"once [he] gets his guys..."

[expony18]

the biggest excuse in sports.

17 out of 22 starters for the University of Buffalo were Jim Hofher recruits. Doesn't seem to be a problem for Turner Gill.

[smupony94]

I hope they win although it is 7-7 now

[Charleston Pony]

big mistake by the MAC to play this game on a neutral field...gives Buffalo a better shot but this game should be at Ball State for a better atmosphere atttendance wise

ACC Championship game is running into the same issue

Hope Tulsa packs the house tomorrow

[jkflamebo]

the biggest excuse in sports.

17 out of 22 starters for the University of Buffalo were Jim Hofher recruits. Doesn't seem to be a problem for Turner Gill.

buffalo would beat us by dd

[expony18]

buffalo would beat us by dd

but our punter is better

Hope Tulsa packs the house tomorrow

both the undergrad and grad school are in the middle of finals, so i would be surprised if it sold out. however, tulsa does have a nice following with the local community

[Charleston Pony]

buffalo would beat us by dd

but our punter is better

Hope Tulsa packs the house tomorrow

both the undergrad and grad school are in the middle of finals, so i would be surprised if it sold out. however, tulsa does have a nice following with the local community

certainly don't need a sellout...but hopefully close to 30k show up so it looks like people actually care who wins this conference and hosts the Liberty Bowl

[expony18]

Buffalo being careless with the ball and ball state capitalizing off their mistakes

[expony18]

HUGE PLAY BY BUFFALO!
Nate davis fumbles trying to leap into the endzone and buffalo returns it 99 yards (92 officially) for the touchdown

[mrydel]

HUGE PLAY BY BUFFALO!
Nate davis fumbles trying to leap into the endzone and buffalo returns it 99 yards (92 officially) for the touchdown

Even more huge was the blown replay call. I bet that Letterman tries to get the replay official on his show.

[expony18]

are the replay officials from buffalo?

[expony18]

74 yard fumble return by buffalo!!! WOW

[expony18]

another fumble...

[huskerpony]

the biggest excuse in sports.

17 out of 22 starters for the University of Buffalo were Jim Hofher recruits. Doesn't seem to be a problem for Turner Gill.

I think this is an excellent point. Look at Houston Nutt at Ole Miss vs. Bobby Petrino at Arkansas as well. However, there are a few caveats.

Not everyone is going to be a Bob Stoops or Nick Saban, and their teams were not lacking in talent when they took over. And while Turner Gill did show a tremendous turnaround in his second year, he DOES have HIS GUYS now. (Only won 2 games his first year.)

Furthermore, some teams problems just run deeper than can be fixed in a year or two. The first time that Bo Pelini came to Nebraska, he took the defense from 56th in the country to 11th. (Not unlacking in talent, just in coaching.) This time, he took them from 111th to about 68th. The lack of talent on that side of the ball and the desire to keep most of his recruits redshirted for down the road just made it too big of a stretch to achieve much more. (Still it was a dramatic improvement with the same players.)

On the other hand.......the Rich Rodriguez, Bill Callahan, Mike Sherman attitudes about that you can't have any level of success without "your guys" is BS. It signals either an UNWILLINGNESS or an INABILITY to adapt your coaching to the players that you actually have. Which, quite frankly, is pure laziness and should not be tolerated by any AD or fanbase. That is not a quality that people should want to see in their coach.

All that being said, I think that the SMU situation probably falls in the category of "major systemic problems" that will take more than a season to address. So I am willing to give Jones a couple of years to make some changes and do some recruiting......as long as they start showing some improvement from year to year. Here's to two wins next year!!!!!!

At least we didn't get worse this year, right??????

[expony18]

and don't forget the guy who has surprised everyone.... Paul Johnson. The guy is running the option in the ACC with player he inherited. i know the ACC is down this year (and the past few years for that matter), but what Paul Johnson has done deserves a lot of credit too. I will be one of the first ones to eat my own words, because I thought Georgia Tech was in for a horrible season... that being said there is no telling what will happen when he has to recruit guys to run the option in the ACC, but he deserves all the credit in the world for getting the players to believe in his system.

[KnuckleStang]

there is no telling what will happen when he has to recruit guys to run the option in the ACC,

Doesn't matter. Having worse players didn't stop him from beating Georgia.