No Respect

[OldPony]

If you want to see how little the odds makers think of SMU football, you have to look no further than being a 1.5 point underdog to Baylor. A team which just lost to UAB and was run off the field by UNT is favored to best us. Is there any light at the end of this tunnel yet?

[ponyte]

At least it is a single digit underdog line. Not the usual 3-touchdown line. Hopefully Bennett can use this to motivate the team.

And then again, this line could cause BU to be over confident and look to the next week's game.

[OldPony]

If they have a chance to be "over-confident" this year this is it! I hope this motivates the Ponies because I don't remember ever a team at SMU in which we were the underdog against a team which has played like Baylor so far this year. I am truly afraid of this game. If we lose, this could set back any gains over the past 2 years. Do you think we will be favored over UTEP?

[PonySnob]

What has SMU football done in the last 13+ seasons to have any respect?

[cowboypony]

I'm not surprised at all to see us an underdog. We have done absolutely nothing to deserve being favored over anyone, let alone a Bix XII team at home. Let's keep in mind that BU has had years of being able to recruit with the Big XII attached to their name. Plus, they haven't had to deal with the recruiting standards that we've dealt with over the years. In short, they may be down but they still have some solid talent on their roster. In fact, I'll bet that they have many players that we recruited and lost out on. At some point, we're going to have to win a game that gets us going to where we all want to be. Until then we should be considered the underdog. Let's hope the ship gets righted starting this weekend.

[OldPony]

Very little but it is getting worse, not better. When we came back from the DP, we beat UConn in year one. We would not stand a chance against them today. We beat Arkansas twice. Care to predict a score today? We played A&M off their feet a couple of times. We beat Houston. Could we stay on the field with them today? Maybe I'm still morose since the whipping we got from TT but it appears that no one other than some recruits are buying Bennett's rebuilding. I know it is early in his program but there has been no improvement on the field since Cavan. In fact, things are much worse. This team badly needs to win 5 this year. If we don't win Saturday, it ain't gonna happen. We are mired in the bottom 5-7 of all of college football.

[EastStang]

If I'm Phil Bennett I want to shock and awe the Bears (if that's possible) early. They are young, too and could get rattled and press and make mistakes. That's our best chance. If we can get two TD's early, we win the game in a romp.

[Hoop Fan]

OP, you are definitely seeing the glass half empty, but I understand. UNT has now put us in a must win situation on the road against a Big 12 team. Honestly, anything can happen this Saturday, our team has been as unpredictable as theirs. As for your comments about competitiveness, I remember our first game back in 1989 against Rice. They killed us and we didn't beat them until Cavan toughened up our run defense in the mid 90s. Our run-and-shoot was a gimmick offense that sometimes kept us in games, but at some point we had to play heads up. Now we have beaten Rice several times. Not that its great progress or anything, but its something. What is killing us today is the Malin incident in 1999. Our upperclassmen today were recruited in the cloud of the Malin thing. Don't be confused, that set us back badly and is hurting us on the field today. Bennett will get us back. The admin needs to make sure he has all the tools he needs. Speaking metaphorically, THERE IS NO TOMORROW.

[OldPony]

And how do we "shock and Awe" anyone? We have a decent running game. Passing is not very good. Our defense is very suspect. I am worried that this will turn into a battle of running games and we will get worn down little by little all day. I still have visions of the game Baylor didn't throw a pass and beat us. Death by slow drip. I see the size of the Baylor O-line and am very concerned this week.

[Hoop Fan]

OP, please see my post above. The comments about Rice should bode well for Baylor too. The reason Baylor blistered us in the early 90s was the same reason we couldn't beat Rice: lack of toughness/emphasis on run defense. If there is one thing Cavan did accomplish, it was to toughen up our run defense. We were pretty soft under Rossley. Thats not a slam on him, he was an offensive minded coach all the way.

[EastStang]

Perhaps by fooling them. Kickoff return for a TD (ala Miami). They will be looking for KK up the gut to start the game. Play action bomb to Cunningham, 7-0. Blitz all four downs on defense, get the ball, then KK drill down the field. 14-0. That would be one quiet group of Baptists. On the other hand if we KK drill go four and out, get our punt blocked and its 7-0 the other way.

[OldPony]

I don't think we can fool anyone by a play action on the first play. I would rather play to our strengths on offense. You realize that our young men are subject to meltdown also and that if we blitz on 4 straight plays that it leaves some corners naked?
I think we win if we execute a solid game plan that goes 60-40 run and make them pass. We must pressure the QB so intermittent blitzing will have to occur. Someone earlier said that the team that executes least poorly will win and that is probably true. Our team is not good enough to have TO's against anyone and expect to win unless they give us more TO's than we give them.

[OldPony]

Hoop Fan- We were extremely small under Rossley and he had to endure the worst of the recruiting restrictions as well as ridiculous BS where he couldn't even get his players registered early so he could get them all to a practice at the same time. We were still SWC so it helped in recruiting but his teams were much more competitive than we have been under Cavan or Bennett. His won-lost record was not but we were competitive. Cavan's teams were more competitve than Bennett's. We are going the wrong direction. Bennett has given us renewed hope with some outstanding recruits comparatively but we have gone backward on the field. I appreciate Bennett's positive influence and his energy but something has to start showing up on the field this year. I don't mean beating UTEP and Tulsa.

[Charleston Pony]

Old Pony: you seem to have a grasp on the reality of our situation, so surely you expected Baylor (at home) to be a minimal favorite. This is a battle of two "bottom 10" teams and without checking the schedule, we may well be playing in ESPN's "pillow fight of the week". All I know is that we can get more mileage out of a win than Baylor can. They are "Big XII" and expect to beat "lowly SMU" on their home field. On the other hand, a win by a young SMU team would go a long ways towards erasing the beating we took in Lubbock and give us hope that we can continue to improve as the season progresses.

And yes, I assume we will be favored to beat UTEP. That's why I've scheduled that game as CP's Dallas trip in 2003. I haven't enjoyed a home opener since 9-2-2000, and I'm not sure OSU will be much fun, either. A win at Baylor might lead to a more competitive game than we played them last year in Stillwater, though.

[MizterTea]

Looks like T is gonna have to step in and show these suckas how to win !

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