Watching TCU on CBS CS This Evening, and Noticing What MEN

[Alaric]

couch em..we paying Doh $10mm?

The Circle of Champions is picking up most of his salary so it doesn't hurt SMU. A bad football or basketball coach is a lot more expensive than a good and highly paid one

[Corp]

As to TCU. Better living through chemicals.

Care to elaborate on that remark?

[abezontar]

couch em..we paying Doh $10mm?

The Circle of Champions is picking up most of his salary so it doesn't hurt SMU. A bad football or basketball coach is a lot more expensive than a good and highly paid one

We're paying Jones that much. I didn't think we were paying Doh that much.

[FriscoPMG]

Well I haven't seen any of the guys this summer, but apparently several guys really bulked up this off season. I suppose that could also be a company line, but I think it was JJ who mentioned this during the kickoff luncheon. And I've heard it from other folks too, so hopefully our boys are actually turning into men. And at the same time if JJ is adding more athletes to this team, then there might still be hope of fielding a Varsity team instead of a JV one.

[SMU 86]

couch em..we paying Doh $10mm?

The Circle of Champions is picking up most of his salary so it doesn't hurt SMU. A bad football or basketball coach is a lot more expensive than a good and highly paid one

We're paying Jones that much. I didn't think we were paying Doh that much.

I don't care how much money you make, when you inherit a mess it takes time to turn it around. Nick Saban would not have turned around this program any faster.

[couch 'em]

As to TCU. Better living through chemicals.

If our guys aren't using some kind of steroids than WE'RE the fools. Almost every high level athlete is on some form of steroids increasing size or decreasing recovery time. They just cycle off when they are in a testing time.

[mr. pony]

Patience and support. Don't forget how long it has taken TCU to get to this point. From one of the worst programs in football through the 70's and 80's (the same time SMU was winning national championships) to mild success with Wacker and Franchione. The TCU unfaithful were ready to fire Patterson in his first year after losing to Northwestern State of Louisiana early in the season. Bill Snyder at Kansas State went 1-10 in his first season after having many players quit after his first meeting with the team and his only win was over North Texas. They were the worst team ever. We have the coaches in place and the recruiting will get better each year. The foundation is being constructed with good young players who stay out of trouble and will not be academic casualties and will work hard. Us fans just need to stay positive, fill the stands both home and away and spread the word about all the wonderful things SMU and the North Texas area have to offer. Before you know it this thing will snowaball and we will be getting our share of top recruits who want to stay local and play in front of their family and friends rather than going and playing in the Big 12 North or sitting on the bench and running scout team plays for two or three years at Texas, OU, OSU and A&M.

TCU was one of the worst programs as recently as '97 when they went 1-10.
(I won't mention the lone win.)

[ReedFrawg]

TCU was one of the worst programs as recently as '97 when they went 1-10.
(I won't mention the lone win.)

I will . Last game of my TCU career...they got rid of me and things turned around almost overnight!

[Deep Purple]

As to TCU. Better living through chemicals.

SMU has tragically lost three students to drug overdose in the last three years. TCU has lost none.

Physician, heal thyself.

[Big Frog II]

TCU was one of the worst programs as recently as '97 when they went 1-10.
(I won't mention the lone win.)

I will . Last game of my TCU career...they got rid of me and things turned around almost overnight!

Well that explains it.

[orguy]

I was thinking about how frustrating it is to be an SMU football fan today so thought I would insert a little history that I personally went through. I started watching SMU football when Rote and Walker were playing. In fact, I believe I saw the last game SMU played in Ownby Stadium before they moved all the games to the Cotton Bowl. Ownby was packed and my recollection is we beat Texas Tech like a drum. In those days I could get as one of the Knothole Gang for fifty cents.
Mattie Bell retired and his assistant Rusty Russell was hired. Rusty had had a great record at Masonic Home and great things were expected. Rusty did not do well although SMU had good players and he was fired after three or four years. He went to Schreiner Institute and tried to recruit me out of high school along with four other players from my school. Did you all know that Raymond Berry played at Schreiner before coming to SMU?
SMU then hired Woody Woodard who supposedly applied for and got the job with a penny postcard. Woodard had great athletes but he and his staff were not that successful. I have a friend that played as a sophomore on the 1954 squad and the talent was unbelievable. Three players in the NFL Hall of Fame, including Lamar Hunt and at least a half dozen players who had careers in the NFl, including Raymond Berry and two other ends. Three ends off of the same team making it in the NFL! Woody was not that successful and after five years he was fired. There is a story that when Woody was hired, Darrell Royal wanted the job but I question the story.
The next coach was Bill Meek who was coaching at U of H. He had a pretty good record there but, although they recruited very well the wins did not come as often as needed. There is a story which I believe might be true that when Meek was hired Frank Broyles who was an assistant at Georgia Tech wanted the job at SMU. I have to believe that if Broyles had been the coach in 58,59, with the talent at SMU they would have won a lot more games. I have a good friend who played under Meek, and he was an outstanding lineman, and he had little regard for Meek and his staff. I used to play handball with Meek and some of his staff and they absolutely had no grasp of strategy. So Meek got fired and the cupboard was pretty bare except for Ray Schoenke.
Enter Hayden Fry. He came off the Arkansas staff and his first year at SMU, he won two games and was SWC coach of the year, I believe. The next year he won four games, including beating Navy, who was ranked and SMU went to the Sun Bowl and lost. Hayden looked like the real thing but he could not sustain his momentum. In eleven years he had three winning records and went to three bowls, winning one, against OU. It was decided to fire Hayden in 1971 but the powers that be wanted to wait until 1972 to fire him. It almost backfired on them for SMU came close to going to a bowl and had a good team. A loss at Virginia Tech which was weak in those days sealed it for Hayde. Of course, Hayden went to North Texas and then to Iowa where he became a legend. What could have happened if Fry had not been fired?
Dave Smith was the next coach and he got fired after three years. He is one of the few SMU coaches with an overall winning record.
Then came Ron Meyer. Dave Smith was and is a good friend of mine but I knew Ron Meyer pretty well and liked him a great deal. He eventually got the program going along with the recruiting stuff. The last couple of years that Meyer coached, SMU was one physical football team. I liked that and they were easy to root for. Ron hooked im out of there in 1981 and went to the pros. I always believed that he saw the handwriting on the wall with the NCAA and left in spite of the great team he had coming back in 1982.
Bobby Collins and his staff came in and I believe they were a solid coaching staff. I knew Collins well and played golf with he and some of his staff. I have been around a lot of head coaches and Collins was a true gentleman and not an egotist like many head coaches.

Great post.

Bob Hitch was a first class ahole. However, I put him below the "gov" (yeah the one who gave all his money to UT medical school instead of SMU).

Bobby Collins was a gentleman. I thought it was sad that he never really had another coaching opportunity. First class individual. Agree with the nonegotist aspect. Sorry he got caught up in all the B.S. SMU was able to woo him away from a very solid Southern Miss program (at that time they were a national player unlike today). I think he moved back to Hattiesburg after the scandal.

Haden Fry had some great teams at NTSU. It is their football tradition in my view. He was a miracle worker for NTSU. People often forget how good some of those teams were.

[rich59]

Thanks for the compliment. I did not know Hitch as well as Collins and the other coaches at SMU but what I knew of him I liked. If I had a son who could play football, I can think of no one I would rather have had him play for than Bobby Collins. You are so right that it was a shame he never coached again. I think he wound up doing fund raising at Southern Miss. or maybe Miss. State. Another good guy at SMU who weathered many storms was Dudley Parker. The frustrating thing about SMU is that the school has so much going for it that there is no good reason why it can't be a national power in football and basketball. It was in basketball when Doc Hayes was coaching and with great consistency but the consistency has never been there in football except the early 80s. SMU is a good school, located in a dynamic city, in the middle of great high school football with good facilities on campus. In some ways I believe that SMU is the best coaching job in the US. The pay is good. Even Bennett was making a whopping salary. The facilities are good. They are in a league where the competition is so so and expectations are not high and in spite of popular opinion I don't believe the academics are too much of a deterrent to having good athletes. A good football coach will come along and take advantage of all the assets that SMU has some day. Maybe he is here now. I have my fingers crossed.

[Pony Fan]

It is just a matter of a few years of good recruiting. From what I hear, the frog fans who are not totally drinking the kool aid know we are coming back. They are really good right now, and honestly, I kind of hope they stay good, but we are coming. You can see it.

[SMU 86]

It is just a matter of a few years of good recruiting. From what I hear, the frog fans who are not totally drinking the kool aid know we are coming back. They are really good right now, and honestly, I kind of hope they stay good, but we are coming. You can see it.

Good post, I agree.

[Stallion]

I don't think too many TCU Fans are that worried about SMU right now. TCU's program is just getting more solid everyday. You look at the kids they are getting-they are getting top recruits up and down their recruiting lists. Its up to SMU to make it a rivalry-but right about now TCU fans are more likely to pity SMU Fans than be worried-kinda of like SMU Fans in the 1980s. plus the doom and gloomer predictions about TCU withering in the MWC are looking pretty foolish right about now.