Is any of this wrong?

[Dooby]

Not to go off on a rant here....

First, until two years ago, SMU had the most draconian recruiting restrictions in Division 1 Football. It was tougher to get a football player into SMU than it was Stanford, Duke or Northwestern. From what I understand, if you were in high school and even thought about playing football, you weren't allowed to set foot on this campus or talk to a coach until you were already admitted to the university.

Also, if you recall, years ago, Tom Rossley, while I went to SMU, had to get special NCAA permission to hold football practice at night, because our players had class conflicts with football practice. One reason for this was that football players and other student athletes at SMU, unlike every other school in the country, weren't allowed to register early so that they could sign up for classes that worked around their practice schedule.

Those restrictions were put in place by Kenneth Pye, who loved SMU so much he tried to change the school colors to be more like the school he came from-Duke.

Many of these restrictions have since been abandoned. Primarily because the head of the SMU Board of Trustees decided he didn't pay a bunch of money for a football stadium with his name on it to watch a team that sucked.

And what happened as a result of the changes 2 years ago? The two best football recruiting classes since the death penalty. That is all. The most recent recruiting class, by the way, was the no. 1 non-BCS recruiting class in the country; it was better than TCU's and better than any team in the WAC and better than any team in C-USA and better than any team in the MWC. Not that this year's class is finished, but Bennett, despite this year's record, already has 5 commitments for next year, including the no. 5 tight end prospect in the country.

Now, why does this specific team suck more than past teams (this will take some time).

Point no. 1: Tom Rossley's recruited better players shortly after the death penalty because SMU was still part of the SWC and back then playing in Texas and in the SWC meant something. When the SWC broke up, SMU struggled and Rossley was fired and Cavan replaced him. Cavan led SMU to a 6-5 record his first year in 1997. Cavan's best recruiting class was that year (the 1998 recruiting class); if you review the rankings of each recruiting class since 1998, you will see that (i) each class was worse than the year before; (ii) Cavan couldn't recruit. What does this mean? The redshirted players of the 1998 recruiting class (the best class Cavan ever had) graduated last year and the talent level of the upperclassmen on this team has dropped significantly.

Point no. 2: Malin. Cavin had an assistant that was illegally supporting players qualify academically. SMU sanctioned itself that affected the 1999, 2000 classes; each class's scholarship limit was reduced by 4. This means that there is a combination of 8 redshirted seniors and true seniors missing from this current team.

Point no. 3: This is the youngest team in Div. 1 football. There are 106 players on the roster. If you take away the freshmen (true and redshirt) off this roster, who on most teams would rarely see the field, you are left with 48 players. Now some of those 48 can play. But as I pointed out, those 48 are from 3 of the worst recruiting classes in SMU history. Compare that to Bennett's first two recruiting classes, which were the two best classes since 1986. In short, Bennett is required to play the freshmen who 11 months ago were playing high school or on the scout team.

Point no. 4: Lack of QB. Bennett came in and SMU's two quarterbacks left. One graduated with a year of eligibility left and went to work at some accounting firm; the other left to play bass in a rock band (not making this up). They were the only 2 QBs at SMU who had ever thrown a pass in college. The year before, Cavan ran off Josh McCown, who left to go to Sam Houston State (Div. 1AA) was drafted by the Arizona Cardinals. Bennett was forced to turn to two freshmen, one of whom had never been remotely considered a college QB prospect and one who had a discipline problem. Two weeks ago, the kid with the discipline problem was kicked of the team. The other, quite frankly, sucks. As a result, Bennett has taken the redshirt off one freshman QB and is playing his some this year in the past two games. The new kid is looks like a solid prospect; he is huge and he is fast, but he is young and inexperienced.

Point no. 5. Jucos. This is a problem (or maybe it isn't). When Franchione was hired and turned TCU around in a year, he did it by bringing in a lot of players from junior colleges. It is widely believed that SMU is unable to do this because SMU does not offer degree plans that allow junior college players to transfer to SMU and have the requisite number of credit hours to be NCAA eligible. Essentially the problems is this: (i) Player X attends junior college and takes classes in education (like phys. ed., which Ken Pye eliminated which is why we took "Wellness" for no credit hours and on a pass/fail basis); (ii) Player X transfers to SMU, who doesn't offer those classes and Player X loses those credit hours; (iii) the NCAA requires that a player have a minimum of 50 credit hours to transfer and play sports and Player X loses his eligibility; (iv) thus, player X never transfers to SMU. I believe that if SMU started an education department, this would relieve that problem. But it might not actually be a problem, because Bennett already has one commitment from a junior college wide receiver for next year and Bennett publicly said he was going to bring in a junior college quarter back next year as well. If Bennett is doing this, does this restriction even exist anymore?

What is my point? And why have I wasted so much time writing this (and hopefully you reading this)?

SMU is turning this thing around. But it will take some time. I give money and I go to the games (more than I used to) because I have faith that SMU has finally gotten off its tail and decided to be competitive in football. And I really do believe it. Trust me when I say that I wouldn't be supporting Coach Bennett or SMU football if I didn't believe it.

End of rant.

<small>[ 11-08-2003, 01:09 PM: Message edited by: Dooby ]</small>

[PonySnob]

Great post! :thumbupcool:

[Stallion]

you made some good points but 1) Rossley was the WORST recruiter in the history of this school which is confirmed by any recruiting service you want to look at and is proven by the fact that SMU was 2-19-1 in his third and fourth years 2) Bennett's first class was no where near the second best recruiting class since the Death Penalty-two of Cavan's classes were clearly better-that momentum was lost partly because of Malin, partly because many of the best playerd defected, partly because this year's senior and junior classes recruited after the Malin situation were truly non-competitive years in recruiting, and partly because the recruiting standards were still in effect, Bennett/Cavan's recruiting year by any reasonable standard was below average somewhere in high 80's in the country 3) SMU's class last year was really rated about the 5th best non-BCS class in an essential dead-heat with TCU depending on which source you look at.

<small>[ 11-08-2003, 01:48 PM: Message edited by: Stallion ]</small>

[Dooby]

Stallion, coming from you, I'll take your comments as high praise.

It certainly is understandable that the Cavan/Bennett class would be below average nationally, given the few weeks with a lame duck or no head coach. Still, it was better than some of Cavan's earlier classes.

I am just trying to point out that there are reasons we aren't very good. And that most of those reasons don't have to carry over into the future.

Does this mean Bennett is really a good coach? No. But it easy to see why this team struggles, regardless of who the coach is. Next year will tell us more.

[PonySnob]

Given the lack of improvement this year in the team's play, how can Bennett have a chance at brining a respectable class in again? At some point, having the worst program in Division 1 has to hurt recruiting.

[Dooby]

You just do it. Do you think we are the only team to be facing a winless season? No. TCU went 1-10 in 1997 (I know, I know). South Carolina went winless in 1999. Houston went winless in 2001.

We were terrible last year; we started 0-7. You sell this school the same way Bennett did last year. You tell the kids "You can play right away. You won't sit on the bench. You can be a part of building something special."

[PonySnob]

Haven't we been selling that to recruits for the past 14 years? It doesn't seem to be working. When is that "something special" going to happen?

[Stallion]

good example but here comes my point-SMU ain't playing under the same Model even today as either Houston or South Carolina-which is one of the BIGGEST players in the country right now in JUCO recruiting under Lou Holtz.

[Dooby]

Originally posted by Stallion:
good example but here comes my point-SMU ain't playing under the same Model even today as either Houston or South Carolina-which is one of the BIGGEST players in the country right now in JUCO recruiting under Lou Holtz.

Well Stallion, what is left to be done? What policy is left to be eliminated? Is the answer establishing a school of education so that jucos can qualify? Surely you realize that is easier said then done.

[Stallion]

I said numerous times that I expect SMU to be more competitive 4-5 years after the first full recruiting class under the new system-but it turns my stomach for some people to say that SMU has made a Commitment to play competitive Division 1A football-unless that means mediocre teams perhaps a bowl game every 10 years or so. Ill be up front and tell you that's not what the goal should be from my perspective. I don't understand why it is so radical to suggest that SMU should play under the same Model as its natural and traditional rivals in Texas like TCU, Baylor, UT, A&M, Tech and Houston-to do that yes changes will have to be made-or we can fire our coach every 4-5 years maybe sooner.

[Recruiting Guru]

Coach Bennett's first class is hard to judge fairly, since more than half the players were recruited initially by Coach Cavan. That's not to say the first class was good or bad, it just really wasn't Coach Bennett's class. In his first year of recruiting a full class, he exceeded everyone's expectations. And at the risk of disappointing the pessimists out there, the word ggoing around the recruiting grapevine is that his class in 2004 might be even better than the 2003 class he signed in February. There are a lot of HS coaches out there who believe in Coach Bennett and his coaching ability, and their long-standing relationship with Coach Bennett allows SMU coaches to get in the door and meet kids.

It's early. Real early. But I wouldn't go giving up on players just yet.