Looking forward to conference play - PUMPED ABOUT TULANE

by **Hoofbeat83** » Mon Sep 19, 2005 12:18 pm

agree with you JB on just about all that you said except "baylor at least played a good game against us". from where i sat, baylor played a really, really bad game and we played even worse (in that game) by letting them win.

i think most of us agree with you and understand the distinction between "winnable" and "ez win". there is no such thing as an ez win for smu. period.

and yes, tulane is THE most important game of the season right now. it will clear up the mystery of whether we are indeed improved enough to compete for wins or we just played above our heads against tcu. signs of improvement in the baylor and aTm games, true, but every road side has a "sign" along with road kill and signs are all we've had to hang hope on for the last 15 years. we want wins.

by **Hoofbeat83** » Mon Sep 19, 2005 12:24 pm

sorry for repeat

by **Hoofbeat83** » Mon Sep 19, 2005 12:25 pm

sorry for repeat.

by **Hoofbeat83** » Mon Sep 19, 2005 12:25 pm

and again...

by **Hoofbeat83** » Mon Sep 19, 2005 12:31 pm

and again...

by **Hoofbeat83** » Mon Sep 19, 2005 12:40 pm

and again...

by **Hoofbeat83** » Mon Sep 19, 2005 12:43 pm

and again...

by **Hoofbeat83** » Mon Sep 19, 2005 12:52 pm

and again.

by **SWC2010** » Mon Sep 19, 2005 1:19 pm

Charleston Pony wrote:Unless CUSA has bowl slots to fill, don't expect an invite for a 6-5 or even a 7-4 SMU team. Maybe we would bring 1,000 or so to the Ft Worth Bowl, but I don't see SMU selling many tickets for a trip to Hawaii or Mobile and I wonder what they will do with the New Orleans game this year???

---
You're a little spoiled with the weather in Charleston.

I'd bowl in Honolulu to escape a few frigid Holidays in TX!!!

by **Stallion** » Mon Sep 19, 2005 1:25 pm

only at SMU would some of you predict 6-2 and a bowl game AFTER a 66-8 Shellacking and even though we've had 1 winning season in 15 years. Marshall has probably one of the Top 10 best home record in NCAA Football over the last 10 years. Houston's offense consistently puts up points on the board-SMU doesn't. Neither game is a tossup on the Road. PERIOD.

by **JasonB** » Mon Sep 19, 2005 2:02 pm

Stallion wrote:only at SMU would some of you predict 6-2 and a bowl game AFTER a 66-8 Shellacking and even though we've had 1 winning season in 15 years. Marshall has probably one of the Top 10 best home record in NCAA Football over the last 10 years. Houston's offense consistently puts up points on the board-SMU doesn't. Neither game is a tossup on the Road. PERIOD.

Who said anything about predicting 6-2 and a bowl game? I was just laying down what we have to do in order to get to one. Marshall is not the same team it was before and is beatable this particular year. Houston was explosive on offense two years ago with a horrible defense. Last year, they were just horrible. This year it looks like they are back to scoring a lot and giving up a lot of points. They threw 5 picks last game, and our defense thus far has done a good job creating turnovers against two QBs who in the past haven't made a lot of them. SMU hasn't put a ton of points on the board, but we also haven't played a bad defensive team yet. I would venture to say that SMU was able to run the ball against a TCU D that isn't that bad, and we threw the ball well (could have been better without drops) against a bad Aggie secondary, but that secondary is better than Houston's. We showed last year at the end of the season that we can put points on the board against bad defenses, and we lost nobody from the offense. IF we are going to get to a bowl game, we need to be able to compete in those games. And with Marshall on the downturn and Houston having no defense, we SHOULD be able to. Whether it happens or not is yet to be seen, because who knows if we go out and turn the ball over, or play passive, or whatever.

Stallion, both of us mentioned last week that if A&M came out with a power game that we would be in trouble. And low and behold, that is what happened. They worked on the power game all week, worked on the option. Once they established the running game, then they were able to beat us with the pass. And mostly we beat ourselves in the passing game by not tackling on short receptions. But playing an offense that passes first and relies on the pass is going to play into our hands, because we can defend in the secondary and we can get a pass rush. And we aren't going to play against the same level of atheletes we faced this past weekend.

The sky isn't falling here. We played the team that will finish second in the big 12 south this year, who had two weeks to prepare, who took us seriously and schemed against us. And we played them tight for the first half and quit after the INT. Fine. Game over. But the season isn't over, and we don't suck. As long as we come out on Saturday and play aggressive, I like our chances. Tulane is a team that is better than both Houston and Marshall. If we can come out and beat them on Saturday, then I would say we definately have a shot at those two games.

by **Charleston Pony** » Mon Sep 19, 2005 5:57 pm

all I know is that we open play in CUSA Saturday and that's a good thing. SMU is 1-1 at Ford this year and if this team can find a way to go 4-2 at Ford, that would be a significant improvement over the past several years. Coorect me if I'm wrong, but I don't think we've ever had a winning season at Ford. Our overall record at our new home is less than .500 That needs to change!

by **abezontar** » Mon Sep 19, 2005 7:56 pm

I think we were 3-2 at home last year although I can't seem to find last years schedule on our new fangled site

Looking forward to conference play - PUMPED ABOUT TULANE

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