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When Shawnbrey McNeal announced he was going to forego his senior year of eligibility and enter the NFL Draft, the SMU offense suddenly was left with a gaping hole in the backfield.

SMU running backs coach Wes Suan sat down with PonyFans.com to explain how the Mustangs' running game will look this year, and what he's looking for in a replacement for McNeal.

http://www.ponyfans.com/features/index.php?id=152

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nice read

Thank you double P!

Nice dose of reality from Coach Suan about the incoming freshmen. They're very talented, I suppose, but they are running against high school kids and high school defenses, and have to learn to handle living away from home for the first time and the academics of college and getting used to new teammates, etc. One of them might end up being the starter, but it's premature to anoint either to the spot just yet. Most college players were high school stars. Hopefully Fields and Pope become college stars, too. In the meantime, it's refreshing to see Coach Suan still has his feet on the ground with these guys.

Terrific story.

Good story but also a dose of reality. The odds are that SMU will not get nearly as much production from the running game as they did last year with McNeal, unless one of the freshman comes through, which is highly unlikely. A key is that both freshman backs played against smaller schools. I remember that when Dickerson was a freshman, I thought he was the third best RB we had with Charles Waggoner(sp?) and Craig James both appearing to be better than Eric, probably because he had played at a small school and had not seen the level of competition the other two had seen.
That eleven hundred yards that McNeal was responsible for was a shot in the arm for the SMU offense and we are unlikely to see anything like that again next year but hopefully so later.