PonyFans.com

Record, where SMU ranked out of 117 D1a college programs, and OOC games:

Last season:

5-6

Total defense - 70
Scoring defense- 57
Total offense- 104
Scoring offense- 94

Baylor, TCU, A&M

This season:

6-6

Total defense - 76
Scoring defense- 75
Total offense- 79
Scoring offense- 41

Tech, Ark St, UNT, SHSU

I am not sure that we have any tangible improvment from last season top justify everyone's defense that the programn is on the upswing.

* Exclude playing SHSU (a joke of a game for us to schedule) to get us back on an 11 game schedule and we finish 5-6 same as last year.

* The offense improved significantly but is still in the bottom half total offense (although about top 35% in scoring O) but returned I believe every starter other than QB and played a much easier OOC schedule that would lend itself to a natural improvement in numbers.

* The defense was not quite as good as last season, partly due to some very big losses on that side of the ball. Of course this season we will be losing Haywood, Bonds, Rogers, and Sturdivant. All 4, without question, among our most valuable defensive players on the roster, 3 of which likely 1st team ALL CUSA Award winniers.

* Recruiting. Based on a numbers and ratings standpoint, is it noticeably better than it was last season or the season before that? (I am not a college football recruiting expert, this is a genuine question for those that know more on the subject).

Add in TCU as our 12th game next season (I believe that is the only change to our OOC) in the spot of SHSU and I am not so sure we finish any better than the 6-6 we did this year (although I expect a UNT win next season). So the question I pose to everyone- are we really making progress? Are we really getting better? Or did we just have the most cupcake schedule ever, for a team returning a lot of players, finish a mediorce 6-6, while watching RICE beat us to clinch their bowl berth and 7-5 record in their head coach's first season (they were 1-10 last year), while proclaiming it to be great progress?

NO, I see this season as a step backward. 6-6, yes. But against lesser opponents. We also had no marquis wins this season, like we did last season.

The two positives I noticed, to be fair, are that this team was more fun to watch at times on offense than in previous years, and certainly they did not give up when they found themselves behind. Other than that, we regressed. I'm not upbeat at all for next year.

I will disagree in that I think the Tulsa game was a marquee win. They were one of the better teams in CUSA and we came back to beat them with our backs against the wall. Does that make up for losing to UNT or offensive play calling you would laugh at in a video game much less an actual football game? No, but that was a pretty big win in my opinion.

Tulsa was on a backward slide when we beat them. I'm not taking anything away from our team for the win, but I don't consider Tulsa this year on par with TCU and UH last season.

The season is last season all over again. If you count BOTH ASU and SHSU as one win instead of two (they aren't very worthy opponents) then we have the same record as last year. And UNT wasn't a very worthy opponent either, even thought we lost that game.

BRStang wrote:NO, I see this season as a step backward. 6-6, yes. But against lesser opponents. We also had no marquis wins this season, like we did last season.

The two positives I noticed, to be fair, are that this team was more fun to watch at times on offense than in previous years, and certainly they did not give up when they found themselves behind. Other than that, we regressed. I'm not upbeat at all for next year.

I too am disappointed with the outcome of the season. This team could have done so much better. But, I wouldn't really call most of our season lesser opponents. With the exception of UTEP, our conference has really stepped it up. If we had played the way we played this year last year no way we would have gone 5-6. Excluding the ECU game, we were competitive in every one of our conference games. You are right about our non-conference opponents though. Tech, UNT, SHSU, and ASU do not compare to A&M, TCU, and Baylor.

Our Achilles' heel this year was offensive play-calling. We were redundant and unimaginative. Most of our plays took way too long to develop. We also killed ourselves with penalties and turnovers. Yesterday is no different.

To say we are no better than last year is just not true. C-USA was downright bad last year. We got better towards the end of last year, but we lost to Marshall, ECU, and Tulane who were atrocious last year. C-USA teams are a lot better than they were last year, in general.

sorry but there's no comparison ... you can't compare to incongruent things...we beat tcu last year, we lose to unt this year...

J.T.supporta wrote:sorry but there's no comparison ... you can't compare to incongruent things...we beat tcu last year, we lose to unt this year...

That is the worst rebuttal I have ever heard. I hope you're not going to become/already are a lawyer. Yes, beating TCU was a great day. Yes, losing to UNT sucked. But to say one season is better than another based off one good day compared to one really bad day is nothing short of [deleted].

haha, nope not a lawyer, a journalist.

haha, nope not a lawyer, a journalist....I was never able to make it to debate team meetings in HS.

...and looking forward to next year we better find a way to pump up the offense even more because we won't have Bonds. Also missing Haywood who played the game of his life yesterday on one arm. If they have Haywood out there with one arm what does that say about his backup?

fan wrote:...and looking forward to next year we better find a way to pump up the offense even more because we won't have Bonds. Also missing Haywood who played the game of his life yesterday on one arm. If they have Haywood out there with one arm what does that say about his backup?

We beat Tulsa with that backup in the defense and got really close to beating UH with him in for the most of the game, hotshot.

I believe his backup is a senior too. My point is that we are going to need some serious quick help in the interior D if we are even going to keep level with this year's record.

Love,

Hotshot

fan wrote:I believe his backup is a senior too. My point is that we are going to need some serious quick help in the interior D if we are even going to keep level with this year's record.

Love,

Hotshot

I'm grateful for your love and adoration, but I do not swing that way, not that there is anything wrong with that. Your point had nothing to do with his age, you were implying that the backup is quite a step down from Haywood. As for defense, I think we'll be alright. These guys can fill the big shoes that have been left.

Look SMU's Total Offense against CUSA opponents was much worse this season-those numbers are padded with stats against The Penitentiary and Pig St.