A ten-year plan for SMU Football competitiveness

[JesuitPony]

Great post and great plan. I wish I lived closer so that I could attend more home games.

[Pony in SA]

This has great ideas, should be relayed to Hart and the decisions makers. However, I really hope the powers to be already have or are working on formulating some plan. This remains my primary complaint that we don't seem to be working or implementing a plan/system to improve. Maybe we are and it is not shared with all of us, but if so why keep it a secret ?

I have been to the luncheons and seen the 5 and 10 year plans Coker and UTSA are working. They had facilities plan of 3 phases which phase 1 is done (new practice fields and complex), phase 2 has started (for their IPF) and then phase 3 is the completion of their stadium at corner of Hausman and 1604. Their marketing plan includes Coker and the coaches visible in the community and they do local radio shows weekly in the morning, weekly evening shows, and are out and about at Kiwanis, Optimist clubs, etc. Not in Dallas so don't know if June's group does any of this but I think it is simple to tell assistant coach he can go get this lunch or dinner free and speak to potential clients for 30 minutes.

NO reason we can't do better. And no reason we can't at least look at doing some of the things that other programs are doing that work. Go see what Aggies, TCU, etc. are doing that works and see if that is something we could try to. Why not ? What is going on now does not appear to be working.

[PonyTime]

Sorry to be morbid - But - the unfortunate aspect of all of this is that in 10-20 years, a good number of our season ticket holders might be dead. The average age at our games has to be perhaps one of the highest of any D1 team when you factor in who actually enters into the stadium on gamedays.

This makes the last few points all the more important. Re-Build the fan base with youth...

[mustangxc]

Well, if we get to the point where we are a top 10 program, then I am sure we will be able to replace the current fans with new fans and attract Dallas area fans. By then, our current students and those that have entered since June arrived will all be accustomed to winning football games and enjoy actually going to the games. The lost generation would also start to show up as bandwagon fans.

[SMUfrat]

Send this to Rick Hart Please...

[Dukie]

I'd suggest everyone use those email addresses to send the cut and pasted text, and also a link to this thread.

Oh, and I noted the comment about being ok with being a basketball school so long as you get Saturday afternoon, Boulevard-able games. I think the notion of being a long-term, successful, non-P5 basketball school has been pretty thoroughly debunked by others (Gonzaga is a better counterpoint than Butler though, they've maintained high-level bball in the WCC for a loooong time), but I'll throw more cold water: even though bball doesn't drive the TV money, it is still fully subject to stupid TV scheduling. Even the ACC has had to chase TV (Fox) money, and it meant the death of Saturday afternoon ACC traditions, because Fox wants a lot of games late on Sundays. Now that the ACC is an ACCBigEast mashup, it's having to fill Monday night slots too ...

[blackoutpony]

I have been to the luncheons and seen the 5 and 10 year plans Coker and UTSA are working. They had facilities plan of 3 phases which phase 1 is done (new practice fields and complex), phase 2 has started (for their IPF) and then phase 3 is the completion of their stadium at corner of Hausman and 1604. Their marketing plan includes Coker and the coaches visible in the community and they do local radio shows weekly in the morning, weekly evening shows, and are out and about at Kiwanis, Optimist clubs, etc. Not in Dallas so don't know if June's group does any of this but I think it is simple to tell assistant coach he can go get this lunch or dinner free and speak to potential clients for 30 minutes.
.

cough, cough, hire Larry Coker, cough, cough

[ponyboy]

To add to your plan, here's one thing I'd do strategically. I'd make it a goal that 80% of incoming students are from Texas and 50% from DFW. We are small enough without adding to the fact that the overwhelming majority of students graduate and go back to California, Illinois, Missouri. We'll never develop even a reasonably sized local alumni fan base with the current model where non-Texans outnumber Texans.

[mustangxc]

To add to your plan, here's one thing I'd do strategically. I'd make it a goal that 80% of incoming students are from Texas and 50% from DFW. We are small enough without adding to the fact that the overwhelming majority of students graduate and go back to California, Illinois, Missouri. We'll never develop even a reasonably sized local alumni fan base with the current model where non-Texans outnumber Texans.

Go to UT, Texas A&m, UH, etc. As a private national university, that will never happen.

[ponyboy]

So you're acknowleging the problem, but saying it can't be solved? There can be no change in policy to solve that problem?

[ponyboy]

And before anyone goes there, I am not saying that there's anything inherently superior about Texans versus those from other states. I'm trying to solve the problem that we have a tiny alumni base in DFW, even compared to the small size of our school.

[redpony]

Calallen- thanks for the post. I think your ideas are a great starting point.

However, as PNC pointed out we need BUY IN, BUY IN, BUY IN. and I have never felt that the BOT and RGT had much interest in a top level fball program. I think this was clearly illustrated with the AD hire that RGT made. Instead of getting a high level aggressive AD we ended up with a Casper 'yes' man who was supposed to be a marketing expert that would get butts in the stands. I am not aware of much marketing that has taken place and if it has it certainly hasn't put more fans in the stands.

Unfortunately, I sense that the BCS- P5 opportunities have left the station and we are still waiting on the train. It would not surprise me in the least if RGT wanted our fball program to drop down to a Sunbelt level so that expenses could be reduced.

[mustangxc]

So you're acknowleging the problem, but saying it can't be solved? There can be no change in policy to solve that problem?

That's just not who we are. TCU is a regional private university. UT, Texas A&M, UH, Texas Tech are public universities. SMU is and aspires to be a national university. Ditto for Rice. Is it worth changing our student body to simply appease the football program? I truly believe that the university and the football program can work in parallel to benefit both.

[East Coast Mustang]

Coaching
SMU needs a coaching staff that excels in talent development, game planning, and in-game adjustments. The staff will need to maximize the available talent in order to overcome the recruiting barriers that come from our conference affiliation. The staff must further excel in recruiting and battle bigger programs for recruits.

Agreed- I also think we need a style of play that is fun to watch and appeals to the casual fan. My pick, if JJ is out after this year, is Baylor OC Philip Montgomery. He' s been with Briles since high school and was the playcaller for RGIII and their prolific offense now (currently averaging almost 70ppg). He's young, from Texas, a good recruiter, and obviously knows how to recruit to a smaller private university. I would hope he could keep Jason Phillips on as OC/Recruiting Coordinator as well.

Recruiting
SMU must take a national approach to recruiting, but continue to maintain a local focus within the Dallas area. Go after all recruits from Dallas County. See if we can get a local 4-or-5-star or two per year to stay home instead of going to a Big 12 or SEC school. Sell recruits on the SMU experience and why it is better for the athlete than all other student-athlete experiences available. This requires the coaching staff to be exceptional salespeople.

Yes, absolutely. Sell DALLAS as a city/desirable place to spend four years. Sell the beautiful campus, early playing time opportunities, and job prospects after graduation. Sell all of this. I agree that we should focus primarily in TX and the DFW area in particular, but we'd be wrong to write off California, seeing as how so many of our student body comes from there now. Maybe we could get Klemm back here with a promotion?

Academic Infrastructure
SMU must ensure that recruits from even the most at-risk academic background not only have a path to gain admission to SMU, but an excellent chance to excel. Much of this has already been done, but we must ensure that it continues to be done.

Yes sir. What's the progress on that "exercise science" major?

Athletic Infrastructure
Did you see the new football complex Oregon built? Meanwhile, we still haven't built an IPF (there are reasons why it hasn't been built with, but that's not the point). We need to pour money into athletic facilities in order to ensure that our facilities are the top in the country. We need 1) An IPF, 2) A new football complex that goes above and beyond the facilities that we have currently, 3) The most state-of-the-art stadium in the nation. I want absolutely no recruit to turn down SMU because there are better facilities elsewhere.

I think it's unrealistic to expect us to have the best facilities in the nation because of financial (absent a Phil Knight coming along for SMU) and space limitations, but we absolutely need an IPF and facilities that aren't going to turn away prospective recruits.

Smart Scheduling
1 game vs. Big 12 opponent (TCU), 1 game vs. low-level P5 opponent (i.e. Wake Forest), 1 game vs. bad FBS (i.e. Akron), and 1 game vs. FCS per year. We should go 3-1 or 4-0 in non-conference every year.

I disagree with you here. I think we need to be as aggressive as possible in our OOC scheduling. We should have our cupcakes in conference. We've got UNT, TCU, and Baylor on the schedule for the forseeable future. I think we need another game that's going to appeal to the casual fan and recruits. People want to see us play games that matter. Recruits want to see us play games that matter. None of our AAC games really fulfill this. No one is going to care if we play Akron- think 15,000 max in the stadium and that's not what we need. I say put Mizzou, Vandy, Ole Miss, UCLA, any P5 team that wants to come to Dallas for a home-and-home I say sign them up.

Coaches Reaching out to the community
We are talking TV and radio shows here...we are talking guest interviews on The Ticket, The Fan, etc...but we are also talking about other things. The coaches (especially the head coach) must interact with the community in an informal way, so that Dallasites see the coaches as "one of us." When at Texas Tech, Mike Leach once did the weather forecast on local news. It endeared him to the community, and while it may seem like a small thing, it's exposure for the program. We need informal interactions like that.

Agreed.

General attitude of the coach
The head coach must reflect the city. Dallas is a brash, bragging, in-your-face sort of city. We need a coach that has that same personality. Gary Patterson, as much as I hate him, has endeared the city of Fort Worth with his brash personality, and an SMU coach can do the same with Dallas. This is not a city that appreciates a low-key approach, so the coaching staff can't appear to have just gotten back from having a mai tai at Duke's in Waikiki. We need a Ron Meyer type.

I want us to get the best coach possible, regardless of his demeanor.

Post-Game Concerts
It wouldn't hurt to bring popular music acts in to play concerts after games.

This is a great idea and should be passed along to Rick...no admittance without a game ticket.

I like a lot of what you said, and I think Rick and RGT would agree with most of it, but some of the stuff (namely, facilities) ain't happening without a big check

[ponyboy]

I guess I slipped into a more macro view. Having a larger alumni presence in Dallas would help football, which is of course the immediate subject. But it'd help in other areas of the university too.