Fire Rick Hart

[Peruna_Ate_My_Rolex]

Getting rid of RGT will take care of Hart.

Both need to go to "The Train Station"

I prefer Glue Factory

[redpony]

Ok, I am sure I will have many detractors for these comments but they are what they are, especially from Ponyboy.

I have frequently wondered why we lose our coaches after 2 years or so. I went back and re-read the book about JJ for the third time.
Now, his actions and attitude in the book are not at all similar to his actions here.
In spite of his odd recruiting and other things he also got us to our first bowl game in many years.
His personality does not seem to match his actions at SMU. Now, I am no JJ fan but it makes we wonder what happened here that caused such a change in attitude. Prior to us he had never walked away from a team mid-season.

Then along came the Chadster. We all knew he would be gone in a couple of years. Yet, almost immediately he was looking to leave and was not covert about his desire to leave.

Following the Chadster was SD. Now, he openly professed to loving our university but shortly he was looking for another job. In addition he not only left but left for a rival and did his best to destroy our recruiting class and our program. Why? This is not the person who seemed to want to succeed here and be here for a long time. His ' dislike' for us is way beyond normal.

When multiple employees leave promptly after coming on board it makes one wonder. What is the problem? Were they blatantly lied to? Normally, when you lose an employee it is normal. Losing two or three you need to look at the inside reasons. Obviously, these coaches would not bad mouth us as that is not what you say about a former employer (at least openly).
IMO our problem lies with the AD and his boss. They simply do not care about being a champion and first in class. This not only applies to sports but also the academic community.

[Hilltopper]

This thread is embarrassing. We sound like entitled UT fans.

Morris and Dykes both went to P5 conferences and got significant raises. I'll never root for either of them again, but sometimes it's as simple as conference and money.

[mustangxc]

Ok, I am sure I will have many detractors for these comments but they are what they are, especially from Ponyboy.

I have frequently wondered why we lose our coaches after 2 years or so. I went back and re-read the book about JJ for the third time.
Now, his actions and attitude in the book are not at all similar to his actions here.
In spite of his odd recruiting and other things he also got us to our first bowl game in many years.
His personality does not seem to match his actions at SMU. Now, I am no JJ fan but it makes we wonder what happened here that caused such a change in attitude. Prior to us he had never walked away from a team mid-season.

Then along came the Chadster. We all knew he would be gone in a couple of years. Yet, almost immediately he was looking to leave and was not covert about his desire to leave.

Following the Chadster was SD. Now, he openly professed to loving our university but shortly he was looking for another job. In addition he not only left but left for a rival and did his best to destroy our recruiting class and our program. Why? This is not the person who seemed to want to succeed here and be here for a long time. His ' dislike' for us is way beyond normal.

When multiple employees leave promptly after coming on board it makes one wonder. What is the problem? Were they blatantly lied to? Normally, when you lose an employee it is normal. Losing two or three you need to look at the inside reasons. Obviously, these coaches would not bad mouth us as that is not what you say about a former employer (at least openly).
IMO our problem lies with the AD and his boss. They simply do not care about being a champion and first in class. This not only applies to sports but also the academic community.

They could also just be dirtbags. Why would Lashlee come back if it is such hell to be at SMU?

[redpony]

and if all were 'dirtbags' whose responsibility was it for hiring three consecutive dirtbags?
Also, most of those were looking long before a P5 opportunity came along.
Again, just my opinion.

[Charleston Pony]

It's easy to fault Hart and coaches who have been anxious to bail on SMU once they demonstrated some success and had P5 programs come sniffing around, but let's not lose sight of the FACT that SMU's pathetic fan support is a huge part of why we find ourselves in the situation we are currently in. Yes, I blame Hart & Turner for the Moody re-seat and their failure to support Larry Brown. They basically killed the hoops golden goose. Pretty pathetic seeing how few were in Moody for the UCF game today. This team deserves better. Time will tell whether Lashlee was a good hire or he will follow the others out the door but I think the hires of Jones, Morris and Dykes were all good hires and all contributed to raising the profile of SMU football.

[mrydel]

Most high school coaches aspire to be a college assistant. Most college assistants aspire to be head coaches which often is at best a G5 school. Most G5 head coaches aspire to be P5 head coaches. We will most likely be a stepping stone forever unless we get into a P5 and even then a successful coach will always get offers.

I for one am glad our coaches are coveted. Not long ago we were a dead end job with a firing/hiring carousel that seemed to never end. We have made strides.

All that said, the way that both June Jones and Dykes left the program was not ideal. And Morris was not much better.

[mustangxc]

Yes, mrydel I agree. I don't call coaches dirtbags for leaving. That is expected. I call them dirtbags for the manner they left. Jones, Morris, and Dykes all left with very little class. The fact that Jones left mid-season, Morris left us without anyone to fill in for the bowl game, and Dykes tanking the season while going to our arch-rival are my issues with their departures. I have not called Larry Brown a dirtbag for leaving. It was unfortunate he left when he did, but a succession plan was in place for that very scenario and it was expected to happen at some point. Hart takes blame for attendance. That is one of his main responsibilities. In fact he takes double the blame because attendance was no longer an issue in basketball and now it is once again a serious issue with the basketball program. Additionally, it remains a serious issue plaguing the football program. The average AD does more with more. You give him more and he delivers more results. The superstars deliver more with less. Think of a Billy Beane with the Oakland Athletics. Hart routinely does less with more. He has to go. Jankovich may even earn his keep if he wins the conference championship this season, which is much more realistic now that Houston has been depleted by injuries, Memphis has been extremely inconsistent and COVID-19 being a huge wildcard.

[MV pony]

Pathetic fan base. No small wonder. SMU isn't interested in the little people.

During the Nic years, I asked SMU for a basketball team poster suitable for framing. SMU was giving them away but I wasn't anywhere near Dallas. I was more than willing to pay for the poster and the postage. I just needed someone to send it. Nope. During that same period I also bought quite a few team uniforms and other things at auction. I asked if SMU could just add a pristine poster in one of the multiple boxes it sent containing uniforms, Nope. Instead, SMU bunched up multiple basketball team posters and used them as fillers in the mailed boxes. I ended up with over a dozen crumpled posters. Isn't that so SMU? No worries but I do have a long memory. Thus, my latest charitable donation of $270k was to my local animal shelter.

[PerunaPunch]

This thread is embarrassing. We sound like entitled UT fans.

Morris and Dykes both went to P5 conferences and got significant raises. I'll never root for either of them again, but sometimes it's as simple as conference and money.

That is true with Morris, but my understanding of SMU's offer to Dykes, while not quite as much per year, was actually a larger total dollar amount than the TCU offer.

My understanding is that Dykes rejected SMU's first offer, but apparently SMU was not very proactive in negotiation. They only got serious after TCU came calling.

If that's true then a) Dykes wasn't feeling an adequate amount of love from the Hilltop, b) he was feeling the love from Cowtown, and c) SMU was not negotiating from a position of strength.

This is all coming a least 3rd hand, so take it for whatever it's worth.

[tristatecoog]

Didn't Jeff Traylor stay to coach the Frisco Bowl until Chad hired him as OC at Arkansas? Then Traylor bolted right before the game.

Since SMU is "investing" quite a bit of money in athletics, I doubt RGT wants to spend outsized amounts of cash for coaches and further the deficit. If alumni are stepping forward with the cash, like Fertitta at UH or Miller with SMU hoops, the admin can have more confidence. When TCU and Tech came calling its hand was forced. Lashlee seems like an upgrade over Sonny. He may bolt for the Hogs someday but he really knows what resources are at SMU.

Morris, on the other hand, seemed outmatched against TCU and Baylor and felt defeated. He jumped at the chance to go to Hog Heaven. Sonny appeared to find lightening in a bottle with the transfer portal edge. He lost two tough road games by seven and three and then the UC blowout.

[mustangxc]

Didn't Jeff Traylor stay to coach the Frisco Bowl until Chad hired him as OC at Arkansas? Then Traylor bolted right before the game.

Since SMU is "investing" quite a bit of money in athletics, I doubt RGT wants to spend outsized amounts of cash for coaches and further the deficit. If alumni are stepping forward with the cash, like Fertitta at UH or Miller with SMU hoops, the admin can have more confidence. When TCU and Tech came calling its hand was forced. Lashlee seems like an upgrade over Sonny. He may bolt for the Hogs someday but he really knows what resources are at SMU.

Morris, on the other hand, seemed outmatched against TCU and Baylor and felt defeated. He jumped at the chance to go to Hog Heaven. Sonny appeared to find lightening in a bottle with the transfer portal edge. He lost two tough road games by seven and three and then the UC blowout.

I remember it more as Traylor stayed until we went in another direction on the coaching hire. Then like a little kid he bolted as soon as he felt slighted.

[Charleston Pony]

Didn't Jeff Traylor stay to coach the Frisco Bowl until Chad hired him as OC at Arkansas? Then Traylor bolted right before the game.

Since SMU is "investing" quite a bit of money in athletics, I doubt RGT wants to spend outsized amounts of cash for coaches and further the deficit. If alumni are stepping forward with the cash, like Fertitta at UH or Miller with SMU hoops, the admin can have more confidence. When TCU and Tech came calling its hand was forced. Lashlee seems like an upgrade over Sonny. He may bolt for the Hogs someday but he really knows what resources are at SMU.

Morris, on the other hand, seemed outmatched against TCU and Baylor and felt defeated. He jumped at the chance to go to Hog Heaven. Sonny appeared to find lightening in a bottle with the transfer portal edge. He lost two tough road games by seven and three and then the UC blowout.

I remember it more as Traylor stayed until we went in another direction on the coaching hire. Then like a little kid he bolted as soon as he felt slighted.

That's how I remember it as well, i.e., Traylor was willing to hang until he knew he wasn't going to get the HC position. At that point, he was looking out for himself and managing his career as it was unlikely Sonny was going to retain him. I don't quite categorize that as bolting like a little kid. More like taking care of your family. I know I had to do some of that over the course of my career when I didn't like where company restructurings were going to leave me.

[laxdawg97]

Wichita State fans just did the darn thing..... AD was fired today.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/saveshockersports

https://www.saveshockersports.com/

Just goes to show the impact of one intrepid beat reporter who is willing to dig in and create some accountability, even at risk of upsetting the Koch bros.

[Mexmustang]

there is a little truth in many of these statements. But, the desire to win, to financially support the program and fulfill promises made to the new coaches as they were recruited, was the real problem.

With June, the problem was admissions, funding and broken promises. Just like Chad, he was promised and indoor practice facility. I remember he and Larry Brown going to our lifetime president with the athletic admissions standards of three top academic institution, I believe they were Northwestern, Standford and Vanderbilt. What they were seeking were written standards and sub-limits they could apply to JC recruits and transfers and maybe partial qualifiers. What they were told was that SMU was a far better academic school than those.
As far a financial support I remember our strength and conditioning coach show a couple of us how he took well-known branded protein shakes and placed them in the front row of his glass coolers, to show recruits when he didn't have the budget available to actually buy them and was using off-branded products for the players hidden in the back rows.

With Chad, he of course thought of himself as a college coach well connected with the high school coaches of Texas. Do any of you recall that presentation the school put together for an IPF and football offices and lockers, etc.? If I recall the budget was over $100.000.000! He ended up showing it to coaches and recruits and the school came no where close to executing even the IPF while he was here. The best thing Chad did for the university was to call out those members of our board that were in those meetings when Chad was being recruited. His famous line" you all were there when these promises were made, and they were all lies".

If I recall that is when Carl Sewel told our President I don't care what you want and where you want it, and this was the time he was forced to use the old natatorium space for the IPF.
As far as admissions, I don't know if Chad was able to move the ball forward or not.

Once Sonny arrived, I never heard any complaints about admissions, we seemed to have solved that problem given the number of transfers and JC recruits he was ablet to sign. A far cry from when June had a transfer with a "B" average from Northwestern turned down.

I may not have all the facts right, but you get the message. It was our president and not our AD who seems to have changed after almost 30 years.

My problems with the AD, is that he is a small man! He has bullied some of our Olympic coaches. One was the only coach to beat the Big 12 champion in his sport and get to the NCAA tournament.
The next year the coach's contract was not renewed, and little Ricky told him, after 25 years at SMU, "I wanted to fire you last year but you won the conference and made it to the great eight in the NCAA tournament!". "Good bye". In the previous year one of our AD's neighbors was complaining about their son only receiving a partial athletic scholarship. As is typical, our minor sports coaches don't have enough scholarships to put everyone on the team on scholarship. You all know the drill, some get a half scholarships or room and board, etc. as the coaches try to allocate resources amongst the team. So, what did little Ricky do? Despite the athlete not performing well, he grants him a full scholarship, behind the head coaches back and leaves it up to the coach to reduce scholarships amongst those player meeting his expectations.
He also hired Lurch, his assistant, you know the one that went behind Dykes directly to the players and instructing them to go directly to him rather than the HC if there were any problems. The same one that Sonny told Turner he either takes charge of the situation of he's out of here!
As many of you know the Letterman's Club has an award to award an alumni or friend of the program an honorary Letter. It a big deal for our former athletes. When it came time to honor the recipient, both Little Ricky and Lurch left the room, preferring to not partake in the program. They did so on purpose as he had been critical of the department.
Finally, Little Ricky is not part of the insider group of AD's. He has a reputation for not standing up for his department. They strongly believe that he turned in Larry Browen to the NCAA. He is not from Texas, never played a sport in college and never even played football or basketball in high school. He is not well liked, and isn't in a position to put SMU in any conference. Yes, I know ultimately its a vote of college presidents, but AD's have a major role in the selection. Remember how Deloss Dodge got TCU into the Big 12? It was a deal made at the AD level!