How to blow a 28 point lead in 110 seconds.

[PonyFanBCLA]

Not many posts from me, but I have finally had my fill. I was for giving Coach Bennett another season after last year - not because he came close, but because we lost one game that we could have won had he not made a decision based on character.

But, I am off the Bennett bandwagon.

It is absolutely inexcusable to blow a 28 point lead. OK so it wasnt exaclty 28 points, but it should have been. And the fact that it wasn't is why I am off the bandwagon.

With 0:57 to play in the half, up 28-14, we have the ball on the 20 something. We also have the benefit of receiving the ball to start the second half. The way we had been moving the ball we should have been pushing downfield (heck we picked up 45 yards on 3 penalties in the first quarter...that right there gets us in fig range) hoping to get up 3 TDs at half with the opportunity to go up 4TDs with a scoring drive to open the half.

What do we do. We run twice, show no desire to do anything but let the clock run out, then throw deep on third down (only because UTEP forced us into it with a time out and an offsides that had Willis and Co. expecting a free play, fail to get out of bounds or down to stop the clock, get a 15 yard penalty to be assessed at the start of the 3rd and then give up an onside kick that everybody in the stadium, except our special teams coach...ooops, knew was coming.

Instead of putting UTEP away with a 4TD lead in the third quarter Bennett let them claw their way back into it.

Yes, I put the blame for this loss squarely on his shoulders. TCU goes to the offensive game plan, TTech, Arkie State and almost Eagle High go to Jim Gush for his stellar defensive game plans. But this one. This one is all Bennett and it really hurts me to say that. He failed to manage this game. Its more than being out coached, it's a failure to coach to win. He was coaching not to lose and that mentality is like the prevent defense.

We had a chance to put a team away today and we failed to do it. The players can only be expected to execute the gameplan. But when the gameplan is broken its time to change the authors of the plan.

[Treadway21]

That post was etremely well reasoned. I could not agree more. Have been frustrated for years on our clock management and execution at the end of halves and games. The UAB game was the fluke that proved the rule.

[ponygrad90]

Stallion is trying to argue for a Institutional change, and I agree we need that

However,

If he is too blind to notice we got outcaoched today he is not worth talking to

[gostangs]

Why even bother with this question. On a scale of 1-10 they are both belwo 3

[Stallion]

The SMU Head Coach has allegedly been out coached about 150 times since the death penalty costing us 150 games. When are some of you going to get a clue. Sorry Coaching does not lose every single game no matter how many immature unknowledgeable fans say otherwise each and every week. We really are not very talented on defense-this is not a close call. Two 4 star recruits who could not get into SMU combined for 408 yards Total Offense. The difference in admission policies between the two school provided the margin of victory. UTEP does not win w/o these two kids. PERIOD.

[Arkpony]

(Sigh) I admit to not being as "knowledgeable" as Stallion, but who on this board is? However, "immature"? Good grief, I'm old enough to be his daddy!

[PonyFanBCLA]

Stallion, what exactly are the requirements for recruits now. I was a freshman in 1989 and I can recall the Ken Pye rules that basically required a prospective student athlete to be cleared by the Admissions Department that they would qualify academically before the Athletic Department could extend an invitation for an official visit.

I thought we loosened some of those rules but I dont really remember. Are we still operating that far behind the curve?

Ive made 6-8 trips a year for the last 15 years from NW Louisiana for home games and a significant number of road games and all I have to show for it are nice Athletic Department communications touting SMUs success in everything but football and a rapidly increasing Chevron bill.

[Pony94]

The SMU Head Coach has allegedly been out coached about 150 times since the death penalty costing us 150 games. When are some of you going to get a clue. Sorry Coaching does not lose every single game no matter how many immature unknowledgeable fans say otherwise each and every week. We really are not very talented on defense-this is not a close call. Two 4 star recruits who could not get into SMU combined for 408 yards Total Offense. The difference in admission policies between the two school provided the margin of victory. UTEP does not win w/o these two kids. PERIOD.

Legend or not, Stallion you are simply wrong in this case! Poor coaching cost us this game. I won't say 149 other losses were attributable to poor coaching, but quite a few in PB's era have been.

[westexSMU]

[quote="Stallion"]The SMU Head Coach has allegedly been out coached about 150 times since the death penalty costing us 150 games. When are some of you going to get a clue. Sorry Coaching does not lose every single game no matter how many immature unknowledgeable fans say otherwise each and every week. We really are not very talented on defense-this is not a close call. Two 4 star recruits who could not get into SMU combined for 408 yards Total Offense. The difference in admission policies between the two school provided the margin of victory. UTEP does not win w/o these two kids. PERIOD.[/quote].............Ok, in some respects, you make a good point but how than do you explain Kansas State beating Texas 41-21 ? I mean K-State would not have 5 players on their roster that Texas would have even considered offering out of high school, even if they were from Texas, right ?

[Mexmustang]

Ok, lets mark Phil's progress. We were embarrassed by a service academy school his first try out. What would happen if we played them Saturday? I say same results. Now someone tell me that their recruiting restrictions are any less than SMU's. By the way we are fighting a war, and their reward for playing football for Navy is a six year mandatory commitment and possibly being placed into a situation that could either kill or mame them for a lifetime--somewhere coaching does count for something! It is not entirely our recruiting restrictions.

[OR-See-Nee]

It's a combination of on-field talent and coaching. If coaching is irrelevant then get rid of coaching staffs everywhere and let the players make things up as they go along.

If coaching doesn't matter, than BCS schools should act rationally and not spend the tremendous amount of $$$ on coaches that they do. Put that $$$ into something else.

Were PB's hands tied here with respect to getting talent on the hilltop? Sure. But he said if he couldn't recruit competitively then he wouldn't be here. We do need a different model to even the playing field. But I didn't see a lot of highly recruited four star kids from UNT or Arkie State torch us.

[QuikSStang]

i dont think there should be any excuse for poor recruiting. texas is one of, if not, the richest football talent states. if you look at another state, such as florida, they have Florida, Florida State, Miami, and now South Florida as national powerhouse programs. miami doesnt have that many kids as a private school and theyve won numerous national championships. in a state like texas, i could definately see texas, a&m, tech, tcu, and smu all being national powers just based on talent alone within texas

[Ponymon]

i dont think there should be any excuse for poor recruiting with PB. texas is one of, if not, the richest football talent states. if you look at another state, such as florida, they have Florida, Florida State, Miami, and now South Florida as national powerhouse programs. miami doesnt have that many kids as a private school and theyve won numerous national championships. it can be done...

It helps to have a state with 26 million + in it. It is my understanding that Alabama has the highest number of high school prospects who become college players annually per capita.

[docabel]

Lets take this one step at a time here boys... We are not talking about getting enough 4 star recruits in here to think about a BCS bowl bid... we are talking about being able to win the CUSA title. You don't need a stable of 4-star recruits for that.

[Stallion]

I have documented in literrally hundreds of posts over the last 10 years how our natural and traditional CONFERENCE rivals have used Division BCS Division 1A Transfers-generally 3 Stars and up to beat SMU out for championships in both FB and BB and bowls and conference tournnaments. These posts have included posts about TCU, Tulsa, UH, UTEP, Southern Miss, Central Florida, East Carolina, Marshall. Memphis, Fresno St., Hawaii, Boise, BYU, Colorado St., Utah, San Jose St., et al. Now we get to hear a growing group of quite frankly ignorant poster yak about about a topic they have little understanding of and draw conclusions based upon incorrect data. If you don't know what the policies are at our Rival schools I invite you to SHUT UP-because you are clouding the issue with clearly incorrect information. The UTEP loss was just another in a long line of games where SMU was beat substantially as a result of players on their conference opponent's team who could not be admitted to SMU because SMU in the past has not admitted the transfer hours of BCS Division 1A Transfers. When they have lately allowed a few scrubs and walkons from BCS schools as in the last year or so the players inevitably reported have to make up substantial numbers of hours at other schools because they hours would not transfer.