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We're good enough to do it. We've had a history of playing those two pretty tough in their buildings. Won at Houston in 2005, were down three going into the fourth quarter in 2007. At Tulsa, should have won up there in 2007, should have won down here in 2008.

Again, Houston is arguably the most talented team in the conference. But as a whole, I have never believed there is a huge gap in the talent difference between all of the teams in CUSA. A lot of these games come down to a couple of plays.

The question for us is if these games are similar to what the history has shown, will we be able to make the 4-5 plays necessary to pull one of the out? If the kids are buying into the Jones mantra, then I give them a better than zero chance of pulling one of these two out.

We have to if we are to stay on track for the mythical "goal" this season.

jtstang wrote:We have to if we are to stay on track for the mythical "goal" this season.

No we don't. But it would be nice.

jtstang wrote:We have to if we are to stay on track for the mythical "goal" this season.

Mythical? So it is just a myth that we have a goal? Hmmmm...how strange.

Dooby wrote:

jtstang wrote:We have to if we are to stay on track for the mythical "goal" this season.

No we don't. But it would be nice.

Well, I guess in theory you can keep saying that until the last three games of the season, so you're right. I was thinking practically.

Defensively we have proven that we can at least hang in there. I'm still anxious to see how our kids do on the road against Houston and Tulsa. We played a really strong first half against TCU, but the second half we really didn't offer up any resistance. We need to play a full road game and so far we haven't done that this season.

PK wrote:

jtstang wrote:We have to if we are to stay on track for the mythical "goal" this season.

Mythical? So it is just a myth that we have a goal? Hmmmm...how strange.

Merely for dramatic effect PK. BTW, I have a goal of winning the multistate lottery but it tends toward the mythical end of the spectrum.

Hope is free!

jtstang wrote:

Dooby wrote:

jtstang wrote:We have to if we are to stay on track for the mythical "goal" this season.

No we don't. But it would be nice.

Well, I guess in theory you can keep saying that until the last three games of the season, so you're right. I was thinking practically.

We can lose these two and win our home games and acheive the goal that you are mocking. Let's please not forget that these are two of the four toughest games on SMU's schedule. Let's try not to forget that this week, SMU is playing a top 25 team and that these two teams have dominated Conference USA West since SMU has been in it.

Let's try not to forget that SMU is exactly where I told you before the season that it needed to be after six games.

And if the season was six games long and you needed to .500 make a bowl game we'd all be swimming in the koolaid right now.

And let's not forget your recent prediction that we'd need to win 7 to meet the stated goal. Unless we at least split these two that would require finishing with 4 straight wins. Now Dooby you like looking at stats more than I do but it seems to me that it's been a while since we've made the post-season much less pulled that kind of streak off to make it to the post-season.

Of course we CAN split. Hell, we CAN sweep them. We scared the hell out of both of them last year, and our defense is infinitely better this year. We're still underdogs in both games, to be sure, but neither game is anywhere near unwinnable.

jtstang wrote:And if the season was six games long and you needed to .500 make a bowl game we'd all be swimming in the koolaid right now.

And let's not forget your recent prediction that we'd need to win 7 to meet the stated goal. Unless we at least split these two that would require finishing with 4 straight wins. Now Dooby you like looking at stats more than I do but it seems to me that it's been a while since we've made the post-season much less pulled that kind of streak off to make it to the post-season.

My seven wins to GUARANTEE A BOWL, BTW, was before Army lost to Temple. As I see it, 7 wins puts SMU no worse than 5th in Conference USA. 6 wins puts SMU 5th or 6th. To GUARANTEE, SMU needs to win 7; decent shot at 6 wins at this point.

FYI, SMU's longest winning streak post-DP is 5 games.

jtstang wrote:

Dooby wrote:

jtstang wrote:We have to if we are to stay on track for the mythical "goal" this season.

No we don't. But it would be nice.

Well, I guess in theory you can keep saying that until the last three games of the season, so you're right. I was thinking practically.

With dreadful Rice, Tulane, and UTEP being our three remaining home games, obtaining 6 wins is practical without beating Houston or Tulsa.

Army is not on track to be bowl-eligible so CUSA will have 6 bowls to fill and there will be 5 at the most teams with 7+ wins (Marshall, Tulsa, Houston, ECU, UCF)

Two points in response and then I will leave it alone with just my initial opinion that we better split to reach the stated goal. First, the stated goal is a bowl game, not a certain number of wins, and whether you want to talk in terms of guarantees or just wins, you think 7 will be the magic number if I understand you correctly. Second, our longest post-DP win streak did not carry us to the post season, unless I slept through a year, which is why I was trying to tie the point back into the stated goal.

Bottom line, I think the General's crazy notion needs to happen for the goal to be reached. I may be wrong, lord knows it's happened before. Once. When I thought I was wrong but I was really right.

Dooby wrote:

jtstang wrote:And if the season was six games long and you needed to .500 make a bowl game we'd all be swimming in the koolaid right now.

And let's not forget your recent prediction that we'd need to win 7 to meet the stated goal. Unless we at least split these two that would require finishing with 4 straight wins. Now Dooby you like looking at stats more than I do but it seems to me that it's been a while since we've made the post-season much less pulled that kind of streak off to make it to the post-season.

My seven wins to GUARANTEE A BOWL, BTW, was before Army lost to Temple. As I see it, 7 wins puts SMU no worse than 5th in Conference USA. 6 wins puts SMU 5th or 6th. To GUARANTEE, SMU needs to win 7; decent shot at 6 wins at this point.

FYI, SMU's longest winning streak post-DP is 5 games.

I'll go on the record and say that there is a 99.9% chance that SMU goes bowling with 6 wins. Even if CUSA has too many 7 win teams, Hawaii Bowl will find an at-large spot for one of them in order to make room for SMU. Hawaii Bowl will be desperate to sell tickets especially with Hawaii not being bowl-eligible, and the novelty of June Jones returning to the island will sell tickets.