All remaining home games officially sold out

[CoxMustangFan]

Agree with posters above that SMU football has a future. What Larryball has proved is that SMU fans aren't really road kill -- they just need a coach that cares and a program moving in the right direction. Hart, you're on the clock.

[GiddyUp]

Never is a long time but at least 3 yrs out with these 2* type of fball recruits regardless of coach. Top 15 in hoops next yr if all aligns as it should.

Easier to fill gym obviously. I thought we would be BCS busters by now or at least shocking a team or two. Enough about fball....

[Treadway21]

June could have had this if he had wanted it and worked for it. Remember SMU fans filled up Ford to watch a 7-6 team play a 6-6 Army team. Not only did we lose we played a stinker.

June had a number if opportunities to build something up, but his us against them attitude is no conducive to bringing in fans, unless he is in Hawaii.

Get a coach that works as hard as Brown and has some success against old SWC teams and see what happens.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Mexmustang]

Before you go and replace a football coach, you need to look at the University of Texas record. They had an unending riches of four and five stars, and $300,000.000 in annual athletic revenue but had 17 years of failure before hiring Mac Brown. Football is another sport than basketball. It requires a major investment and commitment from the administration, board and alumni. It is far more difficult to turn around. We are so fortunate to have found that passing comet in Larry Brown. We have caught lightening in a bottle--just doesn't happen very often. This maybe first.

Think about these points:

The improvements alone at Moody, cost more than the total budget to build Ford. Yes, I know inflation, but still...we have a stadium that is basically built on aluminum bleachers, with a brick façade. TCU's improvements of Amon Carter was two and a half times Ford's budget.

Basketball has the Crum center for practice, there is no IPF for football,

The current BB team has higher salaries for assistant coaches and administrative (?) managers.

LB has almost unlimited access to private business jets for recruiting,

SMU suddenly has a flexible admissions policy--multiple transfers, presidential approvals of kids turned down by the admissions committee (all three this year), and best of all, professional tutors, etc. Football has had the pledges, but even in December no tutors were hired.

Most important, we are a member of a pretty strong basketball conference, with several former National Championship members--and those championships occurred during the school years of our high school recruits.

SMU's has demonstrated a new attitude with regard to basketball. Suddenly we are not ashamed or defensive about athletics. If SMU, had responded as strongly to the press and NCAA as it did with our prize freshman recruit's academic record, we would have never received the DP, penalties yes, but not the DP. I was proud of the University's aggressive response in our press release. Our grey hairs were pleasantly surprised--no, I would say shocked!

The AAC in football is simply not the same conference. It is not a place recruits want to play.

Our assistants and coordinators haven't had but one raise in six years in football--remember that is four bowl games, certainly in one of those years they deserved a raise! Their salaries are also a fraction of those on LB's staff. You can't poor boy your coordinators! Word get out in the coaching community.

There is not a vocal, insistent, financial sponsor for football, get one...get several. We will need them to enforce changes and provide the financial support.

Another thing, don't get so caught up in the "Star System". Rival's editor is only 25 years old. I respect a seasoned coach's opinion as to whether a kid can play far more than any recruiting service.

Also, remember that high school kids don't always tell the truth about their offers, contacts, recruitment or grades. Football coaches are prevented by the NCAA to make comments or defend themselves.

LB doesn't recruit off of Rivals ratings either. Look how many three stars he is currently recruiting. Better yet, look what three star freshmen are outplaying our 4 star JC transfer and five star freshmen.

Just saying, June's going to be here at least one more year, I believe two. He has not only the support of the grey hairs, but Larry Brown and President Turner as well. You can sit around and play "blame the coach" for anther two years, just as we've done for almost three decades, but unless you build the investment, the financial base in football, the infrastructure we need, and prepare the program for an invite to a major conference, nothing is going to happen. More years of futility.

Unfortunately, we will be playing "fire the coach" for another three decades. For those of you that hate June, can you imagine looking back in 25 years and remembering the June Jones era as the "good old days, of SMU football"?

LB credits June for his coming to SMU. He had LB's support. It is nonsense to believe June didn't come here without a vision of filling Ford. As Larry Brown said, "it was June's vision and confirmed by Steve (Orsini), that convinced him this was possible at SMU"--creating the same noise we are all currently enjoying at Moody.

Moody's improvement was part of the Bush library commitment, not basketball, but suddenly the BB folks got involved--"I didn't make this investment if we don't have the commitment to win!" We need the same sponsor(s) to press on the administration in football.

Finally, it is our AD's responsibility to fill Ford, not the HC. Filling 7,000 seats at Moody is far less difficult that filling a stadium of 36,000. We haven't had a marketing budget promoting our football games in years--not under Orsini and certainly not under Rick. It was Russ Potts (AD) that filled the Cotton Bowl and Texas Stadium, not Ron Myer. Myer's success was far from immediate, it required mass support, the alumni, the board, the students and most of all the financial commitment of the university (no comments about the other financial commitment). SMU, for all its history really doesn't have a history of actually winning over the past seven decades--I believe during that time we may have had but one decade in which we had a winning record.

As a member of the AAC, a football conference that has been left out of the so-called
"Major Conferences--the big five, both recruiting and attendance will need twice the effort and investment than for a Baylor or TCU. Don't expect wins over these types of teams until we are willing to make this investment. How can you expect to win the race, when everyone else is investing at least twice as much.

Basketball success is not only a direct result of our investment, but is probably a big reason Larry Brown was willing to come here. Investment came first, then LB, then the wins.

Before you replace June, make the investment in football so you can attract the coaches you are looking for. We can try to recruit a new coach without it, but we can attract a far better one if we prove we are committed. No coach is going to want to come here if we are in a second rate football conference and simply go through the motions like we have in terms of investment. They also won't want to wait for the investment to come on their watch--SMU has a history of unrealistic expectations and he will be fired before the investment begins to reap the rewards.

Finally, SMU used to outspend Baylor, TTU, TCU, but after what will be 25 or so years since the breakup of the SWC, SMU's investment gap--our investment shortfall, our commitment from the top, has grown in multiples, not in percentage terms.

[mrydel]

Finally, it is our AD's responsibility to fill Ford, not the HC.

Your entire epistle lost credibility with me with this one statement. If the product on the field is not worthy of viewing then there is nothing the AD or anyone else can do to fill the stadium other than no cost seating and cattle prods.

[couch 'em]

Nobody expects to get where basketball is in football in 2 years. Of course it is a whole different world. But there is no reason we can't do what TCU did or others almost did. We are not performing near where we could.

[Mexmustang]

Well, it is the AD's responsibility. Sorry, part of his job description. Russ Potts filled (or almost) the Cotton Bowl long before Ron Myer was able to start recruiting and winning. I agree we have to have a winning product and that is the coaches responsibility, but promoting the games, and filling the stadium that is the AD's.

Go ahead and blame the HC for everything, part of the unrealistic expectations SMU is so infamous for. We play in a lousy conference that no one cares about--it is the AD's job to change it. We have an almost impossible pre-conference schedule, it is the AD's job to fix it. No Big 12 team would play that schedule. Many of us noticed that when we played Rutgers this year, had SMU had the same pre-season schedule, both team could have been undefeated at game day.

By the way, June has had a few very good wins, but the fans still didn't come support the team the following weekend.

From ticket promotion, to ticket sales, to game day presentation, that is the job of the AD. Orsini never denied it that it was his responsibility. He just blamed it on the lack of money that prevented him from putting together a first class marketing program for football. It was always, "budget limitations".

[Mexmustang]

Nobody expects to get where basketball is in football in 2 years. Of course it is a whole different world. But there is no reason we can't do what TCU did or others almost did. We are not performing near where we could.

That is what I am trying to say. We need to build not only the financial investment, but the commitment from top to bottom as well. Football is a different animal and we play it in a second rate football conference at a school that hasn't demonstrated a commitment to it for almost three decades.

We need to start now! And before we go out and start an embarrassingly long coaching search.

[Stallion]

Fire his [deleted] ASAP.
Get some one who realizes he's not picking 28th in the NFL Draft and actually has to convince quality recruits to play at SMU rather than draft players who required to play at SMU
The structural changes have been made to make success possible in SMU Football just as it has made success possible in SMU Basketball
Its now a matter of Head Coach, Staff and Recruits
SMU got it right with Larry Brown and staff from Day1
SMU got it wrong with June Jones and staff from Day 1
A Boycott is ridiculous at this point for a simple coaching change
Many have lost track of just how far this program has structurally changed
Mexmustang the hopeless June Jones homer doesn't know know crap
Purge June and his lazy [deleted] and replace with a Coach and Staff that will work the recruiting trail like Larry Brown

[mrydel]

From ticket promotion, to ticket sales, to game day presentation, that is the job of the AD. Orsini never denied it that it was his responsibility. He just blamed it on the lack of money that prevented him from putting together a first class marketing program for football. It was always, "budget limitations".

Well then I will let Hart blame it on a poor product.

[PoconoPony]

Never is a long time.

What if the football team beat a # 17 Baylor, #23 TCU and a #7 Texas A&M.....

And had the top ranked QB coming in the next year with a good shot at all the top talent in the Dallas area.

Yeah, I bet SMU football would be on fire and a tough ticket!

People come to see you win.

What coaching staff is going to make this happen?? Not the current staff.

[SMUer]

Only one big win over a team the Metroplex has even heard about...plus getting demolished on the regular against old-SWC rivals is the real story.

[Rebel10]

Football has had 6 years. 3 times as long as hoops. June only hires his buddies anyway so it would not make a difference if you raised salaries. It would only mean that the people he would hire anyway would just get more money. If the team wins it them promotes itself. Marketing has very little to do with the team winning against 3 top 25 opponents (with football has not done). LB is also more visible on campus and in the community imo. That is what is causing the interest in SMU hoops. As LB has said that if we just had a nice building and team that was not good it would still be low attendance. Speaking of recruting, June hasn't even gone to Cedar Hill which you don;t even need a private jet to go to.

Hey Mexmustang,

How did USF get 25 rectuits with BCS offers while having a worse year than SMU and in the same conference?

[Mustangsabu]

Football has had 6 years. 3 times as long as hoops. June only hires his buddies anyway so it would not make a difference if you raised salaries. It would only mean that the people he would hire anyway would just get more money. If the team wins it them promotes itself. Marketing has very little to do with the team winning against 3 top 25 opponents (with football has not done). LB is also more visible on campus and in the community imo. That is what is causing the interest in SMU hoops. As LB has said that if we just had a nice building and team that was not good it would still be low attendance.

Oh how quickly you forget. June was very visible when he got here, making appearances all over the place.

Winning is what fixes things. And it's the only thing that will help.

[Rebel10]

Football has had 6 years. 3 times as long as hoops. June only hires his buddies anyway so it would not make a difference if you raised salaries. It would only mean that the people he would hire anyway would just get more money. If the team wins it them promotes itself. Marketing has very little to do with the team winning against 3 top 25 opponents (with football has not done). LB is also more visible on campus and in the community imo. That is what is causing the interest in SMU hoops. As LB has said that if we just had a nice building and team that was not good it would still be low attendance.

Oh how quickly you forget. June was very visible when he got here, making appearances all over the place.

Winning is what fixes things. And it's the only thing that will help.

Has June ever go visit the frats like LB. Students are even tweeting about how much LB is seen on campus.