Fixing this program

[jjmccain]

This is real simple. Hopefully everyone on this board can understand this (even you young guys).

Bennett was brought in from K-State. K-State is the most successful turnaround in college football history. If you think SMU is bad now, try 40 years of this. That is what K-State went through.

Let's lay this out: Copeland hired Bennett, but won't let him use the K-State formula to turn SMU around. Here's the formula: JUCOs + Cupcakes = Winning Seasons. Winning seasons lead to increased fan support. The program evolves into a power house. Very simple. Then you can go back to scheduling UT or A&M like Copeland wants to.

Two years after Bennett was hired, Copeland finally understands this. Cancelling OSU is a good start, but they don't need to be replaced with Grambling. They need to be replaced with Prarie View or Texas State. Tech needs to be replaced with Grambling. And Baylor can stay.

We start off the season going into conference play at 3-1 or 2-2. Do you know when the last time we escaped August and September with that type of record? - 1986.

Bottom line: Copeland needs to go. He's kept Dement too long. He doesn't understand scheduling. He view the SMU job as a just a job. Does anyone have any contacts with Craig James or Lance McLehenny? I truly believe they would accept the AD job here if offered.

[PerunaPunch]

Craig is too caught up in Craig. When was the last time you saw him on campus or at a game when he wasn't getting his jersey retired?

If you mistakenly think that Jim Copeland views his job as just another job, well, I guess everyone is entitled to an opinion.

Picking someone to be your AD who has no experience sounds a bit too risky, but Lance certainly has all the qualities, if not the experience, to do an excellent job.

I DO think we'd be better served if the Athletics Department hired more alums. For some reason, it seems like they have a prejudice against hiring SMU alums.

[jjmccain]

Craig James was at SMU several months ago for the C-USA announcement. As I recall, his number wasn't retired then.

I see Lance at every single home football game. He lives down the street from campus. He'd be a perfect fit.

[Bergermeister]

You've lost your marbles, dude.

[EastStang]

Romo I think you don't understand some of the issues faced by this program. First, unless SMU averages 15,000 actual butts in seats attendance at home games, it does not stay Division 1-A. What this means is that games with SJS, Nevada, and Tulsa and La. Tech need to be offset by games that actually put fans in the stands. Texas State won't do that. Prairie View might. Grambling will. Grambling is rebuilding and was slaughtered by SJS last year. So they might be beatable. TT will put fans in the seats, Baylor will to a degree, but not to that level. You can't schedule more than one 1-AA team every two years. Since we were 0-12 last year there are not many 1-A teams worse than us. So genius, we are stuck with having to play TT in order to fill the stadium. With sellouts vs. Grambling and TT we would only need to average 6500 at the other four games. Copeland has two pressures and sure if this was a perfect world he could schedule cupcake games, and we could be in the Sun Belt Conference, too. Dement is nearing the end of his contract, he knows he has to win or he'll be out the door. But given the restrictions he's operated under I'd have to say, he's done a better job than most.

[No Quarter]

R to W -

Can you recite the K-State attendance figures during their years as a doormat, during the turn around, and as a top team in their conference?

[GoRedGoBlue]

I am sure one reason they want to get out of OSU for next year is to avoid "the gauntlet" potential of another 0-3 start. However, I think the underlying reason is that OSU didn't bring many fans and ATM has indicated a desire to schedule SMU (to which we need an opening).

Originally posted by Romo to Wolf:
This is real simple. Hopefully everyone on this board can understand this (even you young guys).

Bennett was brought in from K-State. K-State is the most successful turnaround in college football history. If you think SMU is bad now, try 40 years of this. That is what K-State went through.

Let's lay this out: Copeland hired Bennett, but won't let him use the K-State formula to turn SMU around. Here's the formula: JUCOs + Cupcakes = Winning Seasons. Winning seasons lead to increased fan support. The program evolves into a power house. Very simple. Then you can go back to scheduling UT or A&M like Copeland wants to.

Two years after Bennett was hired, Copeland finally understands this. Cancelling OSU is a good start, but they don't need to be replaced with Grambling. They need to be replaced with Prarie View or Texas State. Tech needs to be replaced with Grambling. And Baylor can stay.

We start off the season going into conference play at 3-1 or 2-2. Do you know when the last time we escaped August and September with that type of record? - 1986.

Bottom line: Copeland needs to go. He's kept Dement too long. He doesn't understand scheduling. He view the SMU job as a just a job. Does anyone have any contacts with Craig James or Lance McLehenny? I truly believe they would accept the AD job here if offered.

[Stallion]

OSU didn't bring many fans?-are you color-blind too? Other than Tech and UT and Arkansas (in the Cotton Bowl), nobody has brought more.

[Invader133]

I distinctly remember a wall of orange on the visitors side ... and plenty more on our side...

[ClassOf81]

Originally posted by Romo to Wolf:
Craig James was at SMU several months ago for the C-USA announcement. As I recall, his number wasn't retired then.

I see Lance at every single home football game. He lives down the street from campus. He'd be a perfect fit.

There you go, 5-to-33: James showed up for the C-USA announcement (at the last second -- they didn't even know what he was going to say). And McIlhenney lives down the street from campus. OF COURSE they're qualified to be an AD! Anyone who shows up for a positive photo op or is lucky enough to own real estate within walking distance of the campus is better-qualified than a man who has been in athletic administration -- and has done a good job -- for his entire post-NFL career.

I'm not arguing with you on the idea that Craig James and Lance McIlhenney were great players and great Mustangs. But the idea that one of them should replace Jim Copeland is simply insane. Copeland was the one who orchestrated the fund-raising and construction of the nicest football stadium in Texas. Copeland is the one who engineered the move from the WAC to C-USA. Copeland's list of accomplishments is lengthy, and it has been at Virginia and Utah before he got here. No, I'm not satisfied, and I won't be until we have a winning record in football, make the postseason in basketball and add to the number of championships we pile up in other sports. But Copeland is smart enough to not go for the quick fix. He seems to have the insight and patience necessary for the job, and we should be glad we have him.

<small>[ 01-10-2004, 11:33 AM: Message edited by: ClassOf81 ]</small>

[PlanoStang]

Copeland didn't orchestrate anything about fund raising for the new stadium until Mr. Ford decided he wanted it done, and donated most of it. Without Mr. Ford, Copeland would've been gone before the 2000 season.

Any above average to excellent past SMU AD has been invited to greener pastures, and they have accepted in the past 15 years.

Copeland's just average at best and hasn't exactly been pursued, but I guess that makes him loyal by default. He was very poor in judgement when he fired Rossley as we were rising a little in football every year.

If Bennett doesn't show major improvement next season like Copeland gave Rossley the ultimatum, them both of them should be gone this time next year.

[Vitale]

I couldn't disagree more.

First of all, it was Copeland who convinced Gerald Ford to raise his initial pledge of $5 million to $20 million. So yes, Ford's desire to want it done was vital, of course, but it was Copeland who convinced him how instrumental he could be in the acceleration of the project, and who convinced him of the stadium's value to the school.

To say Copeland "hasn't been pursued" is inaccurate. He was considered at North Carolina State and at Kansas, among others. Your statement isn't entirely inaccurate, since he withdrew his name from consideration once it was clear he wasn't going to be offered those jobs, so you're right that he hasn't been someone else's #1 target candidate. But he absolutely has drawn some interest from other programs, and I have heard quotes from more than one AD who called Copeland "one of the best ADs in the country." He was even mentioned as a possibility at Florida State a few years ago, but their level of interest was never clarified, since he said he wasn't interested.

And as for the need to replace him and/or Bennett next year: as a former offensive lineman, Copeland understands perhaps better than any other AD in the country that football success starts at the line of scrimmage, and that no matter how talented or how big and strong the Darrin Johnsons, Justin Borens, etc., are, they need time to mature before the success arrives on the field. Coach Bennett will be allowed the time to develop his guys, and the results will make all the naysayers retract their words.

[RGV Pony]

I say be careful what you wish for. Nebraska wanted a new AD and wound up with Mr. Pederson, who promptly severed 50 years of Husker family tradition. His reasoning? Because he did where he was before with the basketball coach, and it worked out. That's not enough reason to put a program through an offseason like he did. If we're going to suggest ADs here, why don't we do what TTech did? Let's see..Gerald Myers was their bball coach in the SWC days, so I guess our AD will be....ummmm...Dave Bliss! On second thought, I think I'll stick with Copeland.

[FLORIDAGUY]

It has been a long haul with a lot of frustration, but we will get there. Jim Copeland has done the best job he could do with what he had to work with. We are on the way in football. This year will tell the basketball story.

[OldPony]

Scuse me? On the way in FB but this year will tell in BB? Maybe you didn't notice that we were 0-12 in FB. On the way where? Then to suggest that our future is brighter in FB than basketball? I just can't follow this reasoning at all. Dement may not be our ultimate coach but he has proven more than Bennett at this point. I wish them both well. We have beaten 2 top 25 clubs in BB this year and played a top 5 well. We also had some disaters. In FB we lost to one or more of the bottowm 10 but had NO successes unless you call playing TCU close a success. Let's be real. Bennett may be doing a great job of recruiting but NOTHING has shown up on the field yet. Let's measure our coaches fairly and by the same yardstick.