If Bennett truly cared about SMU football...

[echothat1]

He would resign and turn over the reigns to someone who knows what they're doing...If this was his 1st year...maybe I'd be a little more sympathetic...but when you're in your 2nd season, you're 0-12, you're responsible for the WORST SEASON EVER IN SMU FOOTBALL HISTORY and you're the guy they brought in to TURN THE FRIGGIN TEAM AROUND from previous LESS dismal years...If you're Bennett, and you care, YOU RESIGN FROM THE HEAD COACH POSITION and convince the Administration to go get a proven big name.

Please Bennett, RESIGN!!!! Apparently this is NOT your time...step aside, and if you're a real man, take over the DC spot while convincing the admin to hire someone else...

SMU football is about to be extinct...We are the laughing stock of college sports...Every time I turn around, I am BOMBARDED WITH ridicule and jokes about SMU football(ESPN, DMN, message boards, former players, lunches with coworkers, water cooler chats, etc...)

As you said last night, IT'S YOUR FAULT...So get out!!!

[Bergermeister]

Humorous.

[PonyTales]

Not very.

Look, if we were 10-1 or 11-0 right now, and Coach Bennett demanded that we rip up his contract and give him a fat raise and extension, would you go for that? Of course not - one season doesn't merit an extreme reaction. I've said it a zillion times and I'll say it again - patience. I know it's tough - hell, I really thought we had a chance at Nevada, at Baylor, against UTEP, at Tulsa, against Rice .... we all suffer with each loss. But the reason you come to this board is because you love SMU, right? You want to see the Ponies do well, I assume? Look at the young players and believe in them. They're bigger, faster, stronger and for the most part, came from winning programs. That's not a slap at our upperclassmen - they have fought for SMU since they got here. But the young guys will make plays when they get their chance, and that will translate into wins. If they make enough of those plays and wins, we might start attracting the kind of recruits who make us say the same thing about these young guys when they're older. Wouldn't that be a wonderful problem to have? "Yeah, Blake Warren was great back in the day, but he's just not going to return punts as well as so-and-so .... Sure, Justin Boren is blowing open holes big enough for a truck to run through, but jeez, he's only 6'4" and 310. That freshman we just signed is 6'7" and 360. Time to put the big kid in."

I can't wait for the days when we have THAT problem.

Go Ponies - BEAT THE FROGS!

[Nacho]

We gave Cavan and Dement a raise and extension.

[virginiapony]

I know that this is a very frustrating year for SMU football. We haven't gone 0-12 yet, as the original post indicates, and a win against TCU would be great. Of course, a 1-11 season is terrible too. I'm of the opinion to give Bennett another year. SMU has invested a lot into this football team and Bennett. Give him a year to get his recruits more experience and see what they can do with a year under their belt. If next year, SMU shows no progress, then I think it'd be time for Bennett to go. But, let's give him one more year. Getting an entirely new coach would shake things up, and once again, we'd have to endure the excuse that "it's only the coach's first season."
Plus, as far as i'm concerned (as bad as I may sound,) a win against TCU would make this season a success.

[pony91]

The only problem with the believe in Coach Bennett theory is for a bunch of us we heard believe in Coach Cavan and Coach Rossley. We are so ready to win and sick of losing we are probably being unfair to a great human being like Coach Bennett. I really wanted Bennett to succeed with his story and all. The real question is are we prepared to pay a coach millions of dollars(and get rid of Copeland). If we are not then keep Bennett, atleast he has integrity.

[MizterTea]

Originally posted by pony91:
The only problem with the believe in Coach Bennett theory is for a bunch of us we heard believe in Coach Cavan and Coach Rossley.

somebody beleives in Coach Rossley...

http://www.packers.com/news/stories/2003/11/16/1/

as for Cavan... well, the SEC takes care of their own
http://georgiadogs.ocsn.com/genrel/080902aaa.html

[Dooby]

For the record, yes, Rossley is the OC for the Packers. He knows something about football.

Cavan (whom I loathed), on the other hand, is in the developement office at Georgia. He isn't in coaching anymore.

[GoRedGoBlue]

Once and for all, Rossley had no chance because of the recruiting restrictions, so it wasn't his fault (though he was a horrible recruiter according to Stallion). It was just time to move on after 5 losing seasons.

Same goes for Cavan, though I would say he wasn't all that great a coach.

As for Bennett, we should have won 3 or 4 games this year. In those 3/4/5 games, Coaching decisions really didn't COST the game, it was fumbles by the players - the best players on this team.

On the one hand, you can say that coaching can 'disipline' the players out of making mistakes. On the other hand, pure athletic ability dictates whether the player has a propensity to fumble or not.

Hell, against RICE, our RB fumbled again going in for the score. And 'here we go again' sets in, and the team crumbles.

Finally, there are 41 Freshman, 15 Soph, 13 Jrs and 11 Srs on this team. What do you expect?? Bennett played 7 Freshman on D last Saturday.

Would you think a bunch of HS freshman could compete with HS Srs?

Well, don't expect it at the college level either.

In 2005, if we suck I will call for his head, until then, quit with the rediculous.

[abezontar]

Isn't Bennett the 4th head coach we have had since the death penalty? Since none of them have been very successful wouldn't that indicate that the problem we have with this program goes well beyond just coaching. I would think that if it were only coaching then we would have lucked out with at least one of the coaching hires.

[Eddie P]

Echo-

The ridicule you endure would probably happen regardless of which school you attended, judging you solely from the post I just read.

I just think it's tragic when siblings marry...

[braginator]

Today I had a teacher tell me that Cavan is still being paid about $470,000 per year, becuase SMU was forced to buy out his contract in the process of firing him. That sucks [deleted]!!! :thumbdown:

[FloridaMustang]

I hardly think athletic ability has a thing to do with a propensity to fumble. It's a mental mistake, whether its not securing the football properly, not switching ball hands, or just being careless.

we're just shooting ourselves in the foot when we're so close because someone loses mental focus at key points in the game. how much of it is because of losing and being so disheartened is a lot of it.

<small>[ 11-17-2003, 11:44 AM: Message edited by: FloridaMustang ]</small>

[EastStang]

Okay Mr. Smartypants, tell us humble ignoramuses what exact coaching mistakes Bennet has made this year. Go ahead, game by game if you want. I can point to one that I think is worth comment, sticking with veterans far too long. He knew this would be a rebuilding year and yet he stuck with veterans. Is loyalty a bad trait or a good one? Some of his fake extra points and field goals smacked of desperation and probably won't happen with a winning team, but clearly he was trying to generate some momentum. Poorly prepared teams is one complaint I hear. What would you have done differently to prepare our teams to compete better? What defensive and offensive schemes would you have employed at the beginning of this season to compete better? Do you teach the scheme that you think in the long run will win games and let younger players grow up in it, or do you change schemes to fit each game? These are some of the questions that are on my mind, but I will be honest, I don't know the answers to these questions. I think in the long term, Bennett will work out, but short term, clearly his performance speaks for itself (3-21). Do I like being 0-11? No, how about those soccer teams, eh.

[sam]

East Stang,What in the hell are you talking about.You can't say that bennett has coached well this season. I'm going from memory here but I can remember so many times that bennett looked like a complete fool for his coaching. Lets start with the Rice game,he goes for a fake field goal on the FIRST drive of the game. It's basic coaching that you take the points in the 1st and 2nd quarters then let the game dictate your moves in the second half. Then we give up 500 yards to RICE,a team that has as many FR and Soph as we do and we allow them their most passing yards in three years. bennett lost this game.
I will also say that in the TT and OK State game that he had the worst prepared team that I had ever witness on the field, not poor athletes just poor coaching, Woods had a 7 TD game against us and I think he had maybe 2 the rest of the year
I remember at least 10 to 15 times that we were called for delay or had to use a timeout because we couldn't get the play in. In the Baylor game alone it happened three times once taking us out of FG range.
In the Nevada game do you remember the 2pt conversion and passing on a FG early in the game to go for 4th and 7 and there was another game we tried that 2pt play only to fail again.
and lets talk about our offense,run run run,how hard is it to stop a one dimensional team. Sure KK is going to get his but I bet if you look KK run out of gas the last three or four games last season just like he has this year,why overuse,he he can replace DD(the team's leading tackler)surely he could find time for Johnny F to spell KK and keep him fresh.
I will end by saying fumbles are the coaches fault and bennett knows this because he told the team that his first week here, I'll paraphrase but it was something like this bennett told the team that if they had held on to the ball the year before, he would not be here,he continued by saying that fumbles are mental mistakes and his team would not make mental mistakes.
What he should have told them was that his teams would not play offense but to offset that we would play even less defense.