Was The Rise Real?

[birddogger]

We aren't as good as our record or as bad as last night's performance.

[mtrout]

That's deep.

The mini rise occurred because we sunk our schedule:
CM year 1: Drop Texas A&M from the schedule (then lose to James Madison)
CM year 2: Replace James Madison with an FCS team we can beat (Liberty)
CM year 3: Drop Baylor from the schedule. End up 4th in the AAC west.
CM year 4: Michigan! Ruh roh....bye

[SMU_Alum11]

Guys there’s a lag effect to a coach’s efforts. Similar to XC (I believe), regarding fan attendance showing up a year after you starting winning big. Chads performance on YR1-2 is a joke to compare him against. That’s JJ you should be ashamed at. The fact we had a chance to be eligible last year was a miracle. This is the year to be judged but sadly in the AAC: we are the first conference looked at to steal coaches. That’s why I was very critical of Dykes hire because this is the hire that makes us go to the next level. Hopefully this game was really a one-off since we had zero offensive coaches and it was up to Ben Hicks to be a master strategist yesterday.

I think we are fine. I wish we weren’t embarassed like that but it’s a pointless bowl game that won’t be remembered in about a day or 2 from now. Dykes just needs to keep the good ones in the class and hopefully find some others. Also he needs to get some good staff in to generate excitement.

Basketball and football recruiting will heal our wounds.

[HubbaHubba]

I still wake up screaming from nightmares about the Holiday Bowl.

[RI Stang]

We aren't as good as our record or as bad as last night's performance.

100% agree

[ozfan]

I can't understand how La Tech and our peers can recruit better talent than SMU. Other teams go from 0-10 tp 10-0 in a couple of seasons and we are in year 30+. I'm hopeful Sonny is our Patterson.

It starts with a strong defense.

[ALEX LIFESON]

I can't understand how La Tech and our peers can recruit better talent than SMU. Other teams go from 0-10 tp 10-0 in a couple of seasons and we are in year 30+. I'm hopeful Sonny is our Patterson.

It starts with a strong defense.

Lyin' Chad's 3 recruiting classes, have pretty much been a failure, on the defensive side of the ball.

[StallionsModelT]

A lot of our "success" with Morris was colored bubbles. He has three years worth of defensive recruits that are no better than what we had when he got here. He's put up some gaudy offensive numbers but when we've played quality opposition we tend to bog down and get our doors blown off in the second half of games.

This schedule was tailor made for Morris to get to 7 wins and subsequently the hell out of here. The offensive roster is in better shape now with some quality depth but I'm not sure Hicks is the guy to run an Air Raid offense. Truthfully I don't think we have a QB on the roster that really fits that scheme.

[ALEX LIFESON]

Lyin' Chad, without question improved our offense dramatically when he got here. But the special teams were terrible when he got here and they are still terrible, the defense was terrible when he got here and it's still terrible.

[Rebel10]

SMU had be athletes just did not have the regular coaches in place. I mean North Texas beat them. Usually any team that goes to a bowl game and losses their coach at the end of the season does not do well in bowl games. One example was when SMU played Pitt.

[SMU21TCU10]

Lyin' Chad, without question improved our offense dramatically when he got here. But the special teams were terrible when he got here and they are still terrible, the defense was terrible when he got here and it's still terrible.

At least we didn’t miss 1 Extra point a game under June

[Mexmustang]

I know I sound like a broken record, but its time to stop blaming our coaches. SMU is a very difficult culture to be successful around. We don't keep our promises to coaches whether written or simply verbal. I saw Larry Brown the first month on the job all he could do is shake his head and say, these people are just really different.

How many know that in June's final recruiting year he had 5 players that qualified, but subsequently not admitted and three more that qualified he simply withdrew. All of them had the required SAT and GPA under the past and current quidelines. I got this from an internal handout given to HCs from our Athletic Director. Idiot shouldn't put it down on a written handout.

After being promised more academic assistance one director confronted Gerald and asked what will it take? He was told, "Over my dead back will our athletes have more assistance than our average student." He forgets that athlete spends 50-60 hours a week on his sport the average student doesn't (per an independent poll of the Pac 12).

Remember how we were all told that Simmons would be able to accommodate things like general studies, coaching, a career path in education that would be friendly to athletes?

June had no recruitng support, even the rugs in his office looked like a thread bare dirty blanket left over from the 80's. Remember when we all contributed to simply paint and put in new rugs before Chad arrived.

Like Chad he was also promised an IPF, They absoluely lied to the coaches that the soccor filed would not accommodate the plans and it would have to be across Mockingbird. Must be difficult to work for a liar.

Most of you don't know that two years before he left he asked for a private meeting with the top donors to privately outline the failure by the university to support athletics. Unfortunatly someone spilled the beans and Gerald showed up to what was supposed to be a private meeting. That's when all enthusiam left our coaching staff. If you can't even trust our supporters?

Most of you are unaware in January of his last season he tired to resign, even foregoing the last year of his contract but these same donors pursuaded him to stay promising changes. When he saw nothing improving, he got rid of his home and iived in a hotel room for the rest of his stay.
That summer, I was at a charity dinner and sat next to him with a friend from Ole Miss. My friend asked him what he thought of Gerald and June basically said he was a liar. Well why haven't you booed him off the field at Homecoming like we did in Oxford? His direct words, were I believe the man, given his limited education background, is afraid of his faculty. Why would anyone say one thing and deliver on another without any sign of remorse or apology?

Cavan saw the same, I remember him shouting at Copeland our AD at the end of his last game. I thought Cavan was going to physically attack the idiot. It's not just they leave, but the coaches leave bitter and betrayed.

Chad was no diffferent. Our people simply lied. And its not just the IPF. As I told you earlier three years ago, Chad will be gone before any IPF is ever completed. Gerald will only do what he wants to in his own time irrespective of promises or contracts. Chad left so fast he never even thanked the school, the key donors or his supporters. He had nothing but contempt for our administration. I think he took the worst job in the SEC, just like SMU unrealistic expectations and an impossible task.

Our athletic department is a joke. First, they have no power no authority. There is not one person on the key staff the ever coached or played Division I athletes. This has got to be a first in Division 1.

During the 4-4.5 years of our current AD''s tenure, he had not done a single thing to market football, putting butts in seats. To me he should have two goals, get us in a P-5 conference and fill Gerald Ford on Saturdays. I doubt any of his associates has ever made a call on a Dallas corporation or association to actually sell season tickets. He seems to want a spotlight without delivering, what other Division 1 AD have you seen pacing the sidelines of a football game? What is he doing, judging the coaching decisions. This is a first for me. I know he does not have the respect of any of our coaches, regardless of the sport.

Or manning a corner first row seat at Moody.

The man has no connections with other AD's, hell he's not even the type to be invited to the 19th hole of a local country club. When the former OU AD passed away two years ago, some of you remember, he along the with the UT AD formed the Big 12. Later on he was also the Big 12 Commissioner for Football.There was a huge reception at Royal Oaks in his honor. Every school was represented, every AD. every football coach in Texas and Oklahoma, college and university was there, save for SMU! I was embarrassed for our school.

He can't even manage his own department. How many of you are aware that the Director of Athletic Admission and Eligibilty and the Director of Compliance are married to one another? Pretty much bookends our athletes from admission, to eligibility, to the NCAA. It is no wonder our Athletic Department turned in Larry Brown. Worse, they didn't fight the NCAA, they didn't appeal, and they didn't properly support our coaches. Do you have any idea the cost and effort to do a forensic investigation on every computer on campus that runs through our server to identify which person helped Kieth with his online high school work. I'm sorry, yes we were guitly, but at North Carolina, they could have easily fended off the NCAA by saying they have no business interferring with high school studies and won!

So, in his four years, we've run off two head football coaches, one hall of fame basketball coach, gotten on probation, and lost much of athletic support.

Can you imagine that the highlight of Tricky Ricky's tenure is to raise ticket prices twice at Moody and sign us up to get our asses whipped for a $3,000,000 paycheck. A game Chad begged for us to cancel. All to balance a budget that comes directly from the President's office. I remember our past AD tryng to make heads or tails of the budget, it simply didn't even foot. He was almost fired the second day on the job for asking the school's outside auditor to help him figure it out. No one goes outside of the university to ask questions. Of course this AD was a CPA and a partner in a major firm before becoming an AD. As he said, it looked like it had been done on someone's personal laptop and it simply made no sense, even the numbers didn't balance.

So, just keep buying the BS and blaming the coaches for our failures. But, I'm telling you, unless you hold Gerald accountable, this horror show will just continue.

Merry Christmas!

[Black Horseshoe]

Nice. Michigan is paying us $1,700,000 off the books

[Black Horseshoe]

And thank god he ran off June.

[Mexmustang]

Who ran off June? Certainly not Tricky Ricky, he doesn't have the authority. This was in Ford and Company's hands. They were at least apologetic, they knew we hadn't delivered. No question June had outlived his worth here, the enthusiasm was gone, and the effort quit, but why not ask why? Cause and Effect, hopefully you learned something about madness etc., failure to succeed by doing the same thing over and over again without success.

Time to get your heads out of the sand! Why can a Penn State come back? Why can Baylor? Why can OSU? What about little Ol SMU? Because there is no want to, no commitment by your administration. Just keep dumping on our coaches, hadn't worked in 30 years. Isn't it artful how he always is able to shift the blame to our coaches. We're already blaming Chad, some of you are already blaming Sonny.