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SMU in no joking mood at WAC media day

Mustangs don't want to be laughingstocks for another season

By CALVIN WATKINS / The Dallas Morning News
RENO, Nev. – This is how bad the 2003 football season was for SMU: Professors in classes taken by football players made snide remarks about the Mustangs' 0-12 season. Not behind the players' backs, but in their faces.

To stop it, senior defensive tackle Allan Adami got in some instructors' faces.

"You got some teachers trying to make a crack about who is going to the games," said Adami, a second-team All-WAC selection last season. "I've talked to them to cut that stuff out. It's easy when you have a 270-pound football player telling you to shut up and stick to the lesson plan and forget about the football team."

Adami and his teammate, running back Foy Munlin, were at the Peppermill Hotel and Casino for the WAC's media day Wednesday, taking questions on how difficult last season was.

Adami said some professors were supportive of the team.


SMU braces to face six bowl teams

SMU will play six teams (Texas Tech, TCU, Oklahoma State, Boise State, Fresno State and Tulsa) that earned bowl berths in 2003.

Two more losses and SMU will break the school record for the longest losing streak in school history at 14. It has the second-longest losing streak in the nation, behind Army.

Also, middle linebacker Reggie Carrington, a projected starter, could be lost for the season with a torn pectoral muscle. Carrington, a sophomore, was injured Tuesday during a weight-lifting session. D.D. Lee will replace Carrington at middle linebacker.

Coach Phil Bennett said Avery Cleveland or Don Ieremia-Stansbury would move to the strong side to replace Lee.


Boise State picked to win WAC title

Two-time defending champion Boise State is the favorite to win the WAC title in a media poll. The Broncos (13-1 last season) have won 18 consecutive conference games dating to 2001. Boise State received 434 points and 23 first-place votes. SMU was picked to finish ninth in the 10-team conference. It finished last in the conference last season at 0-8.
Hawaii quarterback Timmy Chang was selected preseason offensive player of the year; Boise State linebacker Andy Avalos was defensive player of the year.


Hawaii quarterback getting Heisman hype

Though he's a long shot, Hawaii senior quarterback Timmy Chang has been touted as a Heisman Trophy candidate.
Chang is Hawaii's all-time leader in total offense and passing yards.
"I've heard about all that stuff," said Chang, who is from Waipahu on Oahu. "It's not something I'm thinking about. Me being a local kid, it could inspire others to attempt the same thing."

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So let's review this article:

1. Allan Adami and the Ponies didn't enjoy going 0-12.
2. Reggie Carrington is hurt.
3. Adami and Foy Munlin were in attendance at the media thing.
4. Ponies have a killer schedule.

That's what the DMN calls coverage? I don't blame Calvin Watkins - when he's given the space, he does a really good job. But they need to give him some space in the paper. I highly doubt the paper flew him out to that thing so he could irnore Munlin (other than to recognize the fact that he was there) and to ask Adami only about whether he enjoyed an 0-12 season. They wore us down with pages of coverage on the Big 12, and this is what we get for the only college team in Dallas? That's weak. Thank goodness for PonyFans.com.

Is it any wonder we can't make any academic changes to facilitate recruiting? With faculty like that how do we ever expect to make the necessary changes to our admissions standards to recruit more competitively? ANy suggestions about how to change that attitude?

No kidding - that was unsettling to read.
Good for Allan staning up to them. He should have identified those professors in the article.

Well all I can say on that is don't try to talk about football with Prof. Coan in the physics department. I made that mistake once, got in a 20 minute arguement over the importance of having a football team. Let's just say he was not 'receptive' to any arguments I was making. It was like I had spit in his face.

I'm sure you'll find a similar attitude from anyone associated with Meadows, or fluff departments like 'English'. (note: not degrading the difficulty of an english degree, I mean 'fluff' as in intellectual subjective type depeartments, as opposed to, say, engineering).

I wouldn't necessarily expect a postive response from everyone in the Engineering department either, I remember when they were building the stadium there were quite a few that were upset that so much money was being spent on the stadium as opposed to their departments. Granted the stadium construction postphone the building of the Junkins building and also put off the construction of a new ME/CE building so I can kind of see where they are coming from. I don't think I ever heard them make fun of the team or the atheletes though.

When I was at SMU, it was always a toss-up as to the attitude of a professor. Some cared, some didn't. They were welcome to their opinion, but I never heard any of my professors speak openly in discouragement. (I'm a Meadows grad.) My TA in Psych was Jon Koncack. Evne while training, playing, etc., he still was willing to take time to help me and answer questions. I believe that the prof. was happy and proud of the man too.

Go Ponies!

Here's what I find most troublesome. Why did Watkins find it necessary to LEAD with that junk about professors making fun of their school's team? Makes good copy, I guess. But is that really the storyline we want to be feeding the public (and for that matter, recruits)? I realize it's his job to come up with something interesting, and I'm not asking him to be a homer propagandist, but come on, how about a little substance, at least. Oh well, I suppose when you're 0-12, you can't ask for too much.

KnuckleStang wrote:Here's what I find most troublesome. Why did Watkins find it necessary to LEAD with that junk about professors making fun of their school's team? Makes good copy, I guess. But is that really the storyline we want to be feeding the public (and for that matter, recruits)? I realize it's his job to come up with something interesting, and I'm not asking him to be a homer propagandist, but come on, how about a little substance, at least. Oh well, I suppose when you're 0-12, you can't ask for too much.

I expect Watkins wrote more, and when the editor's trimmed the story because of space, they determined that this would be a little saltier and get more attention from readers. Poor choice, though.

abezontar's point about professors making fun of athletes can't be made loud enough. If a teacher doesn't think we should have football, or athletics in general, or a greek system, etc., that's their opinion. Fine - everyone has opinions. But to make cracks at students, in front of their classmates, is disgusting.

On professors, read my post under "Thanks, Allan..."

I thought this thread was going to be about Carrington's injury. That's a serious blow to the interior of the defense. Fortunately, D.D.Lee has experience in the middle, but it looks like Zach Hall may have to step it up as a RS Frosh, just as Reggie did last year. This is where our lack of experienced depth really hurts.

D.D. Lee will be big this year, and I understand Zach Hall learned a lot last year - and he'll learn a lot this year from Lee. We'll be OK in the middle (although it would be nice to have Reggie in there, too.)

As strong and tough as he is, how about Don Ieremia-Stansbury in the middle?