Implications of UNT fiasco

[PonyNate]

We're all aware of the disaster that occurred at Apogee last night. But there were several problems I noticed that immediately need to be fixed.

1) I've come to accept this over the 17 years I've grown up as an SMU fan, but the amount of SMU fans that travelled the mere 40 miles between Denton and Dallas was embarrassing. SMU fans didn't even fill up the small section allotted, let alone other parts of the stadium that were available.

2) The team somehow regressed from the Frisco Bowl disaster. I honestly would have graded the Frisco Bowl performance higher than last night simply given the situation, as they were coached by GAs, etc. Sonny did not have them ready, especially offensively. I certainly expected much more creativity from Lashlee and Dykes. I understand the players on the field didn't execute at all, but there's something to be said for the bland play calling and lack of preparedness.

3) Ben Hicks looked like freshman deer-in-headlights Ben Hicks. That pick six he threw was a throw a frightened freshman makes, not your all time touchdown leader. Missed open receivers, etc. It didn't help that he didn't have much time and his WRs weren't getting much separation.

4) Kevin Kane's defense looked half decent, they just couldn't get off the field on third down. Most maddening play was Clemons dropping that surefire pick six when the game was only 14-0.

5) Most frightening implication is this: if UNT did this to SMU, how ugly will TCU get on Friday?? What will Michigan's top 5 defense with Rashan Gary and Co. do to this offense that looked completely lost against UNT??


Thoughts? Fire back to Pony Nate!

[SMU Football Blog]

I didn't go because I expected the team to get drilled.

I went to the bowl game in Frisco. I went alone because my wife and kids didn't want to go. None of my friends wanted to go.

I showed up. The team didn't show up. I left at halftime.

I had an epiphany walking back to my car. This isn't fun. I owe this team nothing. I am not going out of a sense of obligation anymore, which was my sole motivation for going to Frisco. I felt like I was supposed to go.

Every year, i buy the "Nike sideline polo." I didn't this year despite the fact I was in the SMU bookstore last Monday (son had a lacrosse practice and I was looking for air conditioning).

So, I am done. I don't have season tickets. I don't have the games on my calendar. I honestly wasn't sure if the game was Friday or Saturday.

I may go to a game this year. I may not. And I am fine with that. Son's got HS football games. Other son has 2 or 3 lacrosse practices a week and 8th grade football. It is a 35 minute drive to SMU for me. I got other cr@p to do.

The bowl game in Frisco broke me. The game last night, which I only followed in passing on the ESPN app and twitter, just confirmed I made the right decision.

Life is too short to focus on the negative. I don't see the positive in following SMU anymore, except as a gateway to college football in general. And I decided I didn't need that. I can stay at home and watch some random SEC or ACC game and be just as happy. Maybe I will follow my sons' schools in a couple of years.

Good luck to everyone else.

[MV pony]

I didn't watch the game either. Checked the score after the game was over and then read Ponyfans. Got the whole flavor of the game in 5 minutes without the ugliness you can't unsee. Only way for me to catch any games going forward.

I paid for my education at SMU so I don't owe it anything. It does nothing for out-of-state alums so I don't care whether it keeps sports or not. At the end of the day, it's a g-5 school. By the time it makes it to the P5, it'll be the P4 that's relevant. The day LB walked out the door is the day I lost interest.

[smupony94]

Lots of MM65 manifestos today

[One Trick Pony]

Lots of MM65 manifestos today

I'm expecting a call from June at any moment.

[PonySnob]

Lots of MM65 manifestos today

He was sitting in section 124 last night

[SMU_Alum11]

We're all aware of the disaster that occurred at Apogee last night. But there were several problems I noticed that immediately need to be fixed.

1) I've come to accept this over the 17 years I've grown up as an SMU fan, but the amount of SMU fans that travelled the mere 40 miles between Denton and Dallas was embarrassing. SMU fans didn't even fill up the small section allotted, let alone other parts of the stadium that were available.

2) The team somehow regressed from the Frisco Bowl disaster. I honestly would have graded the Frisco Bowl performance higher than last night simply given the situation, as they were coached by GAs, etc. Sonny did not have them ready, especially offensively. I certainly expected much more creativity from Lashlee and Dykes. I understand the players on the field didn't execute at all, but there's something to be said for the bland play calling and lack of preparedness.

3) Ben Hicks looked like freshman deer-in-headlights Ben Hicks. That pick six he threw was a throw a frightened freshman makes, not your all time touchdown leader. Missed open receivers, etc. It didn't help that he didn't have much time and his WRs weren't getting much separation.

4) Kevin Kane's defense looked half decent, they just couldn't get off the field on third down. Most maddening play was Clemons dropping that surefire pick six when the game was only 14-0.

5) Most frightening implication is this: if UNT did this to SMU, how ugly will TCU get on Friday?? What will Michigan's top 5 defense with Rashan Gary and Co. do to this offense that looked completely lost against UNT??


Thoughts? Fire back to Pony Nate!

No offense but point 1 is silly. The only people who should have gone to the game were those who supported the disastrous hire. I was adamant it was a bad hire and looks like we are on course for 2014!

Point 2 - agreed, complete coaching failure. There’s talent just not being utilized since the coach should be at a JUCO.

Point 3 - Ben is still living in December.

Point 4 - we are looking at best 2-10 besting HBU and UCONN.

[mtrout]

I don’t think we’ll go 2-10 unless our talent is way below what is reported. JasonB, are we this bad?

We have to be better than what we showed against unt. Hell Chad had us competitive with tcu for a while his first year.

I choose to believe the team ate some bad pasta or someone replaced the gatorade with dimetapp.

[SMU_Alum11]

I don’t think we’ll go 2-10 unless our talent is way below what is reported. JasonB, are we this bad?

We have to be better than what we showed against unt. Hell Chad had us competitive with tcu for a while his first year.

I choose to believe the team ate some bad pasta or someone replaced the gatorade with dimetapp.

I liked that last line. I was thinking just flat out drunk the night before. Always like anyone who can provide some sort of here’s why we really sucked and how we will overcome it. I’m doom and gloom because we couldn’t get more than 1 first down after 1st half against NTCC. I think a JUCO team could get at least a drive going against them. I think we have the talent but we just have awful coaches.

[PonyNate]

I didn't go because I expected the team to get drilled.

I went to the bowl game in Frisco. I went alone because my wife and kids didn't want to go. None of my friends wanted to go.

I showed up. The team didn't show up. I left at halftime.

I had an epiphany walking back to my car. This isn't fun. I owe this team nothing. I am not going out of a sense of obligation anymore, which was my sole motivation for going to Frisco. I felt like I was supposed to go.

Every year, i buy the "Nike sideline polo." I didn't this year despite the fact I was in the SMU bookstore last Monday (son had a lacrosse practice and I was looking for air conditioning).

So, I am done. I don't have season tickets. I don't have the games on my calendar. I honestly wasn't sure if the game was Friday or Saturday.

I may go to a game this year. I may not. And I am fine with that. Son's got HS football games. Other son has 2 or 3 lacrosse practices a week and 8th grade football. It is a 35 minute drive to SMU for me. I got other cr@p to do.

The bowl game in Frisco broke me. The game last night, which I only followed in passing on the ESPN app and twitter, just confirmed I made the right decision.

Life is too short to focus on the negative. I don't see the positive in following SMU anymore, except as a gateway to college football in general. And I decided I didn't need that. I can stay at home and watch some random SEC or ACC game and be just as happy. Maybe I will follow my sons' schools in a couple of years.

Good luck to everyone else.

This is the most negative thing I've ever read, and is the epitome of why there are 4000 fans at every home game. Fandom is about loyalty, not convenience.

[PonyNate]

I didn't watch the game either. Checked the score after the game was over and then read Ponyfans. Got the whole flavor of the game in 5 minutes without the ugliness you can't unsee. Only way for me to catch any games going forward.

I paid for my education at SMU so I don't owe it anything. It does nothing for out-of-state alums so I don't care whether it keeps sports or not. At the end of the day, it's a g-5 school. By the time it makes it to the P5, it'll be the P4 that's relevant. The day LB walked out the door is the day I lost interest.

Like the other guy, this is also why SMU can never fill a stadium. Part of being a part of the P5 is having fan support to convince the big conferences to let you in. If we filled up the Ford every Saturday this wouldn't be an issue. On field success helps too, but a huge part of it is fan support. The indifference of the fan base has crippled the program.

[mr. pony]

I didn't watch the game either. Checked the score after the game was over and then read Ponyfans. Got the whole flavor of the game in 5 minutes without the ugliness you can't unsee. Only way for me to catch any games going forward.

I paid for my education at SMU so I don't owe it anything. It does nothing for out-of-state alums so I don't care whether it keeps sports or not. At the end of the day, it's a g-5 school. By the time it makes it to the P5, it'll be the P4 that's relevant. The day LB walked out the door is the day I lost interest.

Like the other guy, this is also why SMU can never fill a stadium. Part of being a part of the P5 is having fan support to convince the big conferences to let you in. If we filled up the Ford every Saturday this wouldn't be an issue. On field success helps too, but a huge part of it is fan support. The indifference of the fan base has crippled the program.

Disagree.
The p!ss-pooredness of the program has crippled the fan base.

[MV pony]

Hope springs eternal for the young. Fan apathy was created by DECADES of poor performance.

[skyscraper]

Attn PonyNate-tion: You have not been beaten down by decades of ineptitude with only brief glimmers of hope.
TBH, I don't know how the older folks have hung in for so long. I've been out of school almost a decade now and it's a whip following the program lunge from pathetic to somewhat mediocre and then back to pathetic.
I don't blame anyone for the way they feel or for checking out on the program. At some point there has to be a payoff for the fans -- or at least a sense of true progress. That's only happened once post-DP, when JJ was still trying in his first few years on the job.
I still have season tix b/c I live a $7 Uber ride from campus, tickets are cheap, my friends are still coming out to The Boulevard and a small part of me hopes Sonny can figure this out and make us relevant. But I'm not optimistic about this season after Saturday.

[03Mustang]

I'm not quite ready to give up yet but I understand the sentiment. At the end of each season I look back and think "why did I expect any different?", and I tell myself that I won't get sucked in next year.

Then August rolls around and I'm sucked back in...such is the life of a fan, I guess. Cowboys fans do it every year too. Somehow, there are people that are Jets and Browns fans...and Cubs fans that lived their whole lives doing the same thing.

Anyway, kicks to the crotch like Saturday night just make it harder and harder for people to stick around, and I understand that. I used to hope that we were going to improve and someday rise like TCU, but I've given up on that. I don't have that hope anymore - we are what we are, and that's a low-major program that isn't likely to ever be more than a team that cracks the top 25 once a generation or so, if we're lucky. We aren't any better football-wise than UNT or Rice...at least those schools both have Conference Championships in the past decade. We are incredibly fortunate to even be in the AAC.

Might as well accept it - no expectations. Aside from a one or two year blip, this is going to be it. I honestly am not sure that it's going to be any different with basketball, either.