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For those of you who know me and my background, I spent time as a scout in the NFL as well as time (5 years) working in the SMU recruiting office.

This is my take on tonight's game:

1) That was the worst defensive performance I have seen in a LOOOONG time. Rice had 3 people making plays (Clement, Dillard and that big guy #12). Ok, it was plain to see that had we been able to stop one or even both of those weapons, Clement would have been running around with no where to throw the ball. Did we make an adjustment to that? Nope.

2) I noticed that our secondary was getting beat all over the place, making bad reads, assuming that the Rice receivers would run short routes only to get beat deep. Where was Deyon McElroy? Where was Bennie Thomas?

3)Our defensive line was not only being tossed around, they looked timid and afraid to make tackles.

4. Whats with all the arm tackling and standing around waiting for others to make the plays? The defense looked either bored or afraid.

Now some good things:

1) Bo Levi make some really good reads. This kid looks like the real deal. This was his first college game and he made some mistakes, sure, but he was calm in the pocket, moved his feet well, and for the most part was able to make good passes. All of his INTs wewre because he was trying to force the ball.

2) Aldrick Robinson could be a real find. He has speed and was able to get open. I'm going to watching him.

3) Sanders was in bounds for that TD. Umm, hello? Those little rubber pellets didn't fly up because they felt like it.


Overall, this looked like that our offense was there to play, our defense was not. We can't win games and respect as a program by scoring 100 points a game and hoping our opponent doesn't score 101. The defense MUST get better. I was honestly at a loss for words. I could not believe that our corners were playing 15 yards off of Dillard. Have the coaches heard of jamming receivers?

If we don't play better than tonight, not only will we not have a winning season, but teams like Texas State may just come to Ford and kick our teeth in. This may be a LOOOOOOONG road.

I still support Coach Jones, but I've been waiting for tonight for months... and I actually turned it off in the third quarter. Tonight was supposed to be the first night of a new era of SMU football. Now I can't stop thinking..."Oh great, another season like this".

Sorry everybody, I support the team, the coaches and the program...I just had to be honest.

--Texasscout96

It was nowhere near as bad as our defense against North Texas Vocational School last year, and we won that game.

For what it's worth, Clement, Dillard and Casey have made plays on a lot of teams. It's not like today was a first.

Agree with you completely on Robinson — that's why the PF.com guys tagged him as a breakout player, I assume.

Sanders got completely jobbed by the refs. That was a sensational catch, and it was a touchdown all the way.

You should have at the very least been prepared for this.

I think June's assessment of the entire team probably made his decision to go young a little easier.

He knows he doesn't have conference championship talent this season, so why not groom the freshman for next season(I hate it but its true).

I didn't see any real spark (big time playmakers) on defense in the spring nor this fall in practice. Also, he is going to have to find some more playmakers to catch the ball.

Sanders is solid and Robinson has potential if he can consistently catch the ball. Beasly has potential also but from there the drop off is pretty drastic(intramural players).

We need a serious upgrade at CB(Big time JUCO Prospects).

TheBestAvailable wrote:
We need a serious upgrade at CB(Big time JUCO Prospects).

Don't be too quick to blame much of the defense on the DB's. D-Line created no pressure. Any QB can find someone when they have 7 seconds.

Even with that defense, at least last year we were still competitive in games. We should have only scored 7 tonight, Rice gave us 2 gifts and Turner looked great against the 3rd team Rice defense.

I still say, even though BLM may be the better pure passer, JW gives us a better chance to win now. Especially if you give him the time BLM had, JW would have ate up Rice's defense. Most of his turnovers last season was fumbling while trying to make a play, and throwing while running for his life.

And where is the leadership on this team? I didn't see anyone taking control on the sidelines, there was no fire, from the coaches on down, meanwhile Rice's bench looked totally confident.

give it time

yenga looked good

mccann is good

BLM looked pretty good. After midway through the second quarter it was painfully obvious Rice was going to score everytime they had the ball. I think this caused BLM to force a couple of throws that he'd like to have back. The defense needs A LOT OF WORK.

Yenga did look good. He is the only one I recall getting pressure on Clement. I did not see any effective blitzing. Bell made some great hits and broke up some passes. I thought McCann was only average. The DL did a decent job on the run most of the time. The two missed interceptions cost us two touchdowns and could of been momentum changers. And worst of all, the times they tackled like last year - jump on his back and ride him until he scores or finally falls down was discouraging.

I was relieved to see Bradley Haynes make some plays last nite. He does look a tad overweight to me-of course, I believe he is coming back from injury. But based on preseason reports I was very concerned that he had been relegated to the "Perhaps You Ought to Consider a Transfer" team. That's why I gave the "Other receivers" a Grade of 2 in my Preseason analysis-I thought Haynes was out of the picture. Haynes has some talent-get him in shape-get him the repetitions and sit some of the Division II quality freshman and walkons on the bench because they are never going to get it done at this level. They will catch some passes for 8 yards. Seriously, if we can get 1 decent possession receiver out of this entire freshman class and walkon receivers consider ourselves lucky. We need some Division 1A Receivers to go with Sanders and Robinson. Its too bad we lost Givens-with another year of recuperation of WR Corp of Sanders, Givens, Robinson and Haynes could have real made some strides.

june sucketh

On Sanders non-touchdown call, it appeared from one camera angle that between the time he kicked up the blue and when he landed out of bounds that he slightly bobbled the ball before tucking it in. That is what the replay refs thought they saw. I think that BLM's arm might have gotten tired, at least one of those picks was badly under-thrown. And lastly, remember, 21 points came off of picks for the Owls. Two run back for TD's and one run to the one yard line and what was really bad was the guys who intercepted the pass ran through our entire offensive unit without so much as a hand laid on them. So, the defense only really gave up 35 points and they probably would have given up 49 without the turnovers. It just would have taken the Owls a little longer.