Immediate Reaction

[JasonB]

I'll start off by getting the excuses out of the way. Pursley wasn't himself. We didn't have any running backs - it was clear that Freeman didn't want to take a hit with his bad shoulder, so he wasn't himself and West was beatup and they didn't want to use him inside. We were patching people together with duct tape at corner. I get all of that stuff.

- Tulsa has a good secondary. And they are easy to run against. That is why teams run against them. Part of the reason that Hicks was holding the ball too long was because of lots of players in the secondary and good coverage. That said, you have to switch off of guys earlier. As many times as he threw in the flat to the RB, it was there all day. Hicks had a poor game with his decision making and his accuracy. I hate to say that he cost us the game... but it probably cost us the game. When the lights were the brightest both at the beginning of the season and in the last two games, he didn't play his best, and that has to be a concern moving forward.
- All of that said, I think it is okay to be a little critical of the play calling. The RBs weren't willing to take a hit, so you have to abandon the running game OR put in some of the walk-ons who are willing to take a hit. I think history has shown that if we have an unsuccessful running game and you ask Hicks to be perfect in a ball control offense, that is not going to be successful. When the running game isn't working, we are much better off just throwing every down - which is what we did on the last TD drive. I wish that adjustment had been made early in the game.
- This looked like a team that hadn't really practiced at full speed all week because of injury. The defense didn't look like itself in the first half, not swarming to the ball, not playing aggressively. The missed tackle long pass play in the first half was a last year play, we haven't seen that at all this season. We were hesitant on special teams, defense, and on offense our players weren't willing to hit. The team didn't come out ready to play, and I think in this case you have to put half of that on the coaches and half on the injuries and what I bet was a poor week of practice.
- That said, I'll close with a positive - the last two years, this team gives up at halftime and gets smoked. So it is great that they dug their heels in and fought back. But that was ugly, we didn't deserve to win in any way.
- For what its worth, the refs decided not to call holding this game against the OL. Both teams were guilty, but Tulsa took advantage of that freedom way, way more frequently.

Things we learned this year:
WR: Roberson, Proche, Page, Bell are solid. We need 4 more to rotate in effectively. Sanders and Miles are two of those, we need two more for next season to have a really good unit. From a recruiting standpoint of what we did last year and what is coming in, I like where we are at.
RB: We need 4 really good players here. Freeman and Jones are back. Need Williams to be an option and a 4th guy to come in. And one of the last two needs to play that West flex role, that is a huge find that needs to happen next season. Hopefully Bentley and Williams fill the 3rd and 4th role, but someone has got to be able to catch and run.
QB: Regardless of if Hicks comes back, we need competition. Hicks and Brown will compete. Upshaw is probably a 4th guy. We need someone to push the other two. A quality QB recruit is necessary.
OL: Morris, Ali, Howerton, and Thomas are solid. Barton is a good backup C, and Dennis is a good backup RG to battle for the starting spot. Livingston I like to give us depth or push at LT or RT. We need a stud G and another T out of a JUCO. I'm disappointed that Smith, Webb, and Wilds haven't developed yet, but at this point they should be 3rd string and a bonus if they develop. We have 4 OL recruits in the lass right now, but we need 2 JUCOs to come in and fight in that two deep, a guard and a T.
DL: At DT, everyone comes back except for Hall. We have a bunch of solid guys but we really need a difference maker at that position. That is a gap we have, that might be nice with a GT or JUCO.
DE: We have 6 guys who are all decent. Scott has a chance to be all conference next year, and I think Wiley is that athletic difference maker that will make it a plus unit.
LB: Losing Mitchell sucks. Moore is great. Nelson looks like he will play a "Star" role as a third LB.
Denbow, Robinson, Williams, and Hailey have all shown signs of being able to push for the other starting spot and to be capable backups. I think with the recruits from last year, we will have a solid 3rd team as well. This unit is good enough to win.
CB: Sutton, Davis, Hayes, Johnson have all shown they can be solid corners. We need two more to go three deep, and with the hard hitting style of defense, we need to be able to go three deep. We need one to develop from the young players and we need one "plus" GT/JUCO to come in and start.
S: Onu, McQueen and Clemons are all really good players. We desperately need 3 more players to provide depth. Rock and Kadazi might be 3rd stringI wouldn't be surprised to see us add a JUCO here as well to bring in someone who can run second team immediately.

We played some good teams tough, and we had an upset. But we also lost to two teams (UNT and Tulsa) that I think we probably should have beaten. And it is the way we lost those games I think that puts a more bitter taste in my mouth. I thought we would be 7-5 going into the season because I had us winning UNT and didn't see Cincy being as good as they were. But splitting against UNT and Tulsa to finish at 6-6 probably was a reasonable expectation when you look back on the schedule. So, overall on the season, I am excited about where the program is going, but I am a little disappointed by the end result.

[Donnell88]

And it would be nice if we had some healthy running backs next season.

[Rebel10]

UNT had a pretty good team this year for whatever reason. Can’t say that we should have beaten them at their place. Just my input.

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

I know a lot of people thought this was a 3-4 win season with the new staff and schedule, but the fact we just had to beat a total [deleted] team in the final game to get to a bowl and couldn't do it really is all anybody needs to know about these players.

[Charleston Pony]

Bottom line is that this team has no business playing in a bowl game this year. Just not really very good and I agree that injuries pretty much depleted this team and hurt their chances of beating a team that SMU is better than today. I also agree that we should be concerned about Hicks consistently playing his worst games when the spotlight is brightest. His early sacks and INT put his team in a hole and you just don't expect some of the poor decisions he made from an experienced QB. Very disappointing day, but these guys still did as well and possibly a little better this year than I had expected.

[03Mustang]

Watch us get a waiver at 5-7 and get a bowl anyway haha

[Dukie]

Watch us get a waiver at 5-7 and get a bowl anyway haha

I haven’t paid attention to all of today’s results but going into the weekend it was VERY unlikely that any 5-7 team would make a bowl.

[mtrout]

Immediate reaction. We overachieved the whole season then collapsed against one of the worst teams in fbs when it counted.

One weekend we’re talking about winning the conference then the next week we lose to the worst team in our division.

[SMUer]

Just too many boo-boos

[peruna81]

We truly could not get out of our own way yesterday...playing the worst game of the year, and still had a chance to make a play at the end.

I grieve Tom Lisle's passing...he could kick an onside kick with accuracy and deadly force. Our kicker, well, didn't have his best game.

It is time to put this to rest, and get on to basketball...uhh...nah.

Recruiting, anyone?

[MV pony]

Tulsa had an outstanding QB: Ben Hicks. He was their most valuable player.

[Digetydog]

With Jones and Freeman constantly getting injured, we desperately need bring a bruising, downhill runner to take some of the load.

Think Z Line, not B West.

[mtrout]

Just too many boo-boos

We need a canceled game every year like ucf.

[footballdad]

Tulsa had an outstanding QB: Ben Hicks. He was their most valuable player.

.......yeah, but he's gonna have all the records when he's done......

[malonish]

Tulsa had an outstanding QB: Ben Hicks. He was their most valuable player.

.......yeah, but he's gonna have all the records when he's done......

At least he recorded a stat