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Guess we should look ahead to 2006.

9/02 vs or @ Texas Tech (have we figured out where this one is?)
Mascot: Red Raiders
Last Game: 2004 - vs Texas Tech - L 27-13
Series: Texas Tech (28-16-0)
2005 Record: 9-2 (6-2)
Conference: Big 12

9/09 @ North Texas
Last Game: 1992 - vs North Texas - W 28-14
Mascot: Eagles
Series: SMU (27-3-1)
2005 Record: 2-9 (2-5)
Conference: Sun Belt
Note: SMU won the first 9 games of the series and 20 of the first 22 games.
In the first 9 SMU wins..UNT was shut out 7 of the 9 games.
UNT has been shut out 14 times in the 31 game series

9/16 vs Sam Houston State
Mascot: Bearcats
Last Game: Never Met
Series:
2005 Record: 3-7 (2-4)
Conference: Southland (Division 1-AA)

9/23 vs Arkansas State
Mascot: Indians
Last Game: Never Met
Series:
2005 Record: 6-5 (5-2)
Conference: Sun Belt

TBA @ Tulane
Mascot: Green Wave
Last Game: 2005 - vs Tulane - L 31-10
Series: Texas Tech (10-4-0)
2005 Record: 2-9 (1-7)
Conference: Conference USA

TBA vs Marshall
Mascot: Thundering Herd
Last Game: 2005 - @ Marshall - L 16-13 OT
Series: Marshall (1-0-0)
2005 Record: 4-7 (3-5)
Conference: Conference USA

TBAvs UAB
Mascot: Blazers
Last Game: 2005 - @ UAB - W 28-27
Series: SMU (1-0-0)
2005 Record: 5-6 (3-5)
Conference: Conference USA

TBA @ ECU
Mascot: Pirates
Last Game: 2005 - vs ECU - L 24-17
Series: ECU (1-0-0)
2005 Record: 5-6 (4-4)
Conference: Conference USA

TBAvs Tulsa
Mascot: Golden Hurricane
Last Game: 2005 - @ Tulsa - L 20-13
Series: SMU (9-4-0)
2005 Record: 7-4 (6-2)
Conference: Conference USA
Note: Conference USA - Western Division Champions

TBA @ Rice
Mascot: Owls
Last Game: 2005 - vs Rice - W 27-7
Series: SMU (46-39-1)
2005 Record: 1-10 (1-7)
Conference: Conference USA

TBA vs Houston
Mascot: Cougars
Last Game: 2005 - @ Houston - W 29-24
Series: Houston (11-8-1)
2005 Record: 6-5 (4-4)
Conference: Conference USA

TBA @ UTEP
Mascot: Miners
Last Game: 2005 - vs UTEP - W 40-27
Series: SMU (9-4-0)
2005 Record: 8-3 (5-3)
Conference: Conference USA

Record depends on what JUCO QB we sign. But going 11-1 is certainly not beyond the realm of possibility. Probably more like 8-4 though.

i would rather see us play big schools and lose a close game every week then to go 12-0 against these teams...what a week schedual....TT is the only school with any talent......who agreed to this schedual...non-conference games are suppose to be though schools or even big named schools to rack in some money..but sam houston, and arkansas st.....this looks crazy....

Tulane has major financial problems after Katrina. Some people wonder if they can continue to afford a football program. A lot might depend on how much it would cost to repair their playing venue. Poor devils.

Whoever said we should be playing more difficult opponents is not thinking rationally. We need to win as many games as we can, as we will not be playing for the BCS championship series, our difficulty of schedule does not matter. Look what TCU did this year, they scheduled 1 quality non-conference opponent, Oklahoma (who sucked), and then scheduled Army and us. I want to see a bowl game, and playing these teams might get us there. Don't forget Arkansas St. is going to a bowl this year, and North Texas usually represents that conference in a bowl game. Let stick to the path, play some games that we can win, and build a winner before attacking BCS teams. If we are playing in a bowl next December, I won't care who we played to get there.

Winning brings recruits, fans, and money. The building blocks on college football.

smu01 wrote:i would rather see us play big schools and lose a close game every week then to go 12-0 against these teams...what a week schedual....TT is the only school with any talent......who agreed to this schedual...non-conference games are suppose to be though schools or even big named schools to rack in some money..but sam houston, and arkansas st.....this looks crazy....

So you rather see us getting blown out by Texas Tech, Texas A&M, and Oklahoma State every year?

Sorry I much rather see us win then anything. I like playing North Texas. I think it's a rivalry that could begin..even if we have dominated the series the enire time.

[quote="NickSMU17"]Whoever said we should be playing more difficult opponents is not thinking rationally. We need to win as many games as we can, as we will not be playing for the BCS championship series, our difficulty of schedule does not matter. [/quote]

Amen, amen and AMEN! The 2006 schedule is a good one. We could start the year 3-1 or 4-0 before we ever get to the conference schedule.
Had we done that this year, we would have won 7 or 8 games and we would now be making plans for a trip to a bowl game.

I think winning builds confidence in a team. If we had this non-conference schedule this year, it is possible we would have found a way to win a few more of those conference games we lost by a close margin.

Who knows. I'm now officially looking forward to 2006!

Ohmygod .... I think I need some time to decompress after yesterday. I look at that schedule and honestly see 8-4 or even 9-3, based on the way we're playing right now. Let me regain my breath and re-do my prediction.

Some concerns:

Traditionally we've started slow and finished stronger. Still, I don't see a loss in the first four games other than Tech. I honestly could see us starting out 5-2 or 6-2.

The key will be who we have under center, and who the LBs are next year. I'd like to think the defensive line will continue to excel, we have some good experience coming back at many other positions. But we need a JUCO quarterback, a couple of JUCO linebackers at least one JUCO offensive lineman.

UAB and UTEP will be looking for massive revenge next year, since we messed up bowl eligibility for UAB and conference title hopes for the Miners.

Heh.

9/2 Texas Tech - this one we can win, but logic says we won't L 56-14
9/9 @ UNT - Run defense has to improve, or Thomas will have a field day. I think we can score enough to win in any case, though. W 45-31
9/16 SHSU - If we don't win, whoever is the coach should be fired on the spot. W 52-7
9/23 Ark St - I don't know much about the Indians, other than the fact that they are in the Sun Belt, which isn't CUSA. W 35-14
@ Tulane - Will this one be played in New Orleans? Elsewhere? Not at all? W 28-10
Marshall - Should have won this year. We will next year. W 31-17
UAB - This could go either way. Since we have them at Ford... W 24-21
@ ECU - Skip Holtz is building a program. There's not enough talent in Pirate Purple, however. W 27-17
Tulsa - See "Marshall." W 35-10
Rice - In Houston, but still not enough advantage for the Owls. W 42-17
Houston - Kolb will be a senior, but he has almost nothing around him. W 35-31
UTEP - Miners will be seeking revenge, but the Mustangs will be on a roll. W 34-24

This leads to an 11-1 record...obviously not impossible! However, recruiting classes may change the predictions a bit. We shall see.

HorsePower wrote:Traditionally we've started slow and finished stronger.

I agree HorsePower... but I think that's a birproduct of our schedule. Until we have a culture of winning with this program it doesn't do anything for us to get whipped early in the season. I think the soft schedule at the begining of the year will help us. I'd like to see us doing it for maybe 3-4 years, and then go back to a tougher schedule when the win totals start catching up w/recruitng so a game v. Big 12 opponents will be just that. A game.

lol well everyone has there opinion. however, when you play high school football in a state like texas where there are about 5-6 big time schools, it makes it difficult to recruit if you are smu....first, coaches at smu need to look out of state for players...states like tennesee and georgia where there are only 1 or 2 big time schools are filled with great players.....even though i admit texas has great high school football..so do other states...and triying to get a kid from georgia to go to smu might be a little easier then lets say a state running back in texas who is looking at texas and a&m only.....also, i said losing close games to big schools...not getting blown out...and there are big schools other then bcs top dogs....if we are ranked above ole miss and miss state..then lets play them...they are big names that are in a slump...this will bring you your wins and let high school recruits see we play big name teams...honestly, high school kids dont look at wins and loses as much as who they will get to play agianst...no kid wants to go to smu and play no name teams when they can go to a&m as a walk on and make it and play big time football.....

Since we're doing predictions, I guess I'll give mine also

Texas Tech - If it's at SMU I think we'll give them a shot and could pull off the win. If it's at Tech...then while I think we'll compete we aren't THAT good and eventually let the win get away from us.

@ North Texas - This one is a big W. North Texas was horrible this year and expect them to be again next year.

vs Sam Houston State - vs Arkansas State, These two games..well we better just blow these two teams out. Sorry MM65 but nothing more would I like than to see SMU blow out 3 teams 3 straight weeks.

Conference Play approaches us with a 3-1 record..
@ Tulane - Last season was obvious we were still on the A&M loss but we don't have that this year and I think we'll revenge last season's loss with a win.

vs Marshall - Should've beaten them this year and next season we will. It's at Ford where we have had a .500 record or better at the past two seasons. SMU gets a big lead late.

vs UAB - Must say, out of the first couple of games in the season, this is the game I want to see the most. There is no question we got a little lucky with the win this year but we did and I think we'll pull one out late once again. This win would give us Bowl Eligiblity.

@ ECU - Wow. What played absolutely horrible againist them this year and we lost because of it. We're on a winning streak going into this and I think we end up blowing them out in the 4th quarter. SMU wins this one.

vs Tulsa - Last season..well again we played like crap againist them. But that was in Tulsa. We absolutely suck in Tulsa for some strange reason but still we only lost by 7. But we're at Ford and I think this will be the game to go to the CUSA Championship. We win this one late or in overtime.

@ Rice - So we have Rice in Houston...When's the last time we beat Rice in Houston? I can't remember when LOL. But I think we end the streak this year. We beat Rice handily this season and we didn't play well at all. Big win here.

vs Houston - This one will be close as Houston looks to get bowl eligible again. But SMU for the second straight year won't let it happen. SMU sells out Ford Stadium with SMU fans going crazy (I can dream can't I? LOL) and we're going to a bowl for sure.

@ UTEP - Well..It's in UTEP this year. But I think our winning streak comes to a hault and we lose this one in a close game. But I still think it will be enough to head to the CUSA Conference Championship game.

That is a 10-2 Record and 7-1 in CUSA play. Not bad at all for it being 3 years ago at 0-12

*ahem* The Sam Houston State mascot is the Bearkats, not the Bobcats.

Texas State - San Marcos (formerly Southwest Texas State) is the Bobcats. They remain in contention for the NCAA Div. 1-AA championship after yesterday's win over Georgia Southern.

with respect to smu01, i want to see us play better names, too. but strength of schedule should improve with the program, not ahead of the program. having that backwards has helped hold us back for a decade.

then why haven't we been competitive in weak conferences. We should NEVER EVER play Division 1AA Football teams. The formula does not work for SMU as it does with programs with large season tickets sales. We should play one top program a year one like Tech, A&M or OSU, one we hope to be competitive with over the years like Baylor and TCU and one we should beat every year. If we could play TCU and Baylor every year go ahead and drop the heavyweight. SMU has lost for 20 years because we have had bad football teams and little quality football players-do we have a single GRADUATE in the NFL today? This is just revisionist thinking from people that don't have the real answers on how to build a competitive football program....and as for some of the ridiculous expectatations for next year like posted above-get a clue. Finally it would be nice to recruit the South since we play in a southern based conference but I think the reason SMU has not is an strategic financial decision more than anything. But now that our profile is expanding into the South and the families of the recruits might actually get to see some games its something that bears some consideration-maybe we could strategically focus our recruiting especially in Louisiana and Oklahoma and selected metropolitan areas in CUSA cities.