Good News

[Pony Soup]

Unfortunately for him it will be even harder for him to retire with all that money after the government gets done "spreading the wealth"
But the good news is I can quit my job now!

DIE THREAD DIE!

I like your effort, keep it up!!

[couch 'em]

I agree with all of that. Hawaii was a joke and treated him very poorly. I'm just saying that the fact SMU offered $2MM is his primary motivation for being here (certainly understandable) and maybe if offered $1MM he might have just taken the year off. Hopefully his heart is in it, but if the players aren't in the weight room on their own then coaches can and do "motivate" or "encourage" them to be there. I blame that on the coaches more than the players.

Jones will simply recruit the talent that will put their priorities in order: 1. Football. 2. other. This is why he talks about recruiting from successful programs - those people know what it takes to win.

[mr. pony]

[quote="ponydawgUnfortunately for him it will be even harder for him to retire with all that money after the government gets done "spreading the wealth"
But the good news is I can quit my job now![/quote]

Perhaps if UT would spread its wealth of recruits ...

[OC Mustang]

If a person receives an academic scholarship, it is assumed that individual will spend excess time studying. If a person receives an athletic scholarship, it is assumed that when not studying or at practice-related activities, that individual will be improving his or her conditioning.

Athletes at SMU, at least the ones I knew, spent an enormous amount of time doing one of these things, and little time doing anything else. That isn't to say that they didn't have free time. It just came considerably more structured than the average pay-as-you-go Phi Delt or Pi Phi, and there was less of it.

I think Jones is correct in his assessment of needing that little extra. I think he is also aware that, generally, less than 12 hours in the day are available to players as "spare time to hit the weight room". IMHO, that's precisely his point: it's a sacrifice. He's not making light of what they do, but indeed everybody does it. So where is the edge that makes the difference? It's the sacrifice. Frankly, SMU's pay-as-you-go students (and I was among that type of student) don't tend to grasp that in the same, visceral way that scholarship athletes do. It doesn't make us bad; however, it does promote distractions to those guys who want/need that edge. Why go to the weight room when one can hang back and listen to some tunes or catch a video game...or even sleep a little extra after some afternoon nookie? Nothing wrong with that (in this context)...but nobody is getting any additional edge in the process...well, not the right kind anyway.

[RGV Pony]

I think this Lou Holtz quotation is appropriate for our situation:



Motivation is simple. You eliminate those who are not motivated.

[Oldmins]

I was up at the stadium today when the guys were coming in from practice. Everyone was seemed to be upbeat and carrying themselves pretty well. The weight room was packed with players, lifting pretty heavily from what I could tell. Even though the numbers aren’t there in the win column, it says something about what this coaching staff has done for the team. The culture is changing at Ford Stadium and that is a good thing. These kids want to win and they are working very hard every week to do so. Let's keep being the great fans that we are and this team will come around. Go Stangs.

"These kids want to win..." As opposed to the players last year who didn't want to win?

[2112]

june seems to be saying....that they are just doing the minimum.....no rocky balboa's here....

[PonyDoh]

Geez-we just got serious about winning. We've waited 20 years to get to this position. Wipe the tears from your eyes, dust off your britches and Pony-up a little.

Stallion, I'm beginning to think the rest of this board is panzy-central. I barely have expectations for next season, but I'm positive JJ gets it done. Just get better athletes, especially on D, and we win, that simple

[EastStang]

From everything I have read, Jones wants these guys to graduate and have a successful football career and most importantly a successful life after football. That is why JW got suspended. He was not taking care of his in class business. If you're playing Div. I athletics between practices, meetings, training, studying, getting tutoring help if needed, going to class, eating, and sleeping, there is not a lot of time for lots of extra curricular stuff. But in the spring, it does let up a bit.