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We seem to be quick to hit the "Fire button." Give the coaches and the kids a break. We're a young team, we're implimenting a new offense, we're still very talent thin, and we are still operating under more stringent regulations and standards than most schools, plus we don't exactly play an easy schedule. Not a schedule that puts butts in the seats, but it is no cakewalk. It's going to take time and we're going to a face few like last Saturday that are just hard to watch. We all knew that the first three were going to be out of reach; many of the people on this board who are screaming the loudest knew that before the season started.

We'd all love to see the Ponies doing better, and they will. This team is more talented, and if we can keep the kids healthy, we going to win a few when the WAC schedule starts- not many this year, but a few. Last week was ugly, and this week, we'll, I'll have my laptop speakers turned down through most of it I fear, but I'll be plugged into the internet broadcast. There are signs of life- we did play Tech (even a weakened Tech) well. We got beat up at TCU, but it could have been much worse. It will probably be even uglier this weekend. We need to support the coaches and kids though, because if they can keep healthy, both physically and mentally, we're going to end this drought. I know we're all tired of this. Lord knows I've blown my stack here once or twice. But things are moving in the right direction, and we as the fans and supporters of SMU need to be there for the team now, in the darkest days. If we post a few wins, the fans will come out of the woodwork. Until then, it is up to us happy few to keep it going.

I agree that the Lord is good.
Can I get an Amen?

The board reminds one of the not so distant past when young Cavan was our illustrious head coach. Most here defended him with a passion usually reserved for saints. As soon as he was was given a swift kick in the rump by the most holy Jim Copeland, people came out of the woodwork to proclaim Bennett the best thing since the Puritans landed on Plymouth Rock. Should we (Jim) burn Bennett at the stake the same ones who so vigorously defended Bennett will be all over the the new coach proclaiming that they knew it all along: Bennett was a bum, not a savior. I give little credence to those on here now defending Bennett and Copeland. They will be the same ones who said they should have been gone long ago. They are the same ones who now call Cavan an idiot.

ponydawg wrote:Can I get an Amen?

Verily, verily Mr T it doeth sayeth in the good book, in the old testament in a chapter that no one can pronounce or remember except those do-gooders on the first row, that no coach in d-1 football can be fired unless he doest doeth the most unthinkable and go 0-fer in twoeth consecutive years. Verily. Now go in peace and doeth great harm to the other team, eventually. Yours in meek and mildness. Nacho

Mr. T says we "got no time fo the jibba jabba" but we always have time for an "AMEN!"

Greenwich Pony wrote:We seem to be quick to hit the "Fire button." Give the coaches and the kids a break. We're a young team, we're implimenting a new offense, we're still very talent thin, and we are still operating under more stringent regulations and standards than most schools, plus we don't exactly play an easy schedule.

These were my thoughts when Copeland fired Rossley after a 5 - 6 season that could've been 6 - 5 or 7 - 4 with a couple breaks. Well, we weren't implementing a new offense.

The kids are putting in that 100%+ effort. Bennett deserves this year, and probably next to prove what he cand do, but I have a lot of questions about what happened Cavan's supposedly great recruiting class of 99.

Copeland seems to me to be the guy that needs to be under fire for our football decline, but I don't know who we could get that would be better. Copeland did oversee the new stadium, and get us into Conference USA, but Mr. Ford was going to build us a stadium regardless of the AD, and CUSA was after Rice, Tulsa, SMU, and UTEP for our location, and our previous building of rivalries from our beginning quadrant in the 16 team WAC.

Copeland has stuck around for years in a very challenging situation, but he messed up BADLY in FAN LOGISTICS at the Cotton Bowl, Shreveport Independence Stadium, and Ford Stadium when construction blocked access.

I dunno.

Until the university offers an equal playing field for all of our coaches and athletic programs, then one should allow the AD some generous latitude. Copeland can hire but if recruit restrictions keep the programs in a state of funk, then it is difficult to lay the blame of failure at the AD's feet. We, the university in general, are to blame. We didn't demand a more competitive program. We hung our collective heads in shame, beat out backs bloody raw with whips like a crazed Iranian during Ramadan, and accepted the idiotic restriction place on our programs. This is changing. Many may blame the AD and the coaches but the sad fact is all of the university community contribute to this disaster. Now that is changing but change takes time. Stay the course and work for a better SMU athletic program. Things will improve.

Good lord indeed. Lose to two teams that should beat us, and some want to can the coach. Not justified in the slightest. As for the recruiting, Recruiting Guru or Stallion can lay out the specifics in more detail, but my understanding is that even Cavan's best class doesn't hold a candle to Coach Bennett's first two full classes. Forget those "stars" systems on the recruiting services -- Cavan's recruits, for all their accomplishments, were choosing SMU over places like North Texas and occasionally TCU. Bennett's recruits are choosing SMU over Big 12 schools, an occasional SEC school, Notre Dame, etc. In Coach Cavan's fifth year, he opened the year saying the reason we'd do well that year was because he now had a team full of "his guys" - how'd we do that year? We had players that all of us cheered for, but I'd take a team full of Bennett recruits any day.

Stay the course, and have faith. Bennett is the right man.

And I'm not so sure about the " .... but Mr. Ford was going to build us a stadium regardless of the AD .... " statement. After all, Ford's initial pledge was $5 million. It was Copeland who turned that $5 million into $20 million.