Expectations for Dykes

[Charleston Pony]

The biggest problem (out of many) on Saturday was the performance of the OL. Great question on Monday about what impact not having an OL coach has on that unit. I'm not sure, but the OL should be as good or better than last year. No reason for that performance. They got beat individually and messed up the blocking schemes. It was a disaster that nobody should have expected from that group.

Losing a 4 year starter to the NFL didn't help. All the talk has been about Trey and Courtland, but Brown was a bigger loss than most are considering

[Charleston Pony]

If this doesn't work out then we just need to drop to a division we can afford to be in

I fear that may be coming....if God-forbid it does....could we remain a "Division 1" basketball school while dropping down to a lower division for the football team?

SMU could always drop down to Division I-FCS and would probably be a good fit in the Southland Conference, but does anyone really think that is going to happen? We will be the doormat of the AAC or CUSA or SunBelt before conceding defeat, although I've learned to never say "never". Never thought TCU and Baylor would leave us in their dust...and I would not rule out the possibility UNT does the same in my lifetime. People have bashed me for this, but I've said before that "size matters" in college athletics, and UNT has tremendous potential because of the number of students and alumni they have. I'm not surprised that the larger public schools like UCF, Houston and Memphis are among the top programs in the AAC these days. I would hate to think SMU will ever "give up", but it will take a lot of hard work by a lot of people (and $$$) if we are going to survive and compete at the highest levels in football and basketball.

[Pony81]

Evan Brown made the Giants as an undrafted free agent - so we lost 4 players to the NFL.

I think given current litigation around the amateur model and injury / concusion issues that football's future is very unclear.

Who knows what college football looks like in the future. I can't see professional teams embedded inside a university. I would think all the universities would not outright pay players though they would open themselves to collusion accusations.


If college players can be paid then SMU would drop football.... as would many other schools.

[Charleston Pony]

I looked at the schedule up and down before season started and could not find 4 wins. The scheduke is brutal. NT was bad, but move on and see how we look by the time conference starts. At least by then itll be basketball season.

I agree. Not many agreed with me when I looked at this year's schedule and commented that Chad bailed at the right time because his program could have taken a step backwards this season. 1st, we had 7 home games last year which is huge and rare for SMU. We basically substituted a road game vs Michigan for a home game with Arkansas State. Doesn't much matter where we play TCU because we are at a significant talent disadvantage with them but we had to play UNT at their place and as much as people want to disrespect that program, UNT went on to win 9 games after losing to SMU and returned a good number of starters on both sides of the ball. I also seem to recall they had us down early last year until Fine got hurt and had to leave the game. Bottom line is the non-conference schedule is tougher and we weren't going 3-1 like last year.

Moving on to the AAC schedule, I don't see enough improvement in a team that lost 4 guys to the NFL for us to beat the upper level teams like Memphis, Houston, Navy and UCF, even if we do get 3 of them at home. The teams we would hope to beat (UConn, Tulsa and Tulane) are all road games and given this program's road performance in the post death penalty era, I didn't view any of those games as locks. I certainly hoped we could beat Cincinnati at Ford, but after they went on the road and beat UCLA in LA, I'm now concerned we could be worse than the 4-8 I thought Chad's program might slip to this season. Under Chad, I thought we would beat HBU, Cincy and win 2 of 3 road games against UConn, Tulsa and Tulane. Any additional wins (I thought UNT was a possible win) would have pleased me but if Chad could have coached this bunch to 6 wins with this year's schedule, it would have been one heck of an accomplishment.

My expectations for Sonny? I like what I've seen in terms of how he handles the media and what he's done early on in recruiting (if we can hold on to our current commitments), but I have to say I'm in the "cautiously optimistic" category and would just like to see this year's team improve enough to at least win 4 games. Shocking someone on the schedule would be really nice after that opening night fiasco.

[ponypatrick]

So can someone explain to me why Chad has easily handled NTCC but Sonny gets a pas at a war crime? Chad has nothing when he came on board. We were a team without a coach until he came aboard where JJ stopped recruiting for couple years.

Chad apparently gets no credit for converting Courtland to a WR and saw his talent. No, it’s considered basically cheating for him. I get people are upset but if we wanted to grow the program, we need to get great coaches who see this place as a pit stop until we’ve built it big enough to be a place to stay. Instead our AD and the donors are bunch of snowflakes and were so upset with someone leaving that we decided to get someone that no one else wanted. Someone who was an “analyst” for what like a year with no one even mentioning his name during rounds.

Son , you are totally clueless. Go pop a quaalude and take a nap !

[ponypatrick]

So can someone explain to me why Chad has easily handled NTCC but Sonny gets a pas at a war crime?

Chad’s 2015 team needed a 21-pt fourth quarter to comeback at home to beat a UNT team that finished 1-11 and lost to an FCS school 66-7.

Sonny went on the road to face a UNT team coming off a 9-win season with an stud QB in front of their biggest crowd in school history.

Yes, Saturday sucked, but let’s keep things in perspective

A voice of sanity........amen, brother !

[Stallion]

PERSPECTIVE

Sonny has at least 23 players who have started substantial games at the Division 1A school level and SMU still looked incompetent on both offense and defense. The Head Coach and both Coordinators deserve an F and didn't have their team ready to compete.

We'll be seeing that 30-1 First Downs scoreboard screen-shot 44 minutes into the game for decades to come. You guys can take shots at Chad Morris all you want that doesn't change the fact that the current SMU coaching staff was humiliated last Saturday. One of the all-time great Coaching fails in SMU history with an experienced roster

GRADE: F

[smupony94]

Where is JTstang with the hope when you need him?

[Insane_Pony_Posse]

SMU could always drop down to Division I-FCS and would probably be a good fit in the Southland Conference, but does anyone really think that is going to happen? We will be the doormat of the AAC or CUSA or SunBelt before conceding defeat, although I've learned to never say "never". Never thought TCU and Baylor would leave us in their dust...and I would not rule out the possibility UNT does the same in my lifetime. People have bashed me for this, but I've said before that "size matters" in college athletics, and UNT has tremendous potential because of the number of students and alumni they have. I'm not surprised that the larger public schools like UCF, Houston and Memphis are among the top programs in the AAC these days. I would hate to think SMU will ever "give up", but it will take a lot of hard work by a lot of people (and $$$) if we are going to survive and compete at the highest levels in football and basketball.

+1

[Nacho]

we are doing everything we can to help unt.

[One Trick Pony]

Where is JTstang with the hope when you need him?

I know you're baiting me to post this so here it is.

Originally posted by JT

After much scientific study the stages of PF football fandom are as follows:
1. Love the new coach, he is the next Knute Rockne and us going to stay here long term and take us to the Big 12 and national prominance.
2. My God we looked great at the spring game. New guy is a recruiting guru.
3. It's football season, GO MUSTANGS!!!
4. First game under the new regime, prediction is ponies by 17.
5. What's wrong with our defense, I thought it was going to be better under new guy with all those transfers.
6. We can come back in the second half.
7. Our QB is an idiot.
8. How could we be losing to that junior high level team?
9. New guy should be fired now and clearly won't make it through the season. AD and president should go too.
10. [deleted] you we are just 0-1 just like half the teams in the country.
11. No [deleted] you.
12. You are an idiot.
13. At least there's hope for basketball.

[Charleston Pony]

Where is JTstang with the hope when you need him?

I know you're baiting me to post this so here it is.

Originally posted by JT

After much scientific study the stages of PF football fandom are as follows:
1. Love the new coach, he is the next Knute Rockne and us going to stay here long term and take us to the Big 12 and national prominance.
2. My God we looked great at the spring game. New guy is a recruiting guru.
3. It's football season, GO MUSTANGS!!!
4. First game under the new regime, prediction is ponies by 17.
5. What's wrong with our defense, I thought it was going to be better under new guy with all those transfers.
6. We can come back in the second half.
7. Our QB is an idiot.
8. How could we be losing to that junior high level team?
9. New guy should be fired now and clearly won't make it through the season. AD and president should go too.
10. [deleted] you we are just 0-1 just like half the teams in the country.
11. No [deleted] you.
12. You are an idiot.
13. At least there's hope for basketball.

Long live the 1500!

[Charleston Pony]

PERSPECTIVE

Sonny has at least 23 players who have started substantial games at the Division 1A school level and SMU still looked incompetent on both offense and defense. The Head Coach and both Coordinators deserve an F and didn't have their team ready to compete.

We'll be seeing that 30-1 First Downs scoreboard screen-shot 44 minutes into the game for decades to come. You guys can take shots at Chad Morris all you want that doesn't change the fact that the current SMU coaching staff was humiliated last Saturday. One of the all-time great Coaching fails in SMU history with an experienced roster

GRADE: F

So are you labeling Sonny and this staff failures and bad hires...or just confirming the obvious that they laid an egg in their SMU debut?

[SMU_Alum11]

So can someone explain to me why Chad has easily handled NTCC but Sonny gets a pas at a war crime?

Chad’s 2015 team needed a 21-pt fourth quarter to comeback at home to beat a UNT team that finished 1-11 and lost to an FCS school 66-7.

Sonny went on the road to face a UNT team coming off a 9-win season with an stud QB in front of their biggest crowd in school history.

Yes, Saturday sucked, but let’s keep things in perspective

Okay that’s fair. However can we not agree that what June left us was far worse than Chad Morris left us. Chad was overall competitive with most opponents including TCU. We always took care of business with NTCC and I can’t think of SMU team that only gets one first down in the first half. That’s what for me has enraged with Sonny. The team looks like a drag and drop of December’s headless coach team.

[SMU_Alum11]

So can someone explain to me why Chad has easily handled NTCC but Sonny gets a pas at a war crime? Chad has nothing when he came on board. We were a team without a coach until he came aboard where JJ stopped recruiting for couple years.

Chad apparently gets no credit for converting Courtland to a WR and saw his talent. No, it’s considered basically cheating for him. I get people are upset but if we wanted to grow the program, we need to get great coaches who see this place as a pit stop until we’ve built it big enough to be a place to stay. Instead our AD and the donors are bunch of snowflakes and were so upset with someone leaving that we decided to get someone that no one else wanted. Someone who was an “analyst” for what like a year with no one even mentioning his name during rounds.

Son , you are totally clueless. Go pop a quaalude and take a nap !

Thanks for substantive retort. How about actually suggesting something about why you are happy with Saturday’s results num-nut.