Eavsdropping

[SMUHouston]

I went up to see us play Tulsa.

After the game I hung around just to get see what the mood was. I overheard several conversations that were interesting to me.
First an older man introduced himself as a former college coach and I assume relative to a player to the first [deleted]'t coach that walked up the ramp, after the usual pleasantries, How's so and so doing? Great, good player, hard worker etc. He then offered some advise in a positive attitude. "You know coach when we were having an off year, once the game was decided by 50 we would empty the bench, it helped moral for the poor kids who worked everyday and don't play much and it gave us an opportunity to evaluate what you cannot reproduce in practice, and or at least to experiment with a different game plan." The response was interesting, the [deleted]'t said "We've never been ahead or behind by fifty and we will only play the starters."??

Secondly, I overheard a player speaking to another [deleted]'t he apparantly was or had worked with the starters or was promised a significant amount of playing time. Instead of the [deleted]'t answering with the opposition changed something or weather or anything to cover. He said I'm sorry you got the position coach you have.

After witnessing some pregame infighting among our own players in warmups, I cannot help but to think this team is severly fractured. I know at 0-8 creates some raw nerves, but we've obviously have problems among the team and among the coaches. I still think Bennett has a great FB mind but he has got to get a hold of this team before he loses them completely.

By the way I hope you guys from the band and who ever else was with you beat the $*** out of those losers the police escorted out.

[MustangSally]

Yeah, we never met up with those [deleted] but I sure would have liked to. I looked on the Tulsa board before the game, and they were awful pissed that some "classless" Nevada player threw a cup of water into the fans. I thought it was ironic that I was pelted with icecubes the whole game from the same poor students who were "harassed" the week before. I was just there to cheer for my ponies, but these idiots were looking for trouble. It was funny, because they didn't even have anything funny or insulting to yell other than "Dorks!" or "Go Back to Dallas!". I was happy to reaffirm their statements that after the game, our group would be DYING to get back to Dallas and leaving that ****hole of a town. It was also funny Justin Boren and some of his friends came down and sat next to us. It made us feel a little more confident if a fight broke out. The Tulsa students were chanting "overweight!" to Boren, but I don't think they knew he is an O-Lineman for a Division 1a college. He was all ready to find them after the game, but of course the losers high-tailed it out of there. Thanks, Justin! He also reassured us that "we have a lot of good guys moving up into the ranks and we are going to turn things around." I will definitely be cheering for him out there next year!

Other notes about the game:
-Their stadium sucks. I liked the "luxury boxes" Copeland and friends sat in. For those that weren't there, they were folding chairs inside a 3 foot concrete wall about halfway up the bleachers.
-No feel of bigtime presentation, especially since this was their homecoming. I know we have been losing on the field, but I feel that our halftime presentations, jersey retirings, alumni recognitiions have been top-notch. They had a golf court roll out on the field and unload the distinguished alumni. I could literally point out the families of those alumni because they were the only ones clapping and cheering.
-Phillips looks HUGE out there, I guess just because I am used to seeing our other guys but he really looks like a hoss.
-Our punting has gotten better, at least I am not as worried about blocked punts as much.
-17 PENALTIES!?!?! WTF ponies? A good handful of these were unsportsmanlike conduct. Good way to waste some yards!

[Mexmustang]

Other than a burning desire to kick our entire defensive backfield back to a nice J.C. as they pointed to one another for their complete breakdowns...I noticed that all the Tulsa students giving our fans problems had bad haircuts!

[Stallion]

I saw everything-and it took an incredible amount of class for Boren not to beat the living crap out of those fools-they were liitle ****** midgets giving Boren about 30 minutes of hell. He's a better man for not letting it get to him-I guess he realized that he'll have a chance to make a difference on the field some day. Its sad when people can't enjoy a football game and simply cheer on their own team rather than make derride an opposing team with ridiculous threats at a guy who could probably break every bone in their body. Its one thing to be clever like the Duke fans its another to be idiots like those Tulsa losers. BTW I'm only speaking about 3 druken fools in the whole stadium and this ain't an attack on the general Tulsa crowd who were curteous and respectful.

[Hoop Fan]

Why didn't some of you guys get together and kick their a-sses? Boren can't do it without getting punished, but that wouldn't have stopped me from getting in their faces. Good thing I didn't go, my temper gets the best of me sometimes, I probably would have spent the night in the Tulsa jail.

[Spaz]

Well, first off, let's say that our student section of 12 went at their student section of about 40-60 people... Not a good Idea. I was really happy that our side TOTALLY kiced their asses in verbal sparing. Also, as SOON as the cops came over when Justin got in the guys face, about 5 SMU alums RAN down and quickly pointed out that the Tulsa guy started the stuff.
We may not have beat them up, but we did the next best thing. We got them kicked out.
It was really funny, a couple of our cutdowns SHUT UP their entire student section. Although we lost, it was fun.

Also, the rest of the Tulsa people were extremely nice to us. I guess that those few guys were just chucklheads.

[PonyFan]

Originally posted by MustangSally:
.... It was also funny Justin Boren and some of his friends came down and sat next to us. It made us feel a little more confident if a fight broke out. The Tulsa students were chanting "overweight!" to Boren, but I don't think they knew he is an O-Lineman for a Division 1a college. He was all ready to find them after the game, but of course the losers high-tailed it out of there. Thanks, Justin! He also reassured us that "we have a lot of good guys moving up into the ranks and we are going to turn things around." I will definitely be cheering for him out there next year!

You couldn't have had a better bodyguard. Justin Boren won't back down from an oncoming train. That is one seriously tough young man.

Originally posted by MustangSally:
.... Their stadium sucks. I liked the "luxury boxes" Copeland and friends sat in. For those that weren't there, they were folding chairs inside a 3 foot concrete wall about halfway up the bleachers.

What struck me as odd was that Tulsa clearly isn't lacking for funds - the basketball arena is first-rate in every way. Must make football recruits feel like second-rate citizens, like they're going to play football at Duke or basketball at Nebraska. I think "Letterman" nailed it with his Erector Set Kleenex box reference....

Originally posted by MustangSally:
.... Phillips looks HUGE out there, I guess just because I am used to seeing our other guys but he really looks like a hoss.

He did? Bartel is taller, Wallis is thicker. He's a decent-sized kid, but he didn't strike me as unusually large.

<small>[ 10-26-2003, 10:44 PM: Message edited by: PonyFan ]</small>

[MustangSally]

About Phillips looking huge, not sure what it was that made me think this. Maybe I thought this when I looked at him and he was amidst some smaller players or something. Maybe in my mind he was bigger than usual because he scored on his opening drive. Not sure, guess I can't deny the facts.

[The PonyGrad]

Some people just have a commanding presence regardless of size.

[TUfan]

I'm sorry that you met up with some jerks. Those weren't the same people who got crap thrown on them by the Nevada players last week. At least there wasn't some 40 year old man ready to beat up a 70 year old woman or a 20 year old woman for that matter-- ala TU/SMU basketball game in Dallas. Both situations are definately not cool. I always wondered why they put the visitors section so close to the students though...but then again-- I'm sure the visitors perfer to sit by their team and the students are staying where they are, so...

Anyway-- I'm not sure the guy actually got kicked out. I saw him standing talking with the officer. They watched the game together for a while. I never saw what happened after that-- I was too busy watching the game.

As for the golf cart-- did you not notice that the last guy graduated in 1940-something? Not exactly the most mobile of distinguished alumni. Vehicles beyond those carts are not allowed on the field.

Stadium-- the remodeling is on the drawing board. It's hard to raise funds for football when the team hasn't had a winning season in 13 years. However, Coach K has brought a breath of fresh air and the plans should be moving forward very soon.

(BTW-- there were 3 sections of students there-- not 40-60. The sections run North-South behind the visiting bench.)

<small>[ 10-27-2003, 03:06 AM: Message edited by: TUfan ]</small>