PonyFans.com

OH and sorry I can't spell worth a darn...LOL

Go Ponies Baby!!!!

What is this, 1994? Because that's about when the DP should have stopped being a relevant excuse.

87 - 94: Blame the DP
94 - 08: Blame the administration
99 - 11: Blame the academics

HELLO...did we not go to a bowl game the last 2 years??? Which means to me and ALL SMU fans that we are back! HELLO!

If no one complained, there's be about 5 posters on this board.

And it would be really boring.

Not really because one of them would be stallion and he always creates controversy.

GO PONIES!!!

We need to see progress ON THE FIELD. Yes, we have been fortunate to have back-doored our way into a conference championship game last year, but what most are upset about is the lack of improvement on the field. We have tons of experience up and down our lineup, but on the field we demonstrate relatively little, if any improvement, from two years ago. This is the problem. But for an injury to the their staring QB and a herculean effort by one linebacker, we very well might have lost, at home, to a UTEP team that, on paper, seemed to be vastly inferior.

Pehaps the players read too many of the preseason press clippings. We now have a couple of games where maybe they can get fired up and ready to take on the 'stockyard toads'.

GO PONIES!!!

Coach said it best when he said that it is a sign of improvement when we can play bad and win (paraphrasing, of course), but most of us are wondering when the heck we are going to see the team play WELL and win, and do it consistently. I don't think, given the number of upperclassmen on both sides of the ball who have been in the system for a few years now, that it is an unreasonable expectation to see the team step up and crush the teams they are supposed to crush (UTEP) and play teams that are still superior tight by executing well (aTm). In my mind, playing up or down to the level of an opponent is a sign of immaturity and lack of discipline on a team, and we had that mentality LONG before Jones got here, and it does not appear to have changed even though the talent level has dramatically improved.

The other part of this that you are missing (and it is HUGELY positive), is that the fan base actually has lofty expectations. I went to SMU from 94-98, and football was a joke. If we won, we considered it a happy accident, and when we lost it was just business as usual. Today, we expect this team to come out EVERY game and win. Losing, or just squeaking by with a W, doesn't cut it anymore, for the coaches, the players or the fans. That is a giant leap forward and we have June to thank for it. I am not unrealistic in my expectations; I am simply eagerly waiting for this team to play to its potential and I haven't seen it yet, at least not for a full game.

RyanSMU98 wrote:Coach said it best when he said that it is a sign of improvement when we can play bad and win (paraphrasing, of course), but most of us are wondering when the heck we are going to see the team play WELL and win, and do it consistently. I don't think, given the number of upperclassmen on both sides of the ball who have been in the system for a few years now, that it is an unreasonable expectation to see the team step up and crush the teams they are supposed to crush (UTEP) and play teams that are still superior tight by executing well (aTm). In my mind, playing up or down to the level of an opponent is a sign of immaturity and lack of discipline on a team, and we had that mentality LONG before Jones got here, and it does not appear to have changed even though the talent level has dramatically improved.

The other part of this that you are missing (and it is HUGELY positive), is that the fan base actually has lofty expectations. I went to SMU from 94-98, and football was a joke. If we won, we considered it a happy accident, and when we lost it was just business as usual. Today, we expect this team to come out EVERY game and win. Losing, or just squeaking by with a W, doesn't cut it anymore, for the coaches, the players or the fans. That is a giant leap forward and we have June to thank for it. I am not unrealistic in my expectations; I am simply eagerly waiting for this team to play to its potential and I haven't seen it yet, at least not for a full game.

Great points, Ryan. I agree that hte attitude of the overall fan base has definitely changed from where we were even 5 years ago.

ponyfan777 wrote:HELLO...did we not go to a bowl game the last 2 years??? Which means to me and ALL SMU fans that we are back! HELLO!

28-17
46-14

7-7

16-14
17-7

Yes, constructive discussion and criticism is TOTALLY unreasonable.

It is all well and good to say stop whining but it may be time to face reality. To say that the reason for the mediocrity of SMU football is all the fault of the death penalty is ignoring reality. The SMU administration chose to ham string the football program after the DP and that policy has largely been in effect since. Today there is slightly more national attention being paid to SMU but the fact is that a good case can be made that the football program is no better today than it was in 1997, Cavan's first year. SMU was 6-5 that year with a strong win over Arkansas and could possibly have gone to a bowl if not for losing to a TCU team which only had one win that year. That was the year when the TCU coach, Pat Sullivan, was fired and Dennis Franchione was hired and their rise to near the top began.

The next year, 1998, TCU went to the Sun Bowl and beat USC and has steadily improved since then. One of their losses that year was to SMU and I would assert that the SMU program was at least on par with TCU then. The TCU administration had made the decision to move up while the powers that be at SMU had decided to stand pat.

The landscape of college football has changed, largely because of TV. SMU has been to two bowls in the last two years but only because bowl games have multiplied like rabbits. Most of the bowls are irrelevant and many on them may actually cost the participating schools money.

It appears that the SMU administration has at least finally awakened and is making an effort to really compete. College football seems to have evolved to where only a few teams in the BCS can reap the benefits of the big TV money and that trend looks like continuing to where only "Super Conference" teams can compete on the big stage and the "have nots" like SMU will be on the outside looking in. SMU in 1997-98 had just as good a chance as TCU had to build a competitive program but chose the wrong path. Today, I fear it is too late.

Your threads are empty and pointless

Actually he couldn't be more correct, you prove your inability to understand big picture...

NickSMU17 wrote:Actually he couldn't be more correct, you prove your inability to understand big picture...

Nick is right, as usual.