Is any of this wrong?
Posted: Sat Nov 08, 2003 4:07 pmNot to go off on a rant here....
First, until two years ago, SMU had the most draconian recruiting restrictions in Division 1 Football. It was tougher to get a football player into SMU than it was Stanford, Duke or Northwestern. From what I understand, if you were in high school and even thought about playing football, you weren't allowed to set foot on this campus or talk to a coach until you were already admitted to the university.
Also, if you recall, years ago, Tom Rossley, while I went to SMU, had to get special NCAA permission to hold football practice at night, because our players had class conflicts with football practice. One reason for this was that football players and other student athletes at SMU, unlike every other school in the country, weren't allowed to register early so that they could sign up for classes that worked around their practice schedule.
Those restrictions were put in place by Kenneth Pye, who loved SMU so much he tried to change the school colors to be more like the school he came from-Duke.
Many of these restrictions have since been abandoned. Primarily because the head of the SMU Board of Trustees decided he didn't pay a bunch of money for a football stadium with his name on it to watch a team that sucked.
And what happened as a result of the changes 2 years ago? The two best football recruiting classes since the death penalty. That is all. The most recent recruiting class, by the way, was the no. 1 non-BCS recruiting class in the country; it was better than TCU's and better than any team in the WAC and better than any team in C-USA and better than any team in the MWC. Not that this year's class is finished, but Bennett, despite this year's record, already has 5 commitments for next year, including the no. 5 tight end prospect in the country.
Now, why does this specific team suck more than past teams (this will take some time).
Point no. 1: Tom Rossley's recruited better players shortly after the death penalty because SMU was still part of the SWC and back then playing in Texas and in the SWC meant something. When the SWC broke up, SMU struggled and Rossley was fired and Cavan replaced him. Cavan led SMU to a 6-5 record his first year in 1997. Cavan's best recruiting class was that year (the 1998 recruiting class); if you review the rankings of each recruiting class since 1998, you will see that (i) each class was worse than the year before; (ii) Cavan couldn't recruit. What does this mean? The redshirted players of the 1998 recruiting class (the best class Cavan ever had) graduated last year and the talent level of the upperclassmen on this team has dropped significantly.
Point no. 2: Malin. Cavin had an assistant that was illegally supporting players qualify academically. SMU sanctioned itself that affected the 1999, 2000 classes; each class's scholarship limit was reduced by 4. This means that there is a combination of 8 redshirted seniors and true seniors missing from this current team.
Point no. 3: This is the youngest team in Div. 1 football. There are 106 players on the roster. If you take away the freshmen (true and redshirt) off this roster, who on most teams would rarely see the field, you are left with 48 players. Now some of those 48 can play. But as I pointed out, those 48 are from 3 of the worst recruiting classes in SMU history. Compare that to Bennett's first two recruiting classes, which were the two best classes since 1986. In short, Bennett is required to play the freshmen who 11 months ago were playing high school or on the scout team.
Point no. 4: Lack of QB. Bennett came in and SMU's two quarterbacks left. One graduated with a year of eligibility left and went to work at some accounting firm; the other left to play bass in a rock band (not making this up). They were the only 2 QBs at SMU who had ever thrown a pass in college. The year before, Cavan ran off Josh McCown, who left to go to Sam Houston State (Div. 1AA) was drafted by the Arizona Cardinals. Bennett was forced to turn to two freshmen, one of whom had never been remotely considered a college QB prospect and one who had a discipline problem. Two weeks ago, the kid with the discipline problem was kicked of the team. The other, quite frankly, sucks. As a result, Bennett has taken the redshirt off one freshman QB and is playing his some this year in the past two games. The new kid is looks like a solid prospect; he is huge and he is fast, but he is young and inexperienced.
Point no. 5. Jucos. This is a problem (or maybe it isn't). When Franchione was hired and turned TCU around in a year, he did it by bringing in a lot of players from junior colleges. It is widely believed that SMU is unable to do this because SMU does not offer degree plans that allow junior college players to transfer to SMU and have the requisite number of credit hours to be NCAA eligible. Essentially the problems is this: (i) Player X attends junior college and takes classes in education (like phys. ed., which Ken Pye eliminated which is why we took "Wellness" for no credit hours and on a pass/fail basis); (ii) Player X transfers to SMU, who doesn't offer those classes and Player X loses those credit hours; (iii) the NCAA requires that a player have a minimum of 50 credit hours to transfer and play sports and Player X loses his eligibility; (iv) thus, player X never transfers to SMU. I believe that if SMU started an education department, this would relieve that problem. But it might not actually be a problem, because Bennett already has one commitment from a junior college wide receiver for next year and Bennett publicly said he was going to bring in a junior college quarter back next year as well. If Bennett is doing this, does this restriction even exist anymore?
What is my point? And why have I wasted so much time writing this (and hopefully you reading this)?
SMU is turning this thing around. But it will take some time. I give money and I go to the games (more than I used to) because I have faith that SMU has finally gotten off its tail and decided to be competitive in football. And I really do believe it. Trust me when I say that I wouldn't be supporting Coach Bennett or SMU football if I didn't believe it.
End of rant.
<small>[ 11-08-2003, 01:09 PM: Message edited by: Dooby ]</small>
First, until two years ago, SMU had the most draconian recruiting restrictions in Division 1 Football. It was tougher to get a football player into SMU than it was Stanford, Duke or Northwestern. From what I understand, if you were in high school and even thought about playing football, you weren't allowed to set foot on this campus or talk to a coach until you were already admitted to the university.
Also, if you recall, years ago, Tom Rossley, while I went to SMU, had to get special NCAA permission to hold football practice at night, because our players had class conflicts with football practice. One reason for this was that football players and other student athletes at SMU, unlike every other school in the country, weren't allowed to register early so that they could sign up for classes that worked around their practice schedule.
Those restrictions were put in place by Kenneth Pye, who loved SMU so much he tried to change the school colors to be more like the school he came from-Duke.
Many of these restrictions have since been abandoned. Primarily because the head of the SMU Board of Trustees decided he didn't pay a bunch of money for a football stadium with his name on it to watch a team that sucked.
And what happened as a result of the changes 2 years ago? The two best football recruiting classes since the death penalty. That is all. The most recent recruiting class, by the way, was the no. 1 non-BCS recruiting class in the country; it was better than TCU's and better than any team in the WAC and better than any team in C-USA and better than any team in the MWC. Not that this year's class is finished, but Bennett, despite this year's record, already has 5 commitments for next year, including the no. 5 tight end prospect in the country.
Now, why does this specific team suck more than past teams (this will take some time).
Point no. 1: Tom Rossley's recruited better players shortly after the death penalty because SMU was still part of the SWC and back then playing in Texas and in the SWC meant something. When the SWC broke up, SMU struggled and Rossley was fired and Cavan replaced him. Cavan led SMU to a 6-5 record his first year in 1997. Cavan's best recruiting class was that year (the 1998 recruiting class); if you review the rankings of each recruiting class since 1998, you will see that (i) each class was worse than the year before; (ii) Cavan couldn't recruit. What does this mean? The redshirted players of the 1998 recruiting class (the best class Cavan ever had) graduated last year and the talent level of the upperclassmen on this team has dropped significantly.
Point no. 2: Malin. Cavin had an assistant that was illegally supporting players qualify academically. SMU sanctioned itself that affected the 1999, 2000 classes; each class's scholarship limit was reduced by 4. This means that there is a combination of 8 redshirted seniors and true seniors missing from this current team.
Point no. 3: This is the youngest team in Div. 1 football. There are 106 players on the roster. If you take away the freshmen (true and redshirt) off this roster, who on most teams would rarely see the field, you are left with 48 players. Now some of those 48 can play. But as I pointed out, those 48 are from 3 of the worst recruiting classes in SMU history. Compare that to Bennett's first two recruiting classes, which were the two best classes since 1986. In short, Bennett is required to play the freshmen who 11 months ago were playing high school or on the scout team.
Point no. 4: Lack of QB. Bennett came in and SMU's two quarterbacks left. One graduated with a year of eligibility left and went to work at some accounting firm; the other left to play bass in a rock band (not making this up). They were the only 2 QBs at SMU who had ever thrown a pass in college. The year before, Cavan ran off Josh McCown, who left to go to Sam Houston State (Div. 1AA) was drafted by the Arizona Cardinals. Bennett was forced to turn to two freshmen, one of whom had never been remotely considered a college QB prospect and one who had a discipline problem. Two weeks ago, the kid with the discipline problem was kicked of the team. The other, quite frankly, sucks. As a result, Bennett has taken the redshirt off one freshman QB and is playing his some this year in the past two games. The new kid is looks like a solid prospect; he is huge and he is fast, but he is young and inexperienced.
Point no. 5. Jucos. This is a problem (or maybe it isn't). When Franchione was hired and turned TCU around in a year, he did it by bringing in a lot of players from junior colleges. It is widely believed that SMU is unable to do this because SMU does not offer degree plans that allow junior college players to transfer to SMU and have the requisite number of credit hours to be NCAA eligible. Essentially the problems is this: (i) Player X attends junior college and takes classes in education (like phys. ed., which Ken Pye eliminated which is why we took "Wellness" for no credit hours and on a pass/fail basis); (ii) Player X transfers to SMU, who doesn't offer those classes and Player X loses those credit hours; (iii) the NCAA requires that a player have a minimum of 50 credit hours to transfer and play sports and Player X loses his eligibility; (iv) thus, player X never transfers to SMU. I believe that if SMU started an education department, this would relieve that problem. But it might not actually be a problem, because Bennett already has one commitment from a junior college wide receiver for next year and Bennett publicly said he was going to bring in a junior college quarter back next year as well. If Bennett is doing this, does this restriction even exist anymore?
What is my point? And why have I wasted so much time writing this (and hopefully you reading this)?
SMU is turning this thing around. But it will take some time. I give money and I go to the games (more than I used to) because I have faith that SMU has finally gotten off its tail and decided to be competitive in football. And I really do believe it. Trust me when I say that I wouldn't be supporting Coach Bennett or SMU football if I didn't believe it.
End of rant.
<small>[ 11-08-2003, 01:09 PM: Message edited by: Dooby ]</small>