PonyFans.com

Well, I'm back from Huntington.
First, the good. (1) Folks in Huntington were universally nice. They saw red and blue and instantly invited you over to their tailgate and offered you a beer. Some even game up to me after the game and said we were flat out robbed by that non-fumble. The first backwards forward pass in history (doesn't that make it a lateral?). (2) I met several of the players parents and they seemed to be as frustrated as we are by the lack of progress this year.

The bad. (1) Our offense really didn't do anything at all. (2) The officiating was poor throughout the game. (3) Only 20 SMU fans bought tickets to the game. I'm sorry guys that is just not acceptable. Sure we've sucked for 15 years, but that is no excuse for such a sorry turnout. I was incredibly embarrassed by that turnout.

The Ugly. Our defense played their guts out and were just plain exhausted at the end of the game. When we thought we had a fumble recovery you could see the defense perk up. Then when the ref called it a forward pass, you could see them almost all sag. I don't know if it was that they had to defend 73 plays or whether their conditioning was bad, but they were out of gas by overtime.

Final thoughts on the game. We were outplayed the entire game. Their offense moved up and down the field and they deserved to win. We were lucky to still be in the game with 3 minutes to go. When they got a field goal with 7 minutes left, a great team would have marched down the field on a game ending 7 minute drive. We couldn't even get a first down.

EastStang wrote:Only 20 SMU fans bought tickets to the game. I'm sorry guys that is just not acceptable. Sure we've sucked for 15 years, but that is no excuse for such a sorry turnout. I was incredibly embarrassed by that turnout.

Sorry, but that is a perfectly reasonable excuse for the turnout... Anybody who traveled from Dallas to West Virginia to see this team(player's parents excepted), really ought to have their head examined.

But that's the type of sorry turnout that if we ever get to the point of having a winning team could doom us in getting a bowl bid. Where was the Mustang Club, why didn't they try and get a discount plane trip to WVa. If we're not going to show up for games, then we might as well honor all contracts with coaches and administrators because we can't afford to buy them out.

EastStang wrote:But that's the type of sorry turnout that if we ever get to the point of having a winning team could doom us in getting a bowl bid.

Uh, yeah, that's what we need to be worrying about at this point....

SMU's fan support (or lack thereof) is just another part of the equation. Folks, if we had 40,000 rabid fans looking to buy season tickets, we'd still be playing in the SWC.

but CP -

u missed the whole point -

u have to WIN WIN WIN to get 40,000 fans -

& all we have done is LOSE LOSE LOSE since the DP -

IT SIMPLE MATH & THE BOARD IS STILL FLUNKING!!!

no, SMU has proven that even winning winning winning doesn't attract large crowds. Go back and look at the attendance figures during those great early 80's . With few exceptions, you might be surprised to learn we have always depended on the big state schools for well attended games.

Your right about that one Charleston Pony. Back in the 80's, when we had Dickerson and James, we had about 26,000 fans that consistently attended SMU games. I still remember the North Texas State game at Texas Stadium where the attendance was 27,000 fans. The paper reported that North Texas had ONLY 800 fans in attendance for that game. The rest were pony fans. That was pre-death penalty. Post death penalty that number has declined to about 8,000 hard core fans who are being severely tested by the current depressed state of the football program!

We would be thrilled to have 27,000 at the E Carolina game.

3-4 years of winning want help -

just ask miami -

it took them winning for 5+ yrs & heavy marketing -

for us, once potts left, all marketing came to a blistering halt & our winning began to 'slowly subside -

plus we moved to texas stadium which was a death call -

miami (& other like programs) intensified their both their winning & their marketing for yrs to come -

ours - simply was a puff - & then flittered away -

u don't just WIN for a few yrs & then expect crowds to be 50K consistently unless u pull other big name teams to your field -

i remember well when both bobby collins & the AD wanted cream puffs to play instead of this type of marketing (better teams) -

it takes yrs to build a fan base, not 3-4 in a competitive big-city market such as dallas -

if u want the crowds, u have to have the staying power & we didn't -

what was that loser's name??? bob whatever his name was???

Hitch

thx - alex -

a name i try often to forget -

however, its never around when u need it / LOL