What were YOUR expectations?

[Charleston Pony]

Obviously there's a lot of doom and gloom on the board these days and it seems a lot of folks had much higher expectations for this team than what it has delivered.

Granted, the way we've lost the games we have has been tough...but any tougher than anyone really expected?

I will admit I actually feared another 0-fer in 2005. I expected this team to be improved over last year (and I still thnk this team IS an iprovement), but feared if we didn't beat Baylor, we'd have no chance against TCU, A$M or against Marshall on the road. I had hoped we might sneak up on Tulane at home.

I had no expectation that SMU would be any better than 1-4 at this point in the season. I will admit I had hoped we could find a way to win 2 of these 1st 5 games, but certainly didn't expect it.

Therefore, my sunshine post of the day is that I still think this group has a chance to equal or better last year's 3 wins. I certainly expect to lose by a wide margin this week at UAB. I will check back after the ECU game. It has become a must win for this team...along with the Rice game. Isn't it about tme we at least start expecting to beat Rice?

[abezontar]

I think most people would have agreed with you that we didn't expect to win more than 3-4 games this year (if that). I think we all got what we expected at the Baylor loss, but then we had the fluke against TCU, and suddenly everybody suddenly hoped that we had somehow fixed our problems and the team we saw that night was going to be the team that we saw from then on. Obviously that hasn't happened. It is the tragic physcological high followed by a catastrophic physcological fall because we all had our hopes up too high.

[SoCal_Pony]

CP,

I could tolerate another 3-8 season if PB was doing the job recruiting-wise while holding on to our most heralded recruits…he isn’t….not even close…he is floundering.

Look at Nacho’s posts today position by position…we are perpetually young, top-loaded with freshmen most schools had little interest in. For the first time in years, we will actually see a decline in our defense due to graduations. Can you imagine??? In PB’s 5th season, we will most likely have a decline in a defense that is currently allowing 30 points and 430 yards per game.

I do not believe in PB’s 4 years here he has ever had an offense or defense ever ranked in the top 90. I don’t know how anyone can realistically say PB has done a decent job here. We are now headed to UAB were PB is 1-19 on the road, his only victory being against a 2-10 UTEP team.

I want Copeland and PB both gone….Copeland first.

[ALEX LIFESON]

I am surprised we returned almost the whole offense, including backups, and we are worse.

[H-E-B Mustang]

I go to every home game and pull for the Ponies as a loyal alum. I haven't quantified my expectations with a certain number of wins this year. But, I expect to see overall improvement. And I always hope to see an honest effort exhibited by the team, whether they win or lose. I saw a real spark of desire by the team in the TCU game. That spark disappeared against Tulane, for whatever reason. Were they playing not to lose? Perhaps they regained that spark with a good, but losing, effort against Marshall. I'll be in the stands for the ECU game.

[Hoop Fan]

had we pulled out the Marshall game, things would feel a whole lot different right now. 2-3 would have been pretty good. The way Tulane whipped us was discouraging though. That shouldnt happen and should never happen like that at home.

[PlanoStang]

How many of you chicken Little's were pre-season predicting wins over
Marshall on the road, and a tough at least last year Tulane team? At
least we were 10 points up on Marshall in the 4th, and they had to resort
to some home cookin, and a worn out SMU defense to win.

Burns needs to put in some I, and power I plays to punch it in inside the
10 yard line, make that yard on 3rd & 1, and have another basic huddling
offense to switch to when the no-huddle spread just ain't workin, and
you need to kill time off of the clock to win. Forrest Gregg with Tom
Rossley as OC did with their run n shoot.

[abezontar]

what's with the cut n' paste?

[Hoss]

I am surprised we returned almost the whole offense, including backups, and we are worse.

We're not worse. We're not where the fans want us to be offensively -- look at those tiny yarage numbers -- but at this time last year, weren't we averaging about a touchdown per game? We're better. Like you, I wish the improvement was faster coming, though.

[jtstang]

I had no expectations. I'm therefore not supposed to be disappointed by the losses, and yet I am. And there are many more to come.

[abezontar]

while we may be improving, we have no recruits coming in that will be able to move that little improvement along, in other words.....this year may be it for the atheletes we currently have, and it isn't pretty.

[Stallion]

I expect the Starting QB to average better than 35%, I expect the QB to average 58% not 49% in a damn short passing game, I expect the WRs to catch the ball and make big plays, I expect SMU to get more than 127 yards Total Offense and then 190 the next week, I expect more than 7 First Downs per game, I expect more than 6 plays over 10 yards every game, I expect more than 3 offensive TDs in 14 quarters, I expect our RBs to average 4.0 yards per game, I expect that the OLM won't give up 9 sacks and 17 Tackles for Loss in a Game. I expect that an SMU secondary not give up 35 points snd 228 yards in 5 passing TDs alone in 9 minutes of play, I expect not to have kicks blocked in 5 straight games, I expect in the 4th year of a head coach that we should be able to compete with every ream on our schedule except perhaps Texas A&M. I expect that in the Head Coaches 4th year that he begin to reap the benefits of building for the future-If he had. Those of you that are happy with these results-EXPECT to LOSE. People are pissed because the Wheels appear to be Falling off week after week.

[originaloverthehilltop1]

what's all this business about running the i formation? it takes powerful offensive linemen and at least one superior back dotting the eye to run that offense. the things that keep us from rollling up the yardage in the spread will also keep us from running the "i" successfully.

more importantly, one does not change the offensive scheme in the middle of the season.

even more importantly, we aren't going to do it.

[ALEX LIFESON]

I am right there with ya Stallion! You hit the nail right on the head! By the way....... our OL couldn't block the sun off the ground

[SMU Football Blog]

Stallion, you are forgetting we expected this team to play hard. Especially after a blowout loss at A&M. Instead, what we got was a pathetic performance.

Oh, and we expected our team to remember how to tackle.