This is encouraging

[dcpony]

Does he have his head in the sand? Does he know about Orsini's expectations?


The Dallas Morning News
Bennett reins in talk of bowl with Mustangs
scoring 4.5 a game
11:58 PM CDT on Tuesday, September 12, 2006
By CALVIN WATKINS /

UNIVERSITY PARK – At the start of the season, coach Phil Bennett said the goal for SMU was to reach a bowl.

After an 0-2 start in which his offense is averaging an anemic 4.5 points a game, Bennett said he's not talking about bowls right now.

That's probably a good thing, because it seems the rest of Conference USA has gotten better.

Rice has increased its scoring average from 21.9 in 2005 to 23 through two games in 2006.

Houston improved its scoring by 10 points to 38 a game.

Marshall, which finished last in the conference in scoring at 18.5, is averaging 32 this season.

Bennett said Tuesday the Mustangs' offense is inconsistent, and when that happens, it hurts the bottom line: wins and losses, which also makes reaching a bowl difficult.

"I'm not writing off the season after two games, but I'm not going to talk about that [a bowl]," Bennett said.

"I don't judge [other] games, because every game has a different mentality."

Athletic director Steve Orsini said the team needs to continue developing the younger players, and reaching a bowl is a goal.

"We played a team that was probably better than us," Bennett said of Texas Tech. "We lost to a team [North Texas] that wanted it more and made more plays than us."

Quarterback job is Willis' for now: Quarterback Justin Willis, a redshirt freshman, is averaging only 90.5 yards passing a game.

Bennett said Willis remains the starter unless he struggles in practice this week, and then Corey Slater would take over.

Bennett said Willis is still adjusting to the speed of the game.

"It's experience," Bennett said. "Justin did some good things, and the thing he didn't do well were the reads.

"We have to help him get his reads down."

Running back job up for grabs: With starting running back DeMyron Martin out until mid-October with a right foot injury, three backs will get an opportunity to earn the starting job.

The key to finding a starter is learning who can block on pass plays and blitzes.

James Mapps, Johnny Fitzgerald and Cedrick Dorsey are competing for the job.

Briefly: Count Bennett as another coach who doesn't like the new timing rules. SMU's game at North Texas lasted 2 hours, 35 minutes. SMU had only two games shorter than three hours last season. ... Despite the offensive woes, coordinator Rusty Burns will continue to call the plays from the field and not move up to the press box.

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[McClown27]

Is Coach Bennett's home for sale in HP yet?

On another note, I am beginning to wonder if MM1965 didn't put a voodoo curse on the team when he gave his license plate pep talk.

[dcpony]

As far as I'm concerned not talking about a bowl bid is giving up on the players and the season. I was unsure about Bennett but I was hoping he could get it done. The bottom line is Bennett is not providing leadership for this program.

[mr. pony]

Here's what I don't get:

We can't beat Tech, because they're too good.
We can't beat UNT because they wanted it more. (???)

So who can we beat?

[ponyboy]

I expected to beat North Texas. You simply don't lose that game, especially the way we did. But the season's a long way from over. Let's see how we come out the next two weeks. Waking up 2-2 on Sunday morning the 24th would certainly help calm some people down and give us some momentum for the CUSA race.

[dcpony]

The only thing that will change the way I feel about Bennett is a bowl bid.

[Billy Joe]

Fire Bennett now and be done with it. I am sure his bags are already packed. I want a football coach not a motivational speaker.

[ponyboy]

It's here where you have to jump in and say that Stallion is right and has been consistently so for a long time on this point. The problem's not the coach.

Yes, we're all tired of losing. Yes, we lost to a team that we had no business losing to. But it's one game (unless of course you expected to beat Tech at Tech, in which case you have no business publicly commenting on sports anyway).

Let's see how Saturday goes. And the week after that.

Go get 'em Mustangs!

[OC Mustang]

Alright, I caught this and I want to make sure that it is correct.
Burns is on the sideline and not in the press box?? WTF??!!
It makes a little more sense to me now what happened @ NTSU.
Sitting up high, one can see better where the uncovered parts of the field are, who is cheating over, etc. It is not the same w/o somebody in the press box, and having another subordinate up there isn't the same.

This alone suggests to me that it is indeed the coaches, not the players.
If it is Bennett's idea to have Rusty close to him, he has dug his own hole as the stats indicate.

[ponydawg]

It's here where you have to jump in and say that Stallion is right and has been consistently so for a long time on this point. The problem's not the coach.

I might believe that when we lose to Tech, Utep, or UH, but NOT when we lose to UNT. You can't believe that UNT had better players than us. Our offensive game plan was a joke. I don't know why we are so scared to open up the offense.......couldn't get much worse than 0-2 averaging 4.5 pts a game. Willis has some talent but we will never know if they keep calling those same plays.