Harsh Reality

[EconPony'10]

I spent a lot of time thinking about SMU's unique situation and how it will seriously hamper the ability to be a powerhouse in football again.

The fact that we HAVE TO RUN A SQUEAKY CLEAN program will make it extremely difficult (not impossible) to be a top 10 team. In order to have a top ten team you have to have a bunch of play makers. In order to attract a bunch of play makers you have to be able to cater to athletes and keep them eligible, out of trouble and help them financially. As far as SMU goes, I do not see the administration doing whatever it takes to make that happen. If a player is failing, most other schools will switch a grade here or pay off a teacher etc. to keep the player. SMU will not give any athletes freebies as other schools will and they will fail them.

Let's face it, every school that is very competitive year in and year out in football is cheating and doing very shady things. We could have the best facilities and the best coaching staff but in order to compete with the best you have to play like the rest. We can even have the best academic support staff in the country but at the end of the day, we are not on a level playing field. When Jameis Winston was not playing a couple of weeks ago he was wearing a very large gold chain (If it was real it would be thousands of dollars) and there is no way he paid for that himself. With all the drug busts and weird crap happening at TCU you know they are doing whatever they can to keep their athletes out of trouble and probably covering up a lot more than what came out.

We don't have people paying players, we don't have players working 6 hours a week for large amounts of cash, we don't have teachers fixing grades etc.

You see it happening in basketball with Markus. If he was at Kentucky or Kansas there is no question that he would be playing whereas at SMU, he has to sit out because of grades.

We can do it, but we are always going to be fighting an uphill battle more so in football because of the amount of play makers needed to build a great team. I guess if Stanford can do it so can we?

[vielsiehorsepower]

econ, did you mention in another thread that you were a former June player?

Not trying to debunk your theory, my memory is just failing me atm.

[EconPony'10]

econ, did you mention in another thread that you were a former June player?

Not trying to debunk your theory, my memory is just failing me atm.

yeah I was. We were nowhere near a top ten team. Granted we were making good progress but nowhere close to a football powerhouse.

[Big12Mustang]

TCU is #6, Baylor is #10. Are you saying they are cheating?

[footballdad]

econ, did you mention in another thread that you were a former June player?

Not trying to debunk your theory, my memory is just failing me atm.

Haha, great catch vielsie. If you listen very closely you can hear the faint rumblings of the June Jones excuse machine in his remarks. Those darned SMU disadvantages that poor June was always trying to overcome.

Just kidding Econ, actually agree that they should figure out a way to get Markus on the court. Not necessarily cheating, but make up work, extra tutors, re-tests, whatever it takes.

[vielsiehorsepower]

econ, did you mention in another thread that you were a former June player?

Not trying to debunk your theory, my memory is just failing me atm.

Haha, great catch vielsie. If you listen very closely you can hear the faint rumblings of the June Jones excuse machine in his remarks. Those darned SMU disadvantages that poor June was always trying to overcome.

I actually agree with him in the sense of talking about much higher caliber programs. However, you DO NOT need to cheat to get bowl eligible in in a non P5 conference. A good scheme, S&C program, and recruits on par with the rest of the conference will take care of that. whether it was intentional sabotage or June's arrogrance that lead to the recruiting of a lot of these guys, this is the card that is dealt the next coach and if he's worth the paycheck he'll get then he will get A LOT more out of them than June ever would have.

[footballdad]

econ, did you mention in another thread that you were a former June player?

Not trying to debunk your theory, my memory is just failing me atm.

Haha, great catch vielsie. If you listen very closely you can hear the faint rumblings of the June Jones excuse machine in his remarks. Those darned SMU disadvantages that poor June was always trying to overcome.

I actually agree with him in the sense of talking about much higher caliber programs. However, you DO NOT need to cheat to get bowl eligible in in a non P5 conference. A good scheme, S&C program, and recruits on par with the rest of the conference will take care of that. whether it was intentional sabotage or June's arrogrance that lead to the recruiting of a lot of these guys, this is the card that is dealt the next coach and if he's worth the paycheck he'll get then he will get A LOT more out of them than June ever would have.

Just revised my post just before your response, see above

[NavyCrimson]

Econ' that's a very honest assessment & I can't help but agree with you. Very good post.

In the same light, I applaud SMU for not changing grades, et al. I also applaud SMU for providing all the tutors needed & if a player is expecting an easy way out, too bad.

[EconPony'10]

most likely. Same with USC (Reggie Bush), Auburn (Scam Newton), Florida (murderers row), Ped State, Ohio State (tattoo gate), OU (Rhett Bomar, AD) , I believe OSU was under fire too last year or this year. The list goes on and on and you only hear about it till one of them gets caught.

Point is, we run a very clean program and I'm proud of it. It's just gonna be hard to play with the big boys no matter what we do because we have to have such a straight laced program.

Hopefully somehow someway we figure it out sooner than later.

[vielsiehorsepower]

econ, did you mention in another thread that you were a former June player?

Not trying to debunk your theory, my memory is just failing me atm.

yeah I was. We were nowhere near a top ten team. Granted we were making good progress but nowhere close to a football powerhouse.

Man, I was convinced that there was a gradual uphill trend and SMU would become the next TCU or BSU within a few years...until the downhill spiral that began in 2011.

So as an inside man (and feel free to disregard these questions) are the general observations about Jones on PF true? Did Padron get in the dog house? He was my favorite recent SMU qb.

[EconPony'10]

I don't think he was ever in the dog house. Kyle is a great dude and I was gone after 2009 so I can't really say why June went with Mcdermott over Padron in 2011.

[EconPony'10]

econ, did you mention in another thread that you were a former June player?

Not trying to debunk your theory, my memory is just failing me atm.

Haha, great catch vielsie. If you listen very closely you can hear the faint rumblings of the June Jones excuse machine in his remarks. Those darned SMU disadvantages that poor June was always trying to overcome.

Just kidding Econ, actually agree that they should figure out a way to get Markus on the court. Not necessarily cheating, but make up work, extra tutors, re-tests, whatever it takes.

Haha trust me I love SMU way too much to be a disciple of a certain coach. I played for Bennett for two years too. Maybe these issues are what June was talking about with the administration and maybe they weren't.

[Big12Mustang]

I prefer we get our hands dirty even just a little bit if it means we win 10+ games a year, gets us in the Big 12/P5 and have 45,000 at every game. Everything has a cost, and I prefer that to what we have now.

[Insane_Pony_Posse]

are the general observations about Jones on PF true?
Did Padron get in the dog house? He was my favorite recent SMU qb.

Poor Kyle. He was a nice kid with some talent.
But from what I hear his Dad was about like Craig James and his kid.

[mrydel]

He is on the sideline now helping with the QBs.