PonyFans.com

Compare and contrast.

Big 12 Conference

Conference USA


Big 12 Facilities

FCS facilities

Courtesy of feelthehorsepower


Art Briles jumped into Baylor in 2008, same time as June Jones did at SMU.

Let's compare both of their trajectories, Of course Baylor was in the Big 12 and of course we were in CUSA at the time, but that is no excuse...TCU was in CUSA and Mountain West when they became a powerhouse program:

2008:
- Briles only won 4 games in 2008 against Aggy, Iowa State, Washington State and Northwestern State (all of them with losing records.)
- June Jones won only 1 game against Texas State (FCS team at the time)

2009:
- Briles went 4-8 again. Wins vs schools with losing records. Only win vs. a .500 school was against Mizzou. At this point, average attendance hovered around 32,000 (I adjusted a little bit for Texas, OK state type games)
- June went 8-5, taking us bowling for the first time since DP. Only win vs a winning record was against East Carolina, and of course Nevada in our bowl game. Attendance was 31k for the Stephen F Austin season opener. We got whooped by TCU at their house 39-14 and the next game at home attendance was 12k....rest of season attendance was similar.

2010:
- Briles goes 7-6 and bowling for the first time. They beat a Kansas State team that won 7 games in total and was their only win vs a winning program that year. They beat a 5-7 Texas team at their home which I think may be considered their turning point going forward...Attendance went up to 40k avg, while their least attended game brought 36k people.
- Jones goes 7-7 and we bowl again. We lost both the conference championship against UCF and the Armed Forces bowl against Army at our stadium by 2 points. Only high profile team we beat this year was Tulsa which won 10 games that year. TCU's Rose Bowl squad embarrased us at home 41-24...but gave us an attendance record. First time I saw a packed SMU house with our fans (28,000-30,000), although TCU did bring about 5,000 or so fans in there.

2011:
- Briles coming out year. They go 10-3 and RG3 wins the heisman. 3 losses came to ranked Kansas State, Aggy and OK State. Interesting about this year is Phil Bennett becomes DC. Fatterson at TCU has mentioned this week that he thinks Baylor's success depends heavily on their defense. (http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/11/26 ... ey-to.html) and this year...RG3 of course.
- Dear June goes 8-5 with a high profile win against a ranked TCU program...and that's it. Zach line and the others were probably a big reason we did well that year. We imploded after the UCF game and lost the rest except wins against Tulane and Rice. Probably his best year because we beat TCU.

2012:
- Briles goes 8-5, getting beat down badly by the Frog's debut in the big 12, 49-21. Losses were against elite Big 12 teams except he managed to beat down OK State and #1 ranked Kansas State that went 11-2 that year
- June debuts GG, we go 7-6...only beating high profile 11 win tulsa but losing to TULANE.

2013:
- Briles is 9-1. Baylor was ranked as high as #3 going into OK State. Injuries take their toll on their team as they went into that OK State game. Oh yes, they have an incoming recruiting class that is #26 in the nation. 6 years into Briles coaching gig at Baylor, their recruiting is elite.
- 5-6 SMU team. June gets shut out by Houston, 34-0. Garrett Gilbert has his best year ever stats wise. June gets shut out. 0 points. No offense, no defense, no special teams. We are back to square 1. Year 6 is supposed to be a breakaway year, not a recruiting the 100th class in the country

Effort and hard work vs sense of entitlement and ego.

They were at the bottom of he barrel in the Big 12 now they are at the top and did not even have an IPF as they are building one this year. And they have done this with 3 different QB's over the last three years.

RG3 vs JJMcD

This, to me, says it all. When asked where he starts working since he has fewer resources compared to his competition, he replied:

"The mind. Without question. Everything's about your mental attitude, and how you approach it, and how you get to where you wanna get. You have to understand that the field may not be equal from a lot of different standpoints — resources, facilities, support, fan support — but all those things, if you let them filter in, you lose sight of your focus. Our focus has always been that we're gonna be the standard, we're gonna do what we do and do it as well as anyone does it, and we're not gonna have any excuses or comparisons along the way. That's our motto: no excuses, no comparisons, and no compromises."

This isn't as frustrating as seeing TCU go to the Rose Bowl but it's close. Now both of our supposed equals from the SWC have made it to BCS games. Lesser schools in lesser cities, but they committed to playing with the big boys. We have committed to mediocrity in the kiddie pool



Come on, DIRs! We got this!

BAYLOR
1998-2007: 104 Sagarin
2008-2013:41 Sagarin
An average improvement of 63 spots in final Sagarin under Briles

SMU
1998-2007: 122 Sagarin
2008-2013: 85 Sagarin
An average improvement of 37 spots final Sagarin under Jones

It is interesting to note that SMU ended the 2009 rankings 15 spots ahead of Baylor at 65

How did JJ and staff build on that 2009 momentum? JJ tried to bolt and when he couldn't he let all the assistant who actually recruited leave and hired friends who prefer to golf rather than recruit. Briles did the complete opposite.

Ha, nothing to compare

8 out 10 of Baylor's coaches are from Texas and 9 out of 10 have prior Texas coaching experience
June not so much

Stallion wrote:8 out 10 of Baylor's coaches are from Texas and 9 out of 10 have prior Texas coaching experience
June not so much

This

Stallion wrote:8 out 10 of Baylor's coaches are from Texas and 9 out of 10 have prior Texas coaching experience
June not so much

this says it all

Agreed its a real problem and the main reason I'd move on if he's not willing to correct it.