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Early Line

Hate being favored. Just win.

O God kiss of death.

Lucky 13...great.
Seriously, though, I'm surprised Vegas likes us that much considering how poorly we have played lately.

We lead the west but are not bowl eligible. Tulsa is. We need to win this game for two reason. Conference championship and bowl eligible. We were in this position last year with Marshall. A chance to win the conference. We get a second chance two years in a row., Now we have to do something with it.

I went to that game at Marshall last year, they pounded us in the trenches on both sides of the ball.
BEAT MARSHALL!!!

Don't know how these odds are figured out but they sound really screwy to me.

There has been a lot of speculation on this forum about SMU this year and the coaching and lot of dissatisfaction with the way the team has played lately. This weekend and the games in the NFL has sharpened my focus and made me realise something. The SMU football team of the last few weeks especially is not as talented as the 2009 team that beat Nevada soundly.

How did I come to this conclusion? Please hear me out! Consider the various areas of a football team.
Running back-Last year we had McNeal with his breakaway speed and Line for short yardage. We are clearly worse there.
Receiver-Last year we had Sanders who is now playing in the NFL and gave great senior leadership and Wilkerson with good talent. We are clearly worse there.
Offensive line-Last year we had Enright at center who was a veteran senior with good leadership qualities. At center we are probably weaker but overall we are probably a little better because of experience except possibly for injuries.
QB-Padron is probably better because of experience but is hindered by the absence of McNeal and worse receivers.
D-line-Last year we had two experienced guys at defensive end in Frazier and Thompson and a pretty decent senior nose guard whose name escapes me. This year we have Frazier out of position at NG or others and a guy with great talent but no experience starting at defensive end(Hunt). We are not as good here.
Linebackers-We have good talent here but are clearly missing the leadership and inspiration from Kennemer. We are probably not as good here.
Secondary-Last year we had Rock Dennis at safety who was responsible for several INTs and Bryan McCann who is now in the NFL and when we had Sterling Moore(possibly an NFL caliber player) in the lineup, we were clearly a lot better. The dropoff here is severe.
Kicking game-Our overall kicking game last year seemed a lot better with coverage and blocked kicks and returns and our place kicking and punting was solid with probably an NFL quality kicker. This year that kicker had been hurt and not even available for several games and we are hurting badly.

Bottom line, to me, is clear. We are not as talented overall as last year. If we can eke out a win against Marshall and go to a minor bowl, I will breath a sigh of relief.

ponyfan08 wrote:Early Line

Wow that seems like a lot of points to an outsider. I would have guessed 6-7 points at most.

yeah that line is way off where it should be

It's only Monday, so presumably the line will go down.

Take Marshall

Well, Marshall did not overwhelm a really bad Memphis team. They have won three in a row and will come in with confidence.

I think we will hold Marshall below 20 but will we score 20? We only had 14 vs. a below average defense of UTEP and Marshall has a better, though average defense.

In the last 3 games the opposing team has not scored more that 17 against Marshall. We get 24 or more and we win. At least that is the history of Marshall this season.

SMU 24-17

rich59 wrote:Don't know how these odds are figured out but they sound really screwy to me.

There has been a lot of speculation on this forum about SMU this year and the coaching and lot of dissatisfaction with the way the team has played lately. This weekend and the games in the NFL has sharpened my focus and made me realise something. The SMU football team of the last few weeks especially is not as talented as the 2009 team that beat Nevada soundly.

How did I come to this conclusion? Please hear me out! Consider the various areas of a football team.
Running back-Last year we had McNeal with his breakaway speed and Line for short yardage. We are clearly worse there.
Receiver-Last year we had Sanders who is now playing in the NFL and gave great senior leadership and Wilkerson with good talent. We are clearly worse there.
Offensive line-Last year we had Enright at center who was a veteran senior with good leadership qualities. At center we are probably weaker but overall we are probably a little better because of experience except possibly for injuries.
QB-Padron is probably better because of experience but is hindered by the absence of McNeal and worse receivers.
D-line-Last year we had two experienced guys at defensive end in Frazier and Thompson and a pretty decent senior nose guard whose name escapes me. This year we have Frazier out of position at NG or others and a guy with great talent but no experience starting at defensive end(Hunt). We are not as good here.
Linebackers-We have good talent here but are clearly missing the leadership and inspiration from Kennemer. We are probably not as good here.
Secondary-Last year we had Rock Dennis at safety who was responsible for several INTs and Bryan McCann who is now in the NFL and when we had Sterling Moore(possibly an NFL caliber player) in the lineup, we were clearly a lot better. The dropoff here is severe.
Kicking game-Our overall kicking game last year seemed a lot better with coverage and blocked kicks and returns and our place kicking and punting was solid with probably an NFL quality kicker. This year that kicker had been hurt and not even available for several games and we are hurting badly.

Bottom line, to me, is clear. We are not as talented overall as last year. If we can eke out a win against Marshall and go to a minor bowl, I will breath a sigh of relief.

hard to argue with you but i guess we could split hairs about the lbs.
we got very lucky last year with all the turnovers in our favor.

5 of Marshall's 6 losses have come against teams already qualified for a bowl-some pretty strong teams in there like Ohio St, West Virginia, UCF, Southern Miss and ECU. The bad loss was to Bowling Green. They have wins over 2 teams already Bowl eligible Ohio and UTEP.
http://espn.go.com/college-football/tea ... ering-herd

white-knuckle win Saturday