Caution: world might end, more press...

[JasonB]

Not only are we on the front page of cbs-sportsline, but of ESPN college football:
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/index

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=2162433[/url]

[ThadFilms]

Is that the appocalypse I smell? Holy mud!!!

this is great... I hope like hell, we beat those Ags.

[Hoop Fan]

two articles. Wow. People like to see a comeback.

[Pony_Fan]

Time to compile all the articles and show the administration what winning does FREE PUB

[ponyte]

If folks are gitty now, wait until after Sat's victory on national TV.

[Stallion]

Bennett still using some pretty provocative words on the athletic model-he talks about us getting to the level where we can compete and that recruiting is "more doable"--but reading between the lines we aren't there yet with the Model. Seems to mirror the comments by Copeland indicating we got some more changes they would like to see.

[ponydawg]

"Generation Next" article was great.....
So this is what it is like to read about Pub on da Ponies, other than what they write on smumustangs.com...........

thanks frogs. keep up the good work stangs.

ihateaTm

[jkflamebo]

when i was contemplating which school to go to last year, a big subconscience part was whether the school had D-1A football. i did a lot of research and snooping around to see which relatively good school had an up and rising program. i picked smu for other obvious reasons as well, but when i was at the game last weekend and just seeing this espn web page...i'm so excited for the next four years its indescribable. even if we lose sat, i am very excited for smu football. lets just go out there and play our hearts out and knock some ppl out of their socks...go get em ponies

[Pony_Fan]

when i was contemplating which school to go to last year, a big subconscience part was whether the school had D-1A football. i did a lot of research and snooping around to see which relatively good school had an up and rising program. i picked smu for other obvious reasons as well, but when i was at the game last weekend and just seeing this espn web page...i'm so excited for the next four years its indescribable. even if we lose sat, i am very excited for smu football. lets just go out there and play our hearts out and knock some ppl out of their socks...go get em ponies

Good luck! - kick some Aggie Tail

[me@smu]

Can someone post the ESPN article...my work is really strange in that they block ESPN but apparently nothing else.

[SmooPower]

Victory over TCU marks new era for SMU
By Adam Rittenberg
Special to ESPN.com

In the afterglow of Southern Methodist University's upset over No. 22 Texas Christian University, someone tugged coach Phil Bennett's arm and told him something he already knew.

The Mustangs' win last Saturday was their first over a ranked opponent since 1986, otherwise known as the predeath penalty era. Bennett relayed the message to his players, but in doing so, a refreshing thought came to mind.

"Do they understand?" wondered Bennett, who grew up adoring SMU but was steered toward Texas A&M by his mother. "Very few of them were born then."

It has taken a generation for SMU to loosen the shackles bonding it to a murky past. But milestones like the TCU win could begin to cloud memories and revive enthusiasm for a team that effectively disappeared on Feb. 25, 1987, the day the NCAA leveled sanctions with an objective to "eliminate a program that was built on a legacy of wrongdoing, deceit and rule violations."

Now Bennett has a new date to highlight -- Sept. 10, 2005 -- as he continues the protracted process of returning SMU to glory.

"We're starting to separate," he said. "This is a new era. We're starting to get better athletes. We've had admissions changes that have made our recruiting pool much more doable.

"We're getting to the level where we can compete with people."

The NCAA sanctions were just part of the burden SMU bore in its rebuilding. The Mustangs were one of the so-called "Forgotten Four" who didn't move to the well-heeled Big 12 after the Southwest Conference dissolved in 1995.

"We sort of lost our identity," said Bennett, who is 7-30 since taking over as SMU's coach in December 2001. "A lot of people don't realize SMU's had a double whammy."

Make that a triple whammy, at least until last Saturday.

Six consecutive losses to TCU had effectively revoked the rivalry, at least for those wearing purple. The Iron Skillet, given to the game's victor, was rusting in Fort Worth, Texas, where TCU had prospered despite its own Big 12 exclusion.

Only 40 miles separate the two schools, but the gap had widened even before TCU stunned Oklahoma to open the season. During the practice week, Bennett picked up a local newspaper and read that his program was "light years apart" from TCU.

"We had lost their respect," he said, "and I told the players on Friday, 'We're on nobody's radar. At some point, if you want respect, you have to earn it.'"

Added freshman RB DeMyron Martin: "Why wouldn't you look over a team that's been talked bad about for so long? After they beat Oklahoma they just talked about who they were playing after us. They didn't even mention SMU being on their schedule. They just said they play Utah two weeks from then.

"No one thought anything about us."

TCU had plenty to think about Saturday night when SMU completed a 21-10 win and celebrated with their fans on the field. Martin, who was born in 1985 and first visited a college campus when his fourth-grade class field-tripped to SMU's Meadows Museum of Fine Art, scored three touchdowns and rushed for 118 yards in his collegiate debut.

"Like Lennox Lewis when he lost to [Hasim] Rahman, that's the kind of feeling they had," Martin said. "They weren't expecting it at all."

Since the win, Bennett has lived in his office, watching tape of SMU's next opponent, Texas A&M. He's taken few phone calls but did spend an hour Sunday with a longtime friend, Tulane coach Chris Scelfo.

With their home city ravaged by Hurricane Katrina, about 90 Tulane students, including the football team, came to SMU after an initial relocation to Jackson State. Tulane players stayed at a hotel near campus and practiced at SMU. The two teams spent time together the night before SMU's season opener against Baylor, and the Tulane players attended the game at Ford Stadium.

"It's good to be a part of something like that when people are in a time of need," Mustangs quarterback Jerad Romo said. "That disaster is something you can't overlook. No matter what, people are going to help other people out."

Before the Baylor game, Scelfo addressed the Mustangs, whom his own team will play Sept. 24.

"He was like, 'Pray for us,'" Martin recalled. "'Go out and beat Baylor. And when you come meet us three weeks from now, we're going to come out there and try to beat you. So don't try and take it easy on us. Don't look down upon us because of the tragedy. Play us like you would if nothing happened.'"

SMU doesn't need the extra motivation. After another proving-ground game in College Station, the Mustangs open Conference USA play.

"Somebody asked me, 'Do you worry about being overconfident?'" Bennett said. "I said, 'Do you know who the hell we play?'

"This better not be the pinnacle of what we're looking for, to beat TCU. That's part of it, but you've got to get better."

Adam Rittenberg covers college football for the Arlington Heights (Ill.) Daily Herald.

[SmooPower]

Ponies unbridled
By Pat Forde
ESPN.com

Peruna rides again

If any team (non-Gulf Coast Division) deserved a victory last Saturday, it was the Southern Methodist Mustangs (1). Their 21-10 upset of No. 22-ranked Texas Christian not only was the school's first victory over a ranked team in 18 years A.D. (after death penalty) but also was cosmic payback for a deed of great charity.

SMU was the school that took in Tulane (2) when the Green Wave needed a post-Katrina base of operations. Even though the two Conference USA schools play each other in Dallas on Sept. 24, the Mustangs reached out to help keep the Tulane program alive for about 10 traumatic days. When the Green Wave shipped out about noon Monday for their latest home, in Ruston, La., SMU coach Phil Bennett (3) even gave Tulane's Chris Scelfo (4) copies of his school's recruiting lists.

"As happy as we are [after the TCU win], I asked [the players] to think about the Tulane players who have been uprooted and on a roller coaster forever," Bennett said. "... If you've ever been in need of help -- and I have -- you'll understand what it's like."

He understands. On Bennett's first day of practice as the new defensive coordinator at Kansas State in August 1999, his wife, Nancy, was struck by lightning, and she later died. That left Phil to raise his two kids, Sam and Maddie, and it opened his eyes to the generosity of others.

"You find out how many people are willing to help you," Bennett said. "I think Chris is finding that out right now."

Since becoming head coach at SMU, Bennett has been unable to break the deep program inertia spawned by the NCAA death penalty for egregious and repetitive cheating. His three-year record heading into this season was 6-29.

SMU opened with a 28-23 loss to Baylor -- a defeat Scelfo believes his team helped cause. ("We disrupted their routine and their lives, and we cost them that game," he said.) But the Mustangs were ready for neighbor rival TCU, which was flying high after its upset of Oklahoma.

"People don't want to admit it, but TCU has sort of looked down at SMU," Bennett said. "... They've stuck up their nose at us for a long time, about six years. Didn't want to be associated with us ... didn't want to be in a conference with us. This was a pride factor.

"Maybe stick their nose up is the wrong term. ... The respect they've got, they definitely earned it. This win gives us some respect back."

[Mustangs35SMU]

If any team deserved a victory last Saturday, it was the Southern Methodist Mustangs.

You can say that again.

[Lefty]

Damn right!

[BUTitan]

See it is fun to beat an overated team. BU did it in 04' now SMU has done it in 05'.