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from the DMN blog

"Phil Bennett in good mood
SMU football coach Phil Bennett is in a good mood these days. His son is a center for Highland Park. Bennett's hometown team, Marshall, is playing Highland Park in the title game. And his team is coming off a five-win season, and from what I hear recruiting has never been better.

Bennett, by the way, is picking Highland Park to win the title.

Posted by Calvin Watkins at 2:31 PM"

funny....I would've guessed that recruiting has never been worse during the bennett era

not sure who they are, but we are looking at a couple of players on marshall's team.

i'll take better than ever recruiting

we are gonna go to the liberty bowl next year!

Anyone who knows Coach Bennett knows he's an extremely engaging, charismatic guy. I would think, after the wins we had this year and the way we finished, he's looking at a much deeper pool of recruits. So I'll go with the "better than ever" prediction -- especially considering the impending arrival of a few more JUCOs.

totally agree

y'all should go on smumustnags.com and look at phil's bio

he was the right hire to take us to the next level

mavsrage311 wrote:funny....I would've guessed that recruiting has never been worse during the bennett era

That would be a very bad guess. Bennett's done very well here and his first two full classes were solid. Now this year started out very slowly, but it's very very encouraging to hear that we may be gaining momentum.

Things are looking way up on the Hilltop.

Talk is cheap, show me results. So far things are looking way down. I want to be proven wrong, I really do, but where is the interest from the difference makers? All these stud recruits can't be flying under the radar of the recruitng services, can they?

ponyboy wrote:

mavsrage311 wrote:funny....I would've guessed that recruiting has never been worse during the bennett era

That would be a very bad guess. Bennett's done very well here and his first two full classes were solid. Now this year started out very slowly, but it's very very encouraging to hear that we may be gaining momentum.

Things are looking way up on the Hilltop.

You are such a sunshiner

why don't we sit back and see rather than getting all giggly and lathered up by "coachspeak". Things should start jumping on Sunday as most schools have visits planned this week, the few remaining JUCOs commit before next week's signing date and players try to tie up commitments before the Christmas Dead Period. With such a large percentage of the top players committed or at least committed to visits for 2006, I doubt SMU has time to really make a "big splash" this year. For example, there is not even a single high school player rated 3 stars in the entire Rivals Database (about Texas Top 135) who is strongly considering SMU according to the latest articles on those recruits-there are 4 that have mentioned SMU as a possibility in the past. I actually believe the late winning streak will have a bigger impact on the Class of 2007. But remember the schools we probably compete with the most for top players TCU, Baylor, Tulsa, Houston, and yes UTEP all have a story to tell this year too. Hopefully we won't let the other school we seem to compete against- Tulane- come into the Dallas Metroplex and grab 3-4 of our targets this year like they did last year. Plus Rice usually gets 2-3 recruits we wanted-hopefully their lack of a head coach will make them no factor.

forgive me for sunshining

but i think things are looking up too

my only complaint about last season is that we played 2 qbs for too long

qb contros wreck programs (unless you are spurrier)

just check out tennesee

Stallion wrote:why don't we sit back and see rather than getting all giggly and lathered up by "coachspeak". Things should start jumping on Sunday as most schools have visits planned this week, the few remaining JUCOs commit before next week's signing date and players try to tie up commitments before the Christmas Dead Period. With such a large percentage of the top players committed or at least committed to visits for 2006, I doubt SMU has time to really make a "big splash" this year. For example, there is not even a single high school player rated 3 stars in the entire Rivals Database (about Texas Top 135) who is strongly considering SMU according to the latest articles on those recruits-there are 4 that have mentioned SMU as a possibility in the past. I actually believe the late winning streak will have a bigger impact on the Class of 2007. But remember the schools we probably compete with the most for top players TCU, Baylor, Tulsa, Houston, and yes UTEP all have a story to tell this year too. Hopefully we won't let the other school we seem to compete against- Tulane- come into the Dallas Metroplex and grab 3-4 of our targets this year like they did last year. Plus Rice usually gets 2-3 recruits we wanted-hopefully their lack of a head coach will make them no factor.

Baylor - lost 5 of 6 after 4-1 start
TCU good story - ost to SMU
UTEP - lost last two

IF we can get all 2-stars from HS, and back fill with 5-6 decend starting quality JUCOs this will be ok this year. The 2-stars better be FAST and thin, MEANING: put into weight room and they can redshirt and blossum later.

CORRECTION: Junior College Signing Date is December 21st this year-a week later than usual.

PhirePhilBennett wrote: You are such a sunshiner

Yep, and you just discovered the leisure suit with that handle.

To Alex Lifeson....

Methinks that Bennett is looking at Kris Garcia and Justin Smart, two LBs who have been very successful, at least until the title game...
This let down might actually be to SMU's advantage, if the other schools looking at Smart (OSU & A&M) back off him....