The path to relevance...what if?

[RGV Pony]

The fact that we still suck notwithstanding, it's February and I'm bored so here goes. What would it take to bring SMU to a level near TCU or Utah or Boise? Not only in rankings, but in broadbased recognition? CUSA is so pitiful that we saw a 10-win Rice team go essentially unnoticed all season long. I think at this point even a 10 or 11 win SMU team would be more or less the same as this year's Ball St, which coincidentally was trounced by CUSA's own Tulsa.

Someone with a better memory than I, remind me what it was in the early 80s when SMU had the longest winning streak in the nation...how many w's was it? I think to sniff a ranking like TCU or Utah or Boise, SMU would have to get its 6-6 or 7-5 bowl season, then follow it up with a 9 or 10 win season and pull off 11 straight the following year. Otherwise, I think it's a perpetual Rice story with decent seasons and no ranking...hell that was even the case with Tulsa this year.

Again, yes I know we have to overcome 2-22 first. But also again, I'm bored.

And we still currently suck.

[PonyKai]

I would think there would be this initial whoa-holy-crap they're actually good again media blitz. But then it might disappear completely. Maybe we'd get one of those heart warming sportscenter clips on overcoming our own incompetence.

[huskerpony]

Step 1: Steal Underpants.

Step 3: Profit.

[expony18]

continue what were doing... go after big time players who are a stretch, make sure that we have quality guys on the side that we know we bring in late in the process. after a few wins this ting could start taking off

[abezontar]

We will have to beat some tough OOC opponents to get some recognition. It would also help if our conference mates can beat their tougher OOC opponents, much like ECU this year. The problem for CUSA, in my opinion, has been consistency. You may have an ECU knock off several top 25 opponents, but then they follow it up with several humiliating losses. Had ECU run the table after their big wins early in the season, they would have been top 25 at the very least.

[SMU2007]

i think if june can turn this thing around there will be decent tv coverage on how he's brought us back from suckville. decent by our standards anyway

[San Antonio Mustang]

In order to avoid the "flash in the pan" syndrome it will take multi-year outstanding performances. The sports writers do not think of us as winners and that mind set has to change and only will with wins over time. It has taken TCU a decade to get to where they are. With JJ as our coach it will not take as long, but it will take consistent winning seasons over three to five years. The more we beat top teams the less time it will take. Let it begin!!

[Stallion]

Who exactly did Rice beat. Do they really deserve national respect when there are 50 teams in the country who would beat the crap out of Rice. The non-BCS schools that have become nationally relevant all have one thing in common. A big upset of a Top 25 BCS school early in the season. ECU became nationally relevant this year. TCU has repeated upsets in September over Tech and OU and others. Utah has has early upsets of BCS powers like Michigan and Oregon. Boise and BYU have had their early season upsets. Fresno St. has earned some national respect with a long tradition of playing a tough schedule and winning their share. That's how the Nation sits up and takes notice of a non-BCS schools. Pillow Fights in a weak CUSA ain't going to get national respect. Playing Texas State, Stephen F. Austin and Sam Houston are never going to gain a school respect.

[RGV Pony]

Who exactly did Rice beat. Do they really deserve national respect when there are 50 teams in the country who would beat the crap out of Rice. The non-BCS schools that have become nationally relevant all have one thing in common. A big upset of a Top 25 BCS school early in the season. ECU became nationally relevant this year. TCU has repeated upsets in September over Tech and OU and others. Utah has has early upsets of BCS powers like Michigan and Oregon. Boise and BYU have had their early season upsets. Fresno St. has earned some national respect with a long tradition of playing a tough schedule and winning their share. That's how the Nation sits up and takes notice of a non-BCS schools. Pillow Fights in a weak CUSA ain't going to get national respect. Playing Texas State, Stephen F. Austin and Sam Houston are never going to gain a school respect.

best answer yet, and somewhat encouraging. Maybe we don't have to run off 16, 17 wins in a row over two seasons. Perhaps the year we play A&M, beat them, beat TCU, then run through conference...it could be done in one year.

And, before anyone accuses of counting chickens before they hatch...
it's Feb, I'm bored, and aware that as of now we still suck.

[huskerpony]

I agree with Stallion--

10-3 will get you in the conversation, but the difference between Rice and other non-BCS schools that crack the Top 25 is they have beaten ranked teams. Rice won the games they should win, lost the games they should lose. Ball St. dropped out after losing to Buffalo and TCU.

Similarly, this is also true of most BCS schools as well. While I feel that Nebraska could beat most of the teams ranked 17-25, they didn't beat a ranked team yet, so it is hard to argue they deserve to be ranked over--say Oregon St. who beat USC, or Iowa who beat Penn St. (Although I am not sure who BYU, Michigan St., or West Virginia beat--and WVU lost to Colorado!)

Even with a big win, you have to run the table in a non-BCS conference (or at least have no more than 3 losses.) ECU is a good example this year.

But again, Step one is maybe winning a game against an FBS opponent. Winning the pillow fight at Wazzu would definitely be helpful. Winning the games against the other dregs of C-USA would be step two. A bowl game would be step three. With June as the coach, a winning season will at least make news--yet another June Jones miraculous turn around stories and such. Then knocking off a ranked team non-conference and cruising through the conference schedule relatively unscathed ought to do it.

That being said--that will only get us recognition. Relevance is an entirely different question. Relevance requires some level of sustained success over several years. (Doesn't mean we have to have four 10 win seasons in a row, but TCU, Utah, Hawaii, Boise have shown a level of consistency over the past 5 years or so that has proven a certain level of success in their programs--in addition to each of them having some big wins.)

Looking at our future schedule though, I think we will have to beat TCU a couple of years in a row/knock off a Big 12 team and take out TCU and Navy in the same season to even kick start that process.

If A&M continues down their current path, I don't know that winning that game will do it. People will just say, "Man, what has happened to A&M" and Sherman will get fired, if he hasn't already. Baylor actually looks like a tougher game that year (at this point.) Their track star QB should be a senior that year, I think. Other than that, I don't see a team on our schedule that could be a signature win for a while--other than TCU and Tech.

Also, unless we beat TCU a couple of times in a row, people will say "rivalry game" and take little notice, unless it is coupled with some other respectable showing in the same season. Without a TCU or Tech win, the only other "fast-track" path I see is to beat A&M or Baylor and have them have a breakout season in the Big 12 the same year, win our conference, and then do it again the next year.

[EastStang]

Actually we do usually schedule at least one BCS opponent plus TCU every year. If TCU keeps going strong and we beat them and a BCS opponent and run the table, we'll be in the top 12. And given that CUSA teams seem to be recruiting better, I suspect that the conference will get better. The western division has some good rivalries and the east is dysfunctional at this point. USM and Memphis would rather be in the west. UAB likes where they are. Marshall likes where they are. UCF and ECU want to be somewhere else like the BE.

[sail420s]

RGV, I think the one thing you continue to overlook is that it's February, you're bored, and are you aware that as of now we still suck?

[LA_Mustang]

Who exactly did Rice beat. Do they really deserve national respect when there are 50 teams in the country who would beat the crap out of Rice. The non-BCS schools that have become nationally relevant all have one thing in common. A big upset of a Top 25 BCS school early in the season. ECU became nationally relevant this year. TCU has repeated upsets in September over Tech and OU and others. Utah has has early upsets of BCS powers like Michigan and Oregon. Boise and BYU have had their early season upsets. Fresno St. has earned some national respect with a long tradition of playing a tough schedule and winning their share. That's how the Nation sits up and takes notice of a non-BCS schools. Pillow Fights in a weak CUSA ain't going to get national respect. Playing Texas State, Stephen F. Austin and Sam Houston are never going to gain a school respect.

word

[RGV Pony]

RGV, I think the one thing you continue to overlook is that it's February, you're bored, and are you aware that as of now we still suck?

so irrespective of the tickertape parade that begins with the conclusion of the signing day gala at the DoubleShrub Campbell Centere and travels south down Central, progresses down SMU Blvd, takes a left, and winds up at Moody, what you're saying is we still suck?

[LA_Mustang]

so irrespective of the tickertape parade that begins with the conclusion of the signing day gala at the DoubleShrub Campbell Centere and travels south down Central, progresses down SMU Blvd, takes a left, and winds up at Moody, what you're saying is we still suck?

Ask Laura Miller....she's good at planning those.