Stallion's Crusade

[ponyboy]

I don't intend this as a shot at Stallion the person. I sincerely want to understand.

Let's say for a moment that he's right: Let's grant that all "sunshiners" are seriously deluded in their appraisals of this team. Help me understand how the mere existence of "sunshiners" hurts SMU. It seems to me we need more rather than less of the types of fans who consistently say good things about the school and who support its players and coaches through thick and thin. It's not as if we're filling up Ford with 45K of these types every Saturday.

But even if sunshiners need to be lambasted by hate every time they dare open their mouths to cheer, I have a hard time understanding how his constant “we suck,” “we suck,” “we suck” drumbeat approach helps forward the cause. Granted an occasional correcting statement bringing folks down to earth is called for. But a day in, day out drumbeat of negativism?

I mean it. I really want to understand Stallion's program. Surely it’s not to show us all how much more smart he is than the rest of us morons? Surely it IS because of a belief on his part that in the end he’s helping SMU more than he’s hurting it. Right?

[bagice]

I can certainly see too much sunshine hurting the program and I think that is his motivation.

If you have read his posts through history, I think it is pretty obvious that he is, first and foremost, a diehard SMU fan that wants very badly for them to win, just like all of us, but he sees too much "sunshine" as a bad thing because it causes complacency and lets people convince themselves that going 6-6 is a good thing because we have the freshman of the year and ALMOST went to a bowl game.....don't worry about getting our a$$e$ kicked by a sorry UNT team or that one of our wins was against a non D1 opponent.

Nothing wrong with a little sunshine and he does go a bit outta his way to pi$$ on someone's parade every now and then, but he just wants us to keep striving to be better and not be satisfied with mediocrity.

Of course maybe I'm wrong and he just gets his jollies from yanking peoples chain, hehe, but I don't think so.

[ponyboy]

he sees too much "sunshine" as a bad thing because it causes complacency and lets people convince themselves that going 6-6 is a good thing because we have the freshman of the year and ALMOST went to a bowl game.... he just wants us to keep striving to be better and not be satisfied with mediocrity.

But if that's the case, he's confusing fans with those in power to actually DO something, i.e. administrators, coaches, players. We don't want THEM to be happy with anything. But sunshiner fans are an ASSET not a liability. And it seems to me he needs to, as you say, stop "[deleted] on their parade."

It appears that the end result of his program is that genuine excitement is greatly diminished and the casual (and not so casual) fan is driven away, something we desperately need. That's not to mention how I'm sure the players' family members feel about him.

[Water Pony]

[bagice]

But fans, alumni, and boosters do have power, in fact, enormous power. This is especially true of a private university. If the fans don't put pressure on the university to win, then they won't care. Hell, they would be happy to go 6-6 every year as long as everyone was happy and the money kept rolling in.

But because of pressure and unhappiness, we now have Orsini who then got us Doherty. If no one "cared" the money would not be spent on these changes.

It is up to us to keep the pressure on the administration and powers that be.

[jtstang]

Help me understand how the mere existence of "sunshiners" hurts SMU.

As the originator of the word "sunshiner" (TM jtstang, Inc.), I disagree that the mere existence of sunshiners hurts SMU, if that is indeed what Stallion has been saying.

[Stallion]

Again-what makes you so sure that what I have proposed since Day 1 is not what Phil Bennett, Mike Cavan, Mike Dement, Tom Rossley, Forrest Gregg and John Shumate have pressed for since the Day they got their Jobs?

1. Streamlined admission procedure to identify and obtain early commits. CHECK
2. Lowering of the old 1,000 and 950 SAT requirement for Category 1 admissible athletes. CHECK
3. Admission of Prep School athletes. CHECK
4. Admission of JUCO athletes. CHECK
5. Admission of late Qualifiers. CHECK
6. Creation of athlete friendly majors and curriculm. ?
7. Relaxation of transferrability of earned college credits -see 3, 4 and 5. ? but I've admitted it is somewhat unclear starting with this recruiting class-we shall see.
8. Relaxation of some of the apparent rules concerning retaking of courses or SAT/ACT test which are more stringent than NCAA Rules. ?
While most on this board were [deleted], moaning and complaining about Coaches that couldn't motivate the Boys I told you exactly what needed to be done over 10 years ago for SMU to have a strong program-and SMU won't have a consisttently strong program until all are dealt with effectively. Now if I mistating what everybody in the Country calls a Commitment to Division 1A Football and Basketball-go ask Phil Bennett and Matt Doherty exactly where my criticism of SMU has been unfair. They can't because each has relied on exactly these types of recruits at prior coaching stops.

[EastStang]

I know better than to speak for Stallion. But he has been pretty consistent in his mantra that SMU has handicapped itself in recruiting which makes us less successful in recruiting. Do we get a diamond in the rough? Sure, but the teams that get the top recruits year-in and year-out will be successful more often than not. Having an occasional good year might help recruiting, but it still never gets you a top Division 1 recruiting class. If we want to compete in CUSA only, then our classes are slightly below average. If we want to compete for BCS appearances, then we're way below average. I have a positive view and have been accused on more than one occasion of being a sunshiner. I choose to focus on the positive rather than the negative. We do have the hottest women in the world at SMU. That ought to be worth a solid recruit or two.

[expony18]

6. Creation of athlete friendly majors and curriculm. ?

advertising?

[Arkpony]

It's called "attitude"

[ponyboy]

Again-what makes you so sure that what I have proposed since Day 1 is not what Phil Bennett, Mike Cavan, Mike Dement, Tom Rossley, Forrest Gregg and John Shumate have pressed for since the Day they got their Jobs?

1. Streamlined admission procedure to identify and obtain early commits. CHECK
2. Lowering of the old 1,000 and 950 SAT requirement for Category 1 admissible athletes. CHECK
3. Admission of Prep School athletes. CHECK
4. Admission of JUCO athletes. CHECK
5. Admission of late Qualifiers. CHECK
6. Creation of athlete friendly majors and curriculm. ?
7. Relaxation of transferrability of earned college credits -see 3, 4 and 5. ? but I've admitted it is somewhat unclear starting with this recruiting class-we shall see.
8. Relaxation of some of the apparent rules concerning retaking of courses or SAT/ACT test which are more stringent than NCAA Rules. ?
While most on this board were [deleted], moaning and complaining about Coaches that couldn't motivate the Boys I told you exactly what needed to be done over 10 years ago for SMU to have a strong program-and SMU won't have a consisttently strong program until all are dealt with effectively. Now if I mistating what everybody in the Country calls a Commitment to Division 1A Football and Basketball-go ask Phil Bennett and Matt Doherty exactly where my criticism of SMU has been unfair. They can't because each has relied on exactly these types of recruits at prior coaching stops.

You're not listening. We all know you're right about everything above. You're right. You're right. You're right.

That's not what I've asked. I'm asking why you're constantly beating FANS over the head for daring to show enthusiasm for their team.

So please answer the question: What's wrong with "cheerleading?"

[PerunaPunch]

Surely it’s not to show us all how much more smart he is than the rest of us morons?

If you believe that, you truly ARE a sunshiner.

[ponyboy]

But fans, alumni, and boosters do have power, in fact, enormous power. This is especially true of a private university. If the fans don't put pressure on the university to win, then they won't care. Hell, they would be happy to go 6-6 every year as long as everyone was happy and the money kept rolling in.

But because of pressure and unhappiness, we now have Orsini who then got us Doherty. If no one "cared" the money would not be spent on these changes.

It is up to us to keep the pressure on the administration and powers that be.

A cogent and well thought out argument. Still don't understand how beating up a fan who, for instance, wants to rave about Justin Willis' performance in 2006 helps us "keep pressure on the administration."

[Stallion]

quite simply it was to EDUCATE some of the truly naive SMU supporters who were glossing over the real problems that resulted in SMU's program falling farther and faster than just about any program in America. SMU athletics was like the King who wore no Robe. All the Cheerleaders kept saying what a pretty Robe it was and nobody had enough balls to point out that the King was naked. I can't believe SMU fans allowed this [deleted] to go on at this school for so long. Every Head Coach and every Administrator at this school has known exactly the problems that face this program and yet said absolutely nothing. Oh Cavan whined and complained largely behind closed doors and if you get Phil Bennett riled up he will sound like Stallion. If no one else in the SMU administration, Mustang Club, the Lettermans Club or the SMU community was going to stand up for the benefits of a strong Division 1A program then I damn sure wasn't going to sit back and watch this program head toward extinction without forceably arguing with overwhelming supporting evidence for a strong athletic program.. I have toned down my criticism of this program in direct proportion to changes made in the Model. Hey I even predicted a non-losing season this year against a very weak schedule. 6-6.

[Corp]

You want the truth?

After reading a plethora of posts on this board I have

come to the conclusion that Stallion may not only be

the best informed contributor but may also be the only

person who has the slightest clue of what it might take

to correct SMU's beleaguered football program. He is

one of the few who is not in denial and not living in the

past.