 5-4 defense and the Veer and really started winning. Course it helped that he also started getting the good black athletes.

[kull]

When I was there Gil Steinke was in his second year there. He probably has the best win loss record and most national championships of any Texas college coach. I wish they would go back to A and I. Dave Smith was an assistant there when I was there and that is where I first Knew him. When Dave was the head coach at Ok State, he decided to try the wishbone during spring practise. Bellard sent some assistants to help Dave and his staff make the transition, kind of like Royal did for Bear Bryant. That year after Ok State switched to the wishbone during spring training, Dave won seven games including three victories over bowl teams, very good for Ok State in those days. Dave subsequently brought the wishbone to SMU. We were using the belly series at A and I and a goofy defense called the sliding six that Steinke inherited from Ray George at A and M. After I left, Steinke switched to the Oklahoma 5-4 defense and the Veer and really started winning. Course it helped that he also started getting the good black athletes.

sliding six defense? never heard of that in football. Used a sliding defense in rugby. Is this some sort of half arse zone?

[rich59]

It was essentially a 6-2-2-1 but when the ball was snapped, depending on the call, the defense slid either left or right with the lineman sliding one way and the linebackers sliding the other. Calls were like sixty straight, slide right and so forth. The trouble was that some positions, like defensive end could be called upon, depending on the call and what the QB did, to be an end, a linebacker, a corner back or a safety. We had to play both ways so had to know all offensive plays as well as defense. The defense took a lot of experience with to become effective and until it was second nature, it took away most aggression, which to me, is the essence of defense.

[CalallenStang]

Rich, your posts are great. I watched Javelina football in the 90s when the program was under Ron Harms who was a long-time Steinke assistant, I believe. Sure do enjoy learning some of the history from you.

I, too, think that Texas A&I is a better name. There is an effort in the state legislature to change the name back - don't know about the current progress.

I played football in junior high (couldn't in high school due to a bad knee injury) and we ran a Wing-T with a lot of misdirection. I played both ways and I can honestly say that even though I knew the offense, the hardest offense I played defense against was my own team's. There are so many ways that a Wing-T team can beat you, and it's impossible to know what's coming next.