Luncheon tomorrow 8/16

[Top Twenty]

Perfectly said.

[Mexmustang]

Well, Turner was just being Turner...the IPF seems further and further out, the overall number seems to include every athletic project for the past three years and the next five. Obviously, the donations are not coming in, as he mentioned that ground breaking on the IPF would occur once 80% of the funding is obtained. He gave no specific timeframe as to when that might occur or what percentage has been raised. Last fall, he said they would announce it once 80% of the money was raised, he obviously was forced to jump the gun because of all the Big 12 talk. This time, his budget is not only short of the Moody redo, the new tennis facility, but also the natatorium, which he peddled. Once again I suspect our administration was either caught flat footed or they really aren't interested in anything but mediocrity. He made no mention of conference realignment.

And then comes our Bobble Head AD. All he could talk about was the GPA of the athletes. It is inconceivable to me that any Big 12 AD, at the biggest alumni event of the year, could only offer up a summary of GPAs. Nothing about getting prepared for a second round of conference alignment, not even some non-specific allusion as to the university being prepared or getting ready.
Once again Ricky-Bob, you are being measured by the fans in terms of wins and losses and your ability to put SMU in play to jump to a P-5, not the number of your interviews in Florida or Missouri or taking credit for the GPA's levels of our athletes.

All in all this was as sad as our former Board Chair, Carl Sewell during the Bennett years, lecturing us us that we can't recruit football players under NCAA standards, because if they don't make SMU standards in terms of SAT scores, it will threaten the school's rankings. As we told him, if 20-22 student athletes can put at risk the SAT average of our entire annual freshman class, then we are either padding the numbers or he never took statistics!.

[mtrout]

Mex, stop punching us in the face with reality.

We just need to enjoy CM taking over the AAC. Hopefully when we start ripping of 9-10 win seasons he will start getting real support.

It also frustrates me to no end regarding ADs talk of sportsmanship awards and GPA. How's our director's cup standing?

[mrydel]

I for one want to know where we stand on GPA and APR since it has a direct affect on post season play in all areas regardless of record. Would you be happy if our BB team won 30 games and had to stay home or would you rather be an ostrich.

[Bergermeister]

Nice event today. Smaller than last year.

Actually, attendance was up 3 tables over last year. I was surprised.

[PerunasHoof]

Rick Hart also mentioned how successful our other sports programs are and how many went to the post-season. Forgot to mention that in your indictment. Our overall sports profile also matters in talks of realignment.

Turner can't force people to donate. That's on us as alumni.

[Pony ^]

sad we have to go practice at a high school today bc we don't have an IF

[Digetydog]

Rick Hart also mentioned how successful our other sports programs are and how many went to the post-season. Forgot to mention that in your indictment. Our overall sports profile also matters in talks of realignment.

Turner can't force people to donate. That's on us as alumni.

The idea that Turner/Hart can magically fix everything and get us into the B12 is simply false.

- Although he made some mistakes (hiring June Jones - failing to fire Jones - failing to build an IPF instead of the Tennis Taj Mahal) along the way and probably could have done "more," Turner had a number of opportunities to commit our athletic program into the Rice Zone.
- Hart inherited a big steaming pile of June Jones. Should he have fired him? Yes. Did he have the financial support from the big money donors to pay June Jones and a Chad Morris level replacement? Probably not. Although there have been a few hiccups from time to time, the level of professionalism in the Athletics Department has improved dramatically on his watch.
- I no longer have to worry that we will "show off" our new jerseys using the fat kid and Ichabod Crane as the models. Furthermore, I now know that we will hire a professional photographer to take PR shots instead of using a point/shoot camera with the White Balance set incorrectly.

Years ago, we had the opportunity to make a game changing decision that would have made us a serious candidate for the B12. If we had hired our "Patterson" instead of June Jones, everything would be different. It is as simple as that.

[mustangxc]

Hindsight is 20/20. Practically everyone was thrilled with the hire as June Jones was coming off an appearance in the Sugar Bowl. Additionally he turned it around quickly getting us to 4 straight bowl games and a couple of CUSA West division championships. To me, the big mistake was not firing him when the ASU thing got out. Other than that, I think everything else has been handled in a reasonable manner and no one could have predicted the atrocious level of recruiting when he was hired. Recruiting was not bad when we had our ace recruiters (both of them lol). We still don't know for sure if things will work out with Chad Morris, but things are pointing in the right direction.

[ponypatrick]

Hindsight is 20/20. Practically everyone was thrilled with the hire as June Jones was coming off an appearance in the Sugar Bowl. Additionally he turned it around quickly getting us to 4 straight bowl games and a couple of CUSA West division championships. To me, the big mistake was not firing him when the ASU thing got out. Other than that, I think everything else has been handled in a reasonable manner and no one could have predicted the atrocious level of recruiting when he was hired. Recruiting was not bad when we had our ace recruiters (both of them lol). We still don't know for sure if things will work out with Chad Morris, but things are pointing in the right direction.

Very well said ! That is a great summation of our football program over the last several years.

[gostangs]

The Tennis facility was forced on us by combination of additional housing on campus and Bush library - its not like we decided we just had to have a great one - its because he had to move the one we had.

Event was great - I thought more than last year = place looked and felt very high energy. Team is upbeat and loves their staff. Some early success would be REALLY helpful to all things SMU right now.

All lineman looked bigger to me than I can remember since before June.

[Mestengo]

Suggesting I stay home is like Banning peruna from the stadium lol Mex I appreciate the real report

quote="JasonB"]

I'm positive and excited every year at the beginning of the season..... how awesome would it be if we did get to a bowl - I'm talking about one of those Florida bowls I don't want to go freeze my keys off somewhere in the north.

And I saved $750 thanks for the report.

You could also choose to stay home and read about every basketball and football game in the paper if you want to.

Personally, the $75 ticket was well worth the opportunity to see some folks I haven't seen for a few months, hear Coach Morris interview himself, learn some more about some great kids, and most importantly support the program.

As Coach said today, the kids are 100% committed to the program and have poured their heart and soul into it. As alumni and fans, its time for us to do the same and catch this thing on the way up. Maybe we win 4 or 5 games, maybe we sneak into a bowl. But we are going to be a lot better than last year. And the way the players have bonded is infectious - like Family from basketball. As a fan it really pulls you in. Get in now, because 2017 is going to be something special and you are going to want to say you were "one of the 1500".[/quote]

[Pony Boss]

http://s6.photobucket.com/user/BigBen5/ ... s.jpg.html

[78pony]

Mex, he didn't talk conference for a good reason. He's where the buck stops, he knows he snoozed while the world lapped us, and if you don't mention it maybe no one else will either. He also has one plan only: beg. Then, hope enough folks will have some sympathy for us and throw an olive branch our way.

[mtrout]

It's funny how many of the guys that have been around a long time say turner et all don't really care about athletics and the newer guys (or guys who just read a press release) vehemently oppose this thought.