Harsh Reality

[Insane_Pony_Posse]

He is on the sideline now helping with the QBs.

I've noticed that. Glad to see that. I always thought he was a great kid.

[EconPony'10]

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.

I unfortunate agree with you. What is worse? Playing dirty and winning a lot of football games/filling the stadium with the possibility of getting caught or being the absolute worst football team in the country by a land slide where it is painful and not fun to even attend the games?

I would think that what the NCAA did to us the first time, even if we got in big trouble they would take it easy on us right?

[mrydel]

Only trouble is the NCAA did it to us about 10 times before ending with the death penalty. So would it be that they would pity us for the past punishment or just say here we go again?

[gostangs]

i think a certain amount of soft cheating is present in any winning program at either revenue sport in any conference - no exceptions. By soft - I mean grades are squishy, practice times are stretched, lots of things both on and off field are over looked etc. Anyone who thinks otherwise is naïve in my view. And I would include our own basketball program in that pile.

All you need is viable deniability at the top. Where you don't have that - you will be forced to sit down some players, and SMU is in no way alone in that - it happens all the time in all sorts of top drawer programs.

Our football is unsuccessful because we don't recruit the way everyone else who is successful does it. It will change when we change to make it like everyone else. If we don't want to do that then we are stealing from our fans and our sponsors.

It is not that hard to do it (mostly, sorta) right and win in the AAC - we are the easiest turn around candidate in the country.

[Insane_Pony_Posse]

Our football is unsuccessful because we don't recruit the way everyone else who is successful does it. It will change when we change to make it like everyone else. we are the easiest turn around candidate in the country.

Hopefully the new coach will privately demand some of these
kind of changes be made before he signs the dotted line?

[EconPony'10]

Our football is unsuccessful because we don't recruit the way everyone else who is successful does it. It will change when we change to make it like everyone else. we are the easiest turn around candidate in the country.

Hopefully the new coach will privately demand some of these
kind of changes be made before he signs the dotted line?

I hope so too. Small improvements like having an army of great looking girls showing the recruits a good time in Dallas would help as well. I know a lot of schools have a group of girls that solely just hang around the athletes and keep them (cough cough) happy. Have recruits stay at the Ritz instead of the Radisson. There is so much Dallas has to offer to sway a 17-18 year old kid.

The new guy has to be creative as we have not been in the past at all. Recruiting trips are pretty boring to SMU as of now. If you take a 17 year old to a night club in Dallas with a bunch of pretty girls, it will go a very long way. Rent a suite at the W for players to take recruits to and let them have a party there. Pay off the hotel so nobody bothers them. Just spitting out random ideas here.

[Stallion]

The only thing right now keeping SMU from being able to compete for AAC Championships and the G5 bid is a good Coach, 9 young aggressive assistants and a fanbase. June Jones drove the program into the ground-period. Get over this looking for demons behind every door. We were right there even in football with the right coaching staff that knew how to recruit Texas. Look what Klemm did in California 2,000 miles away-go get about 4-5 Klemms to recruit Texas which should have been done 25 years ago. We are right there in basketball. Look at the assistants Larry Brown has hired. Copy that blue print in Football. Pay attention to those who say that TCU and Baylor were committed but SMU isn't-not one of them can intelligently articulate what they are talking about. Art Briles and or Gary Patterson(Franchione) is the missing ingredient

[smusportspage]

Thank you Stallion!

[SoCal_Pony]

Only trouble is the NCAA did it to us about 10 times before ending with the death penalty. So would it be that they would pity us for the past punishment or just say here we go again?

I remember at one point during our SWC days it went something like this:

Of the 15 most recent NCAA infractions by SWC schools, 12 where by either SMU or TCU.

I agree with the OP that the DP legacy prevents us from full-scale cheating in FB. BB is now a different animal as witnessed by us landing 2 McD's AAs.

I also believe there is no reason we can't be a top 5 G5 FB program, actually a Top 3.

If we ever got admitted into a P5 conference, then we could debate the merits of 'competing at the highest levels'

[West Coast Johnny]

"We can't compete because we are too honest and everyone else is cheating!" This is a tried and true losers' lament.

K-State's Bill Snyder's teams are half walk-on and half juco transfers and they have no problem competing. With a little effort, SMU could use the same strategy to get the same level and even better athletes. Rice doesn't compete at the highest level but they've won 6 games this year.

[SoCal_Pony]

"We can't compete because we are too honest and everyone else is cheating!" This is a tried and true losers' lament.

K-State's Bill Snyder's teams are half walk-on and half juco transfers and they have no problem competing. With a little effort, SMU could use the same strategy to get the same level and even better athletes. Rice doesn't compete at the highest level but they've won 6 games this year.

Interesting that you mention K-St. When PB left there to join SMU, I posted that some 56 players on their roster arrived at K-St the untraditional route; JC, Community College, transfers, etc.

When PB arrived the cupboard was truly empty, yet PB did not go the Synder proven way to success, he even said he was not going to rely much on JC's to turn us around.

In his words, he was going to do it 'the Right Way'. I knew then we were scr*wed.

I hope our new hire understands he doesn't have 3 or 4 years necessary to turn this around.

[EconPony'10]

The only thing right now keeping SMU from being able to compete for AAC Championships and the G5 bid is a good Coach, 9 young aggressive assistants and a fanbase. June Jones drove the program into the ground-period. Get over this looking for demons behind every door. We were right there even in football with the right coaching staff that knew how to recruit Texas. Look what Klemm did in California 2,000 miles away-go get about 4-5 Klemms to recruit Texas which should have been done 25 years ago. We are right there in basketball. Look at the assistants Larry Brown has hired. Copy that blue print in Football. Pay attention to those who say that TCU and Baylor were committed but SMU isn't-not one of them can intelligently articulate what they are talking about. Art Briles and or Gary Patterson(Franchione) is the missing ingredient

Klemm is an anomaly. He has 3 Super Bowl rings and played/is friends with Tom Brady. Also he is an extremely intelligent person. Adrian Klemm is not someone you can fairly compare anyone else to in college football. It was pretty easy going into a kids home wearing 3 HUGE SUPER BOWL RINGS and talking about the Patriots and convince him to come play for you. Basketball is a completely different animal than football and nothing is the same. You can't compare what Larry Brown is doing to any coach that is going to come here next because they aren't going to be an NFL Hall of Fame coach.

Nobody is saying we can't do it and I'm not saying we can't find another Klemm, but there is a lot more to it then just hiring a fiery, motivated coach with great assistants.

[Insane_Pony_Posse]

Klemm is an anomaly.

I don't disagree with either of you,
but many successful coaches are an "anomaly".
They have some peculiar ingredients that sets them apart.

[EconPony'10]

Klemm is an anomaly.

I don't disagree with either of you,
but many successful coaches are an "anomaly".
They have some peculiar ingredients that sets them apart.

Very true, we just have to go out and find 10 Klemms!!

[Stallion]

Todd Graham beat that finding about 5 young assistants who are or will be Head Coaches most of who lead the nation in offensive production. Most of them had little coaching experience either. Ron Meyer did the same thing finding about 5-6 unknown coaches who coached in the NFL or Coordinators at major schools

Graham's Plan:
Todd Graham had a plan. He'd go to a coaching clinic, give his spiel and shake a few hands. Afterwards the recruiting would start. Afterwards he'd extend an invitation. Anyone who wants to go get a beer and talk football, follow me.

"That's when you'd find out who is passionate," said Graham, now in his second season as ASU's head coach. "If you want to have a beer, I'll have a beer with you. But be ready to talk some football. The guys that came out afterwards and wanted to learn and wanted to talk, those are the guys I that I knew had a passion for this game. Those are the guys I kept my eyes on."

I bet Chad Morris-who was former Head of THSCA might be able to find some more of his own
http://espn.go.com/blog/pac12/post/_/id ... ching-tree