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Going in to the Rice game, I was very worried because of the difficulties of installing new systems (see A&M, Arkansas, Michigan) and having the youngest 2 deep in the country. After watching the first 2.5 quarters again last night and quitting at 28-20 before the wheels started coming off, I was encouraged by a lot of what I saw. Note that I thought the cluster we saw in the last 1.5 quarters could have happened throughout the game...

-Strong & accurate arm by BLM. He made a lot of quality throws we haven't seen around here since the DP. Contrary to Stallion's insistence that BLM wasn't reading defenses, he actually made some good reads. Go to the second quarter where BLM and Aldrick both identify man coverage and BLM hits Aldrick on a post for a touchdown...perfect play. After the announcer's comment that BLM was being forced to throw over the middle because Rice was taking away our screens and outs, BLM made a lot of good passes over the middle...he didn't just make the 3 that were intercepted.
-I only remembered Aldrick Robinson's drops but he made some tough snags too and was able to separate from Rice's db's conisistently.
-ES looked good as always including the TD catch that was called back, also had a few drive killing drops. Haynes looked good, Cole Beasely catch everything in the area but has to quit trying that little stop move so much.
-All the receivers dropped catchable balls that would have preserved drives.
-The fumbled snap from BLM in Rice's territory led to an easy TD...he just wasn't paying attention...eliminate that and we're tied going into the middle of the third quarter.
-The D actually played better than I'd remembered & we'd stopped almost everything except for Clements' running...we had zero answer to his scrambling unfortunately and it softened up the defense.
-It's easy to remember Derrius Bell for a few mistakes like the TD to Jarrett Dillard where he got turned around but he actually made a lot of great plays. McCann's a stud.
-Almost no pressure on BLM through 2.5 quarters.
-all the LB's were dropping back into coverage a lot and leaving the DL to create pressure which they struggled with...Yenga is super athletic.
-Their RB's did very little against us...the running of Casey and Dillard killed us. Casey will play in the NFL - reminded me of a slower but stronger Jay Novacek.
-Just need to upgrade athleticism and size everywhere but especially defensive line. Our really athletic guys are 250 lbs or less...tough matchups against 300-330 lbs offensive linemen we're going to see against Tech & TCU.
-Lots of missed assignments on D but I get what Mason's saying about over-complicating the D, probably too many different looks at this point for a new scheme with young players...
-Just some observations while trying to calm an 11 week old...that and yes, Stallion's a genius for realizing the model's been broken at SMU for 20 years. I'm surprised he doesn't think June Jones is going to turn things around

The thing I liked is that I wasn't able to predict the next play call. Granted, we have now only seen one JJ coached game, but the play calling is certainly above and beyond what we had in the past.

Alaric wrote:

George S. Patton wrote:The keeper of the star is a fraud. It would be actually be nice that he goes in person to watch a high school football game to view if not our recruit but any recruit instead of relying on scout and rivals.

Not the genius he thinks he is -- AND HE KNOWS IT!

Actually, my biggest problem with him is that he's an a$s but he's absolutely right that we ought to be holding SMU football up to a higher standard and that we ought to be going after top 25 types of players. Can't fault him for that...

I'm not arguing with you. But don't you think we all know that? Given the fact we tied our own hands in recruiting for 20-plus years we earned what we got, borderline Division I players and many who should not have been here. (Big shout out to the Militant Faculty on that one. )

I think the expectations are realistic now that we appear to be changing our admitting standards and adding athletic friendly majors. If the university is moving forward like the lip service that it is giving, then our future coaches should not have to hide behind that argument.

We can really judge how much better we with this and future recruiting classes. The other key is going to be getting the message out to the athletes.

You probably have too many kids out there who still think it's impossible to get into SMU because of the previous standards and they have to be made aware of what is happening now.

Once they are educated about that, then we might be in the ballgame for them. But as I said before, given where we are in the landscape of college football, there's only a certain type of player that we can compete for.

Can't you take this over to the Stallion Bashing forum.....

I am curious to what other people (ex-pony, stallion) think after re-watching the 1st half.

Mine is still sitting on TIVO, haven't had the nerve to watch again.

Pony94 wrote:The thing I liked is that I wasn't able to predict the next play call. Granted, we have now only seen one JJ coached game, but the play calling is certainly above and beyond what we had in the past.

Seemed like the Rice D could.

Ribbons and Trophies for everyone- love that Nacho. And who said I don't think June Jones will turn it around. I've said that the talent level was low this year and must significantly improve for us to reach our Goals. Apparently many of you extrapolated that to I believe June Jones will never turn it around. I think he's made some mistakes but I never said he will not turn it around. In fact, I joined the Mustang Club because I now believe the foundation is in place (Step 1). I'm looking forward to REALLY [deleted] most you off when I correctly predict the first truly outstanding bowl team post DP. That will occur after significant improvement in the talent base-not yet-the 2009 recruiting class shows modest improvement. My hope was that the momentum of a 4-5 win season could have really ignited recruiting for 2009 and 2010 since Jones could have shown demonstrative progress. That is why I'm not too happy with the total tear down. Any benefit to Mitchell will be counterbalanced by less improvement in recruiting.

Stallion wrote:...My hope was that the momentum of a 4-5 win season could have really ignited recruiting for 2009 and 2010 since Jones could have shown demonstrative progress. That is why I'm not too happy with the total tear down. Any benefit to Mitchell will be counterbalanced by less improvement in recruiting.

Agree completely. My concern about Jones being inflexible is rooted primarily in a desire to not see recruiting go down the drain. SMU has to win now, even if Jones' system has to evolve instead of being born again (no pun intended). He probably disagrees, but hey, winning cures everything. JWill put on an anemic performance his first two outings (TTech & NTSU) before he hung 5 TDs+ on SHSU, and then another bunch on Arkie State. Perhaps BLM will turn a mixed-to-crappy 1st game into nirvana for us football junkies, and all will be right with the world.

Alaric wrote:...After the announcer's comment that BLM was being forced to throw over the middle because Rice was taking away our screens and outs, BLM made a lot of good passes over the middle...he didn't just make the 3 that were intercepted.

Not to parse this, but at least two of the pics were toward the flats, not the middle. He has no trouble throwing in traffic, or at least he had very little last Friday night. I said before that I think he just wore out his arm. I am rethinking that a little. I think it was a factor, but I also think, after having watched a little replay of the game, that he missed a read on at least one of the pics. The reason I think that is that the TV showed Jones talking to him, motioning for a slant versus BLM's out-route.

And I completely agree with Alaric's point of view on the defense. Good eye on that.

I deleted my dvr version right after the game. Couldn't face it.

Now I think it might be interesting but... there is always the next game.

I dont know why anyone would want to watch this game again. I bet the coaches hated watching the game again to see how bad the Defense really is

J.T.supporta wrote:I dont know why anyone would want to watch this game again. I bet the coaches hated watching the game again to see how bad the Defense really is

You have a point. Hmm. That baby is toast when I get home.

OC Mustang wrote:

J.T.supporta wrote:I dont know why anyone would want to watch this game again. I bet the coaches hated watching the game again to see how bad the Defense really is

You have a point. Hmm. That baby is toast when I get home.

Watch the first 2.5 quarters before deleting, it's mainly positive.

Stallion, I know you've never explicity said JJ wouldn't turn it around. Actually I think you know he'll turn it around, it's just in your nature to complain plus you don't like some of his moves, mainly benching Willis. I like JWill too but do you think Leach would have started Willis? Leach has the same pass first mentality and there's not a chance he'd play him if he couldn't break him of the habit of taking off too early.

Regarding recruiting, JJ's going to get largely the same guys who want to run his system whether we win 2 games or 5 games. Don't forget Willis led the team to 1 win last year.

About tearing the whole team down, how do you really know the freshman and soph's aren't good enough to justify being on the 2 deep? You yourself have said these guys suck...

I really don't think two of the interceptions were in the flats but I'll check it out

I'd watch up to the point where the score was 13-0, then i'd delete it

You picked the wrong Coach in Leach to make your point. Leach has historically picked the experienced QB to run his offense. Yes he's been forced to go with redshirt freshman or Sophomores with Kingbury and Harrell when he didn't have the experienced QB, but how about all the string of QBs who started only in their 5th Year at Tech. I don't know what the hell all of you are talking about when you insist that its important to play a True Freshman. He can learn just like all those kids at Tech learned in a redshirt year. Then if he's so great he has an extra year to lift the program. Every single QB in the Leach era supports my point that you don't play a true freshman when you've got experience-as far as I know Leach has never started a true freshman. Those TECH QBs turned out pretty good-no great.

How about Tulsa. This year's starter sat for 4 years-Tulsa picked the experienced QB in Johnson. Saturday he went 20-24 for over 360 yards and 3 TDs. Not bad-plus his poor litt' arm wouldn't get so tirwed in the Second Quater like the youngster who played Friday. You don't have to throw a season away to teach a freshman how to play an offensive scheme. Total [deleted].

Actually, you're wrong. Leach is in fact a good example. He's said many times that he'd rather have a qb in his system for a number of years rather than have a different senior every year. He's also said he'll start the best qb regardless of experience (like with Harrell).

He's started 5 different qb's in his eight years at Tech: a sophomore, a RS freshman and 3 different redshirt seniors (40% were underclassman). When he finally got a "elite" qb in Harrell, he started him as a redshirt freshman. Harrell was actually in contention to beat out Cody Hodges until he injured his ankle or Leach might have started him over Hodges. Here's a good article that talks about it:

http://www.sportingnews.com/experts/mat ... 50510.html

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So how would redshirting a TRUE Freshman hurt Mitchell's development-it would give him an EXTRA Year? ALL of TECH's starters have learned as a Freshman from the Bench and none started as a TRUE freshman and almost all were highly recruited. You're incorrect to state otherwise. Leach in fact has chosen not to start about 10 highly recruited true Freshman QBs