SMU QBs Now Hitting on 45.2% of Passes in Short Passing Game

[Stallion]

Romo 49.5%
Eckert 35.7%
Team 45.2%


This is a short passing offense-not the Oakland Raiders long ball offense-an acceptable completion rate in this offense is no less than about 56%-58%. Texas Tech's QBs routinely hit on 65%-70%. UABs QB is hitting 69%. This should not be that difficult to simply complete passes. These guys make me yearn for the return of the great Mike Romo. Something like 116 of the QBs who have played 75% of the games for a team this year have percentages higher than 50%. Only 2 QBs in the ENTIRE COUNTRY on that list have percentages worse than Jared Romo. SMU is ranked 2nd to DEAD LAST or 115th in the country as a team ahead of RICE - a damn wishbone team and Temple. Smu can't pass at a higher percentage than a damn wishbone team in a short passing offense. Thank God we did so well on that 7 on 7 Tournament.

[WorldStang]

^ Someone should delete this post. WHO CARES! These stats are so meaningless.. and teams have won with worse completion rates if they can run the ball. We can't do either.. so what does it matter!

And of course we do well in a 7 - 7 Tourney.. there's no O-Line involved, Coach Bennett and Rusty Burns are probably on vacation rubbing down Copeland with sunscreen and our players are used to the "no one in the stands" factor which bewilders the "Big Name Schools" other teams playing.

[Stallion]

hey Jackass-you are the one encouraging everyone to boycott SMU football.

[PK]

One other minor detail...a pass completion involves TWO people...the passer and the receiver. To the best of my recollection, Romo has generally been on target...his receivers have for the most part been sent out without arms or hands, which would account for all the dropped balls.

[jtstang]

hey [deleted]-you are the one encouraging everyone to boycott SMU football.

Surely you don't fault him for that. I'm pretty fed up with it too. I'd declare my intent not to attend any more games this year were it not for hot chicks on the Boulevard, and have no qualms about it whatsoever.

[WorldStang]

hey [deleted]-you are the one encouraging everyone to boycott SMU football.

you're right.. the rest of the city's already doing it for apathetic reasons. I'm doing it b/c this [deleted] has to stop somewhere. I paid for my 4 season tickets, Mustang Club dues.. and we're told that we have a good team with a little talent. What we're seeing doesn't resemble that at all. TCU was a fluke.. and we capitalize on it with DVD's, pats on the back and warm fuzzy's.. only to wake up down in College Station to the tune of 60 points. Then we let Tulane come and rattle our cage, laugh in our face and walk all over our Defense. Then last week.. Marshall scares us to the point of raising a white flag in the 4th quarter and giving up in the end.

I'm tired of the experiement.. that's all Copeland has done here.. experiement. He sure as he!! has no idea who he's hiring.. and they in turn have no idea what they're doing. We cannot hire coaches, recruit decent prospects or even find a way to coach kids that want to win.

You're right.. I'm done with SMU football.. and my tickets are on President Turners Desk since last week, along with my 2-page letter explaining the embarrassment SMU has become in football.. and that no other D-1 program with our history would EVER allow this to happen.

[KnuckleStang]

Stal, I can't believe you would stoop so low as to GRATUITOUSLY run down our QB's for their completion percentage, when roughly 25% of their passes are right on the money and DROPPED. If you factor in all the pathetic DROPS, Romo's % should be somewhere around 55. Seriously, if you're going to complain, complain about Columbus "Brick Hands" Givens, or one of the many other WRs who have dropped more passes than him. You know better than that.

[jtstang]

One other minor detail...a pass completion involves TWO people...the passer and the receiver. To the best of my recollection, Romo has generally been on target...his receivers have for the most part been sent out without arms or hands, which would account for all the dropped balls.

I don't think Stallion intended to imply that our recievers don't suck also. Clearly they lack talent too.

[Stallion]

I can't believe you would encourage every one to boycott SMU Football -a truly stupid idea. Who said I was running down only the QBs. I have been just as critical of the WRs and have always claimed it was a major weakness even when the Cheerleaders thought our WRs were Jim Dandy. In fact, during last year's recruiting season I even went so far as to say that one of SMU's biggest recruiting priorities might be long ball threats at WR. I'm perfectly aware our WRs suck and have stated so over and over-are you?

[KnuckleStang]

Who said I was running down only the QBs.

You did. Look, I'm not a cheerleader. I think we suck balls, and based on what we've done, we deserve to suck balls. But don't blame our freaking QB's because your butt boy Columbus can't catch.

[Stallion]

OK that's 2 drops-that should get the team percentage up to 45.225%

[jtstang]

OK that's 2 drops-that should get the team percentage up to 45.225%

It's not just Givens--you went to AggieLand. Tell me your assessment of our recievers as a group in that first half, where we were allegedly "hanging with them..." But Givens certainly has shown how well he can handle the pressure of being behind the defense.

[Stallion]

hey I didn't recruit these guys-don't think several who have started are even Division 1A prospects. But it is relevant to a consideration of coaching and the passing game to Note that SMU is in ther lower 98% of all teams in the country on pass completions and what is worse is that SMU plays a short passing offense which artificially pads that statistic.

[jtstang]

Hey, SMU is horrendous in every aspect of the game, players, coaches, trainers, equipment managers and fans included. That our passing game stinks is not news.

[JasonB]

One other minor detail...a pass completion involves TWO people...the passer and the receiver. To the best of my recollection, Romo has generally been on target...his receivers have for the most part been sent out without arms or hands, which would account for all the dropped balls.

- Actually, I would argue that a pass completion involves 7 people. The QB, the receiver, and the 5 fat guys in front of him.

- Yes, our pass completion percentage should have been higher in the A&M game, but it wasn't really all that bad in that game if you look back at the stats. The freak catches we made at the end made up for the drops at the start, statistically.

- You can't blame the Marshall or Tulane game on drops.

- In a short passing game/West coast offense, you actually need a completion percentage above 60% to succeed. 55-58% doesn't even cut it, which is why such systems rarely work that well in college programs. Even in the Romo WR days, we would move down the field, then someone screws up one play and you are done. Hard to do with college kids.

- Our struggles with the passing game have everything to do with what is going on up front. It is impossible to evaluate Romo, Eckert, Phillips, McCown, Snacks, Bartel, Wallis, or anyone who has to play behind that stuff. Okay, Wallis had a weak arm and was awful, but the others... it is a waste of time to argue about who should start at RB or QB when you can't do anything on the offensive line. All you are is lining up someone new to be a sacrificial lamb. At least if we were playing some max protect schemes, we could look at them and say, "Okay, none of the two receivers got seperation", or "QB held the ball too long" or "QB made a bad throw", and we could evaluate. Right now, we are just saying, "Well, on one play, Romo somehow managed to get a pass off and overthrew Pellerin by a yard, after he had been hit 23 times on the day".