Horseshoes and Handgrenades

[couch 'em]

Please...Larry Johnson under Dave Bliss? Yeah, wonderful assets to the university they would have been.

Do you want winning, or moral smugness?

[OC Mustang]

Larry Johnson...oh wait he did pick us and then...

and then Kenneth Pye stepped in and told him that he would have to sit out his freshman year because his grades weren't strong enough. That IDIOT Pye really did a number on both BBall and Football.

He was my president when I was on campus. The man who personally tried to kill the engineering program and convert SMU into a big liberal arts college.

Didn't try to "kill" the engineering program. He had to make budget cuts, and every cut at school level was approved directly by Dedman, Hunt, Harmon, Altschuler, Blanton, Lyle, and many others. I know b/c I saw the papers associated with it. This particular cut was Civil and Mechanical, the reasoning being at the time that the engineering school had waning enrollment and needed significant capital improvements to facilities. It was god-awful. Gut-wrenching. Pye didn't like it at all. But he did it. You see how long and how much money it has taken to get engineering into a new building, etc.

He also consolidated Housing and Residence Life, cutting out 8 or 9 jobs. He reduced staff in a lot of areas, froze university wages, and generally did what was necessary while the university dealt with a recession.

What's really funny about people's criticism's of Pye is that ALL of it was approved by the Board. Perhaps not unanimously, but in every case, the board backed him. Not surprising, since McKinsey & Co. had provided a strategic analysis that pointed the school toward making all sorts of changes, including dropping football altogether. THEY were the folks that recommended dropping undergraduate business program to place emphasis on graduate business programs.

I didn't realize how much crap that was until they dusted off the athletics piece of their report, replaced SMU's name w/ Rice, and submitted it to them...in some cases the same language and same punctuation.

Malcolm Gillis at Rice told them, quite simply, to kiss his [deleted]. The rest is history. Pye didn't do that...but then again, Gillis had the benefit of having known about SMU's engagement with McKinsey. Pye didn't.

[OC Mustang]

Please...Larry Johnson under Dave Bliss? Yeah, wonderful assets to the university they would have been.

Do you want winning, or moral smugness?

Let's see. Do you consider Baylor's experience w/ Bliss a good trade for them? Do you consider that whole thing a trade between winning and moral smugness?

[OC Mustang]

well, Larry Johnson under Tark...pick your poison. I don't think UNLV minded the national title.

First, a comment about grades: Johnson didn't go straight to UNLV...so his grades must have been a legitimate issue, no? He went to Odessa College. If he was so sought-after, why didn't somebody else pick him up? I don't think that is the reason the Pye nuked his recruitment; however, I do think it was legitimate cover.

Now, to your point: naw, I think UNLV was cool w/ it. And evidently, the NCAA was pretty cool w/ it too...they allowed punishment for NCAA violations to be pushed back a year so UNLV could shoot for a second title. Duke took them on that one, with some folks, as I recall, wondering aloud if that was planned. I don't know, but I know that SMU couldn't afford something like that right on the heels of the football DP. The NCAA had it in for SMU; it would have thrown the book instead of deferring punishment.

[Stallion]

The real reason was that the SAT company has a model that tracks and red-flags SAT scores which show unusual improvement after the SAT is retaken. Johnson's test score was redflagged. SMU could have accepted the score but instead said they wouldn't accept it so he went to Odessa College rather than retaking it which he had the option to do. I don't think it was his grades that were at issue.

[RGV Pony]

The real reason was that the SAT company has a model that tracks and red-flags SAT scores which show unusual improvement after the SAT is retaken. Johnson's test score was redflagged. SMU could have accepted the score but instead said they wouldn't accept it so he went to Odessa College rather than retaking it which he had the option to do. I don't think it was his grades that were at issue.

thus giving a certain future assistant fb coach at SMU an idea that would ultimately crash that program's progress under Cavan

[PonySoprano]

The Top 10 Close But No Cigar SMU Recruits:

1. Brian Bosworth OU
2. Tim Brown ND
3. Billy Don Jackson UCLA
4. Mewelde Moore Tulane
5. Egypt Allen TCU
6. Gerald Taylor TCU
7. Dexter Manley Oklahoma St.
8. James Lott UT
9. Paul Rice USC(later transferred to SMU)
10. Kendial Lawrence Missouri

Bam Morris, Tx Tech

[Stallion]

good one. Bam averaged 13 yards per carry in high school. Think he wanted to go to SMU but couldn't meet SMU's raised standards

[OC Mustang]

good one. Bam averaged 13 yards per carry in high school. Think he wanted to go to SMU but couldn't meet SMU's raised standards

Desoto High School, right? or was the Byron Hanspard?

Whatever happened to Spike?

[PoconoPony]

Larry Johnson...oh wait he did pick us and then...

and then Kenneth Pye stepped in and told him that he would have to sit out his freshman year because his grades weren't strong enough. That IDIOT Pye really did a number on both BBall and Football.

The same LJ who never graduated from UNLV and has 15 illegitimate kids.

[PoconoPony]

The Top 10 Close But No Cigar SMU Recruits:

1. Brian Bosworth OU
2. Tim Brown ND
3. Billy Don Jackson UCLA
4. Mewelde Moore Tulane
5. Egypt Allen TCU
6. Gerald Taylor TCU
7. Dexter Manley Oklahoma St.
8. James Lott UT
9. Paul Rice USC(later transferred to SMU)
10. Kendial Lawrence Missouri

The same Dexter Manley who never graduated from OSU was ADD could not read or write and was a druggie??????

[PonySoprano]

good one. Bam averaged 13 yards per carry in high school. Think he wanted to go to SMU but couldn't meet SMU's raised standards

Desoto High School, right? or was the Byron Hanspard?

Whatever happened to Spike?

Bam Morris was from Cooper in East Texas and an SMU Legacy. His brother Ron played WR for us from 83-86 and then went on to play for the Bears in the NFL.

I was told that Bam wanted to follow his brother's footsteps to SMU, but due to the admission standards and the hoops a recruit had to jump through just to take an official visit, he ended up going to Tech.

[The XtC]

[quote="Stallion"]The real reason was that the SAT company has a model that tracks and red-flags SAT scores which show unusual improvement after the SAT is retaken. Johnson's test score was redflagged. SMU could have accepted the score but instead said they wouldn't accept it so he went to Odessa College rather than retaking it which he had the option to do. I don't think it was his grades that were at issue.[/quote]

Grades weren't an issue, you have the sequence of events correct.

[The XtC]

[quote="PoconoPony"][quote="Stallion"]The Top 10 Close But No Cigar SMU Recruits:

1. Brian Bosworth OU
2. Tim Brown ND
3. Billy Don Jackson UCLA
4. Mewelde Moore Tulane
5. Egypt Allen TCU
6. Gerald Taylor TCU
7. Dexter Manley Oklahoma St.
8. James Lott UT
9. Paul Rice USC(later transferred to SMU)
10. Kendial Lawrence Missouri[/quote]

The same Dexter Manley who never graduated from OSU was ADD could not read or write and was a druggie??????[/quote]

I thought Manley did get a diploma from OSU, and that's why it was such a scandal when he revealed that he was illiterate. Manley's life has been a real rollercoaster, but I respected the way he handled the announcement that he was taking adult literacy classes, because he had never learned to read or write during high school and college. I know he had some money problems, as well. Hopefully he's having some kind of decently comfortable retirement.

[The XtC]

[quote="PonySoprano"][quote="OC Mustang"][quote="Stallion"]good one. Bam averaged 13 yards per carry in high school. Think he wanted to go to SMU but couldn't meet SMU's raised standards[/quote]

Desoto High School, right? or was the Byron Hanspard?

Whatever happened to Spike?[/quote]

Bam Morris was from Cooper in East Texas and an SMU Legacy. His brother Ron played WR for us from 83-86 and then went on to play for the Bears in the NFL.

I was told that Bam wanted to follow his brother's footsteps to SMU, but due to the admission standards and the hoops a recruit had to jump through just to take an official visit, he ended up going to Tech.[/quote]

Ron was my teammate, all those years ago, and they had another brother who ran track at TCU. Very athletic family.