Only the first battle.

[BUS]

Did you not think that our players would be learning on the fly?

Did you not know that the whole system has changed on O and D?

Did you not ( come on ) expect this game to be ugly?

We ALL wanted to see our first victory but did you really EXPECT it?

For a few years we have not been good and with 90% the same players you ecpected WHAT?

I do not mean to flame anyone but to get each of you to think... think about the past 22 years of high admissions standards, not accepting transfer hours, ( sorry about this ) cheap coaches that were Div II or Asst. Coaches.

Stay the course with a coach and system that has won. THAT IS THE CHANGE.
The Circle of Champions and Bob Sharp have given SMU a proven leader, teacher and next years recruiting is almost complete.

OK, we lost the first battle but the war will go on for YEARS.
Clean your gun, write a letter back home, practice your war cry and get some sleep. Be ready for the next battle, next week.

[Stallion]

Yep it is officially September-I hate August.

[PoconoPony]

Stay the course. Patience, patience, patience. This year we are looking for improvement, learn new systems while gaining experience and maturity. Yep, it would be nice to win some games and we will. Do not draw any conclusions until mid season when some of this coaching and teaching has a chance to start working and improvement will be evident. Patience, patience, patience.

If you need any comparable programs/situations with which to compare look at Rutgers who has a fantastic coach and great recruiter in Greg Schiano. It took him 5 years to finally start getting the talent he needed to be competitive in the Big East and start going to Bowls. Rutgers is the only Div I BCS school in the state and he is just now getting kids to stay home and buy into his program. JJ should have an easier time as SMU has a tradition and JJ has a track record which Rutgers never had; but everything takes time and a lot of hard work recruiting. Our responsibility is to be positive, supportive, put our butts in the stands, put some $$$ in the Mustang Club and learn patience.

[Water Pony]

"Did we quit when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?" John "Bluto" Blutarsky

[BUS]

Get with the rogram and keep the faith that JJ will ( maybe in years ) get this team where it needs to be.

To think that we were bowl bound this year,, well,, what are you smok'in?

See you all this Saturday on the Boulevard.

[Hoop Fan]

bus, where are the reinforcements? where are the jucos? we don't have years to wait. You, me and the other 50 people on this board might, but SMU does not. JJ is not a young guy either. seriously, is he going to be here more than 5 years? highly doubtful. if he doesnt get it done in the next couple, we are looking at 10 years from now before we can expect a bowl. why? after the chuck and duck is finally installed and he retires, you think the next guy is going to run it? no, it will be another total retool. Really sad to see our rushing yards vs Rice. Bottom line is everybody and i mean everybody thought JJ would have an immediate impact. you cant tell me orsini didnt after launching big cash on the marketing campaign. Its revisionist history for people to suggest they expected a total teardown.

[SmooBoy]

"Did we quit when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?" John "Bluto" Blutarsky

We are the youngest team in the nation by far.

[PonyGolf13]

"Bottom line is everybody and i mean everybody thought JJ would have an immediate impact. you cant tell me orsini didnt after launching big cash on the marketing campaign. Its revisionist history for people to suggest they expected a total teardown."

He probably did! Think of what might have happened if PB was still here... May I also add that we didn't play some push-over cellar-dweller CUSA squad. Rice is very experienced and is a very solid football team.

[SoCal_Pony]

Speaking as someone who genuinely had ZERO expectations for this years’ team and who was not disgusted at all in Fridays’ performance, I will give you my $.02

There are multiple freshmen /sophomore contributors on this team who, if they are still contributing when they are juniors / seniors, is going to spell problems for this program. This is not an issue of them being ‘young’ and ‘inexperienced’; which undoubtedly hinders them, it is more an issue of them lacking talent.

So for us to get better, JJ is going to have to bring in much better players. My disappointment is that to date, I think our current recruiting class is average at best in a very weak division of a very weak conference. This is the bigger disappointment for me.

The challenge for JJ is to maintain his momentum. That will be more difficult when 12k show up for our Homecoming Game against Memphis.

It is ridiculous that we are perpetually the youngest team in college football. That can be solved by stockpiling JC big bodies as an interim step. I don’t see this happening as well; another disappointment for me.

My biggest concern is that we are going to witness a complete repeat of history…in the end, though; I think JJ will break the cycle.

[BUS]

Bare minimum:
two 300 # Juco DT's

[Alaric]

speaking of new systems, look at A&M and Michigan to see examples of the time it takes to implement new systems. We don't know about Sherman yet at A&M as a college coach but Rodriguez is proven w/o doubt. both of those guys lost to teams with less talent but established systems

[Argyle Pony]

Yes, we are disappointed that we didn't win...and things didn't go the way we wanted. If we are disappointed with our being 3 point underdog, where does that leave the Aggies, that were 18 pt favorites playing before the home crowd of 80,000 or more...the second largest to ever attend a football game there...or even think of Mississippi State who lost to La. Tech....Give JJ a break....it will happen and this game this week has all of our attention to see improvements that will be made....I too like September ....Go Mustangs!!!

[One Trick Pony]

you cant tell me orsini didnt after launching big cash on the marketing campaign. quote]



Orsini already did this; it’s like ground hog day to him.

Fired Mike K making 150 grand at UCF then hired a debunked George O’Leary after being fired from Notre Dame for lying (embellishing). And paid him 1 Mill.

They then lost every game the next year (17 in a row total, were on the espn bottom 10 every week) George had the same problem. They needed better qualified athletes to compete at this level. After he got his class in off to the Ship and two bowls.

After signing a three-year contract extension to begin the 2003 season, Kruczek was fired following a 3-7 start. He was replaced on an interim basis by Alan Gooch before the program hired George O'Leary for the start of the 2004 season. An increasing travel cost burden, and overall disdain with the midwest-based MAC saw UCF begin to explore the possibility of a different conference affiliation. The difficult coaching transition for 2004 saw the team hit rock bottom, going 0-11, blasted even by perennial basement dweller Buffalo. It would be their final season in the MAC.

In 2005, UCF started their first season as a member of Conference USA. Not expected to improve much over 2004, they surprisingly won their first conference game against Marshall, 23-13, and finished 7-1 in C-USA games, winning the East Division and hosting the first ever C-USA Championship game, which they lost, 44-27, to Tulsa.




We could win more than three games this year.

[SMU2007]

The 1999 Hawaii team (best turn around in college football history) lost their first game 62-7. Granted their opponent was USC but USC did go 6-6 that year.

I'm sure the Hawaii fans weren't that pumped about their new coach after game 1.

[Stallion]

SoCalPony

Remember Jones was hired after the JUCO signing date so getting more JUCOs into SMU from "second semester JUCOs" was problematic. He's picked up a few since. I would agree that SMU will have "recruit over" most all of these freshman with a few exceptions. With 29 players we'll have some surprises to add to the handful of solid prospects but recruiting must improve.