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Obviously with the Morris hire they are at least partially committed to success in football. But are they really going to push forward with this? Is Turner going to rally the troops and get the wheels spinning? Are they trying to appease or actually build a respectable program? It seems like this change should have happened years ago.

nice avatar rookie

I could be dead wrong but my feeling is that Coach Morris wouldn't have taken the job if he didn't have assurances that the administration was fully on board with a change in commitment to football.

STLStang wrote:Obviously with the Morris hire they are at least partially committed to success in football. But are they really going to push forward with this? Is Turner going to rally the troops and get the wheels spinning? Are they trying to appease or actually build a respectable program? It seems like this change should have happened years ago.

Coach Morris did an interview today with 103.3 ESPN Radio here in Dallas and said the following:

"The way we operate had to change. In order to get Chad Morris, the system had to be in place for us to win. Everyone here wants it and is on the same page."

There is no way Chad Morris, the nation's highest paid assistant coach who could've had his pick of jobs after another year of Deshaun Watson, would have risked derailing his coaching career by coming to SMU without feeling 100% comfortable with the situation here. His people and everyone around him would've told him to steer clear.

StallionsModelT wrote:"The way we operate had to change. In order to get Chad Morris, the system had to be in place for us to win. Everyone here wants it and is on the same page."

Usually I hate 3rd person talk.....but ponydawg loves everything Chad Morris does.

Chad Morris is glad Chad Morris came to SMU.

I've yet to see evidence that we've been any harder, academically, than any other school for players during the June Jones era.

I know you old guys have PTSD over stuff that happened when I was in elementary school, but I don't really understand what more you want from the administration. Some of you act like paying millions of dollars a year for these coaches is somehow a secret plot to destroy the athletic program. To what end? Why waste all the money? What more do you want from the administration? We accept NCAA minimum qualifiers, only enforce the minimum standards, and pay top dollar for coaches. That's what administration support looks like.

But the constant frowny faces...

The only lingering question in my mind revolves around academic support, and of course I am talking about MK. What was the sequence of events that led him to not be eligible to play at the start of the season? Some say MK simply didn't do the work and that's all on him - if so, I completely agree. Others have implied that maybe some piece of the academic support structure may have let him down. If the latter is the case, I would assume HCCM and HCLB have discussed it with leadership and gotten some additional resources to handle it, and the fact that HCCM agreed to come here leads me to believe this problem has been addressed to his satisfaction. It is the job of university administration to ensure that all students and student athletes have the tools necessary to succeed; I'd like to think they are doing that because otherwise this is a whole lot of money spent for little to no return.

My sources say MK straight up refused to go to class. Ever. Not sure what we can do about that.

If they weren't on our team they would have kept Mason (nothing against the guy) with a 10 year, 500k/yr contract and not hired HCCM, one of the hottest coaches out there that was mentioned for almost every vacancy. People still like to bring up the Pye curse but Dr. Turner said today only 1 of the 400 or so athletes are having any academic trouble whatsoever... and as the poster above wrote, it seems it was brought upon by himself. So relax and enjoy the ride

For what it's worth, at the press conference, PRGT said that of the 431 athletes on campus, only 1 was on academic suspension.

"Turner said the school has made changes over the years to help athletes get in school, and once there, providing academic support. SMU’s Center for the Academic Development of Student-Athletes provides mentoring, tutoring, and literacy enhancement, and in collaboration with the Altshuler Learning Enhancement Center, helps athletes meet all eligibility and graduation requirements."

“In terms of academic support services, students who need special attention, we probably have more than any program in the American Athletic Conference,” Turner said. “We have reading specialists, we have anything that a student would need in support and expertise.”


http://share.d-news.co/SrZXDkR

It sounds like if there's work to be done from HCCM's perspective its in getting more academic tutors dedicated specifically for our athletes.

Of all the snippets of information that have come out about this, I read only one potential structural problem. There could be others, but it is the only specific one I found.

Most of the tutors are students and at Exam time they disappear (can't really blame them... They need to pass their exams too). I don't know if this means the school needs to hire full time tutors or schedule tutors' exams before or after everyone else's.

This should be of interest:

Chip Brown ‏@ChipBrownHD 29m29 minutes ago
New @SMU_Football coach @coachchadmorris just told us #SMU gave him assurance there would be academic support for FB or he wouldn't be here.