Bennett vs. Fran

[DallasDiehard]

Last week, in the waning seconds of the Iron Skillet game, Bennett called the "take a knee" play with an 11-point lead over our biggest rival, a team that had knocked us around pretty good in recent years. The game was won, and there was no need for pouring it on, even for revenge. He also opened his doors to the Tulane team, offering the Green Wave use of our facilities and even copies of the recruiting files, which in many coaches' offices are guarded like Fort Knox.

Fran, on the other hand, had McNeal and McGee throwing the ball downfield with a 40-plus-point lead. Who does he think he is, The Leach?

[mrydel]

I do not like Fran, but there is a big difference between what he did and what Leech did. Fran DID take a knee on the last play. They could have scored again had they wanted. When the first team is in you play full speed and it is hard to pull the first team until the 4th quarter of any game. He did pull them in the 4th. It was not Frans fault that our players could position themselves properly and then fall off of every tackle they tried. Some of that is great athletes but mostly just poor technique. Lets face it, our guys did not execute well. Dropped passes, missed tackles, POOR SPECIAL TEAMS PLAY (again), and penalties. We will not beat anyone doing that, especially a talent laden team like AM. We made plenty of mistakes in the TCU game and were able to overcome them. We could not this week. We need more experience, depth, confidence, ability, luck, and mistake free play. Other than that we are fine. I still say I feel we can match up well with our conference opponents, but we need to strive to some day dominate our conference opponents.

[PonyTales]

I sort of agree with both of you. Fran's not as bad as Leach, but then, that's damning with faint praise. If Fran had given the ball to that big kid (Lane?) and he pounded away for another 100 yards and 2 touchdowns, well, that's football. No way he should have taken a knee except on the last drive. There was no reason to be calling 30-yard post patterns, either. But no, he's nowhere near Leach.

[Dement-ed]

I wasn't surprised. Fran has a history of running up the score whenever he gets a chance.

[Treadway21]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the last play was a running play, not a kneel down. We stopped it on the 1, but it could have easily been a TD. We got the snot knocked out of us the third quarter, but having your starter throwing the long ball with a 30 point lead is kind of classless. I wish I wasn't complaining about it though.

[PK]

Even Texas' Mack Brown showed more class against Rice...Texas started putting in their second string and scrubs with five minutes left in the 3rd quarter.

[Mustangs35SMU]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the last play was a running play, not a kneel down. We stopped it on the 1, but it could have easily been a TD. We got the snot knocked out of us the third quarter, but having your starter throwing the long ball with a 30 point lead is kind of classless. I wish I wasn't complaining about it though.

This is correct. He did that big pass play with like 40 something seconds left then they did a QB sneak as that was the last play. No kneel downs at all.

[Shiner]

Even Texas' Mack Brown showed more class against Rice...Texas started putting in their second string and scrubs with five minutes left in the 3rd quarter.

Reggie McNeal was pulled with just under 3minutes to go in the 3rd quarter. Most of the offensive starters were pulled with him. Feel free to check the stat page.

http://sports.tamu.edu/sports/games/box ... 78_smu.htm

[mrydel]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the last play was a running play, not a kneel down. We stopped it on the 1, but it could have easily been a TD. We got the snot knocked out of us the third quarter, but having your starter throwing the long ball with a 30 point lead is kind of classless. I wish I wasn't complaining about it though.

Yes it was a QB sneak. It was not designed to score. I think the QB just did not want negative yardage. He did not make any 2nd effort to score. Had he made it into the endzone it would have been our fault for giving up. Do not try to make this into a run up the score vengence. Had we tackled when we should have the score would have been much more respectable. Believe it or not sometimes we play a superior team that beats our rears. That happened yesterday. Hopefully we will contiinue to work on closing the gap.

[Stallion]

Let's not play the run it up game. SMU was somewhat competitive in the first half and should have made it a close ballgame before half. But A&M scored about 5 TDs in the next 8 minutes of play. That's not running it up-that's just playing hard against a team which had its biggest victory in 20 years the week before. Then A&M puts in some young kids who were very highly recruited and get their first game action of the year. There are 60 minutes to every game and those backups deserve a chance. I have very little doubt A&M could have made it 73 if they had wanted to.

[Bocephus]

We were playing second and 3rd teamers in the 1st quarter. By the 4th quarter was ending we had nothing but walkons in.

[Neomoon]

As an Aggie I would like to say that I hope you guys don't think that Fran was out to get you guys as far as running up the score. Here's my 2 cents about why.

As a student I forked over big $$ to take a 16hr road trip to Clemson S.C. (with a gas shortage mind you) to see your team play their home opener. Well needless to say you guys know how that turned out. After having seen our team play sluggish with missed tackles and dropped passes I will have to admit that I was EXPECTING coach Fran to make a statement to me and to others about his ability to lead our team to the next level.

Having said this we Ags know far too harshly how it feels to be on the receiving end of such lob-sided victories (see OU 03, Tenn 05). So I also feel your pain when it comes to see your team playing far short of what you know they are capable of playing.

Furthermore having a top 10 recruiting class this past year I along with much of the Ags were extremely anxious to see where the future of our team was headed (seeing this is our QB's last year). Having McGee (QB-Fr-RS), Lane (RB-Fr-HS), Marrow (WR Fr-HS), and Bennett (TE Fr-HS) just to name a couple, was extremely pleasing to see as a fan to know that your school is looking good towards the future. Hopefully this will shed some light on the results of Sat and I wish you guys the best of luck during conf play.

Seeing as your coach is a former Ag, and the tremendous hurdles your program has had to overcome, I'm sure you all are headed in the right direction.

BTHO Tulane

[EastStang]

Throughout the 4th quarter they just ran the ball. That big dude, #11 just rolled over us. You can't tell the kid not to play hard. We just were too small, slow or tired to do anything about it.

I do think there ought to be an NCAA rule about sideline equipment in these BCS/Non-BCS games, the Aggies had these delux air conditioned shoulder pads to keep them cool. We had a fan. I think that's where the BCS $$$ really help these schools. Our guys were hot and tired and theirs were less hot and tired which creates a competitive imbalance. For BCS games, you can use whatever you bring, but when you play a non-BCS school you either have to provide similar working equipment to them, or not use it yourselves. Clearly, their players were more talented than ours, but weariness might have been more even. When they come to SMU we ought to give them 1 double 110 volt electrical outlet to use for whatever they want to use. Let em bake.

[MustangStealth]

To be honest most of the long pass plays by their 2nd team were more medium pass - long run - no tackling plays. That's our fault.