Willis quit

[down n out]

what we need is for everyone to back up BLM now esp now that jwill is gone. Justin was an amazing athlete and was fun to watch while he played for us. A week away from week 1 im starting to get that negative vibe we've had for years, lets keep our heads up about our football program and believe in what JJ is trying to do. lets go Mustangs!!!!!

[that's great raplh]

go ponies

[SmooBoy]

lets keep our heads up

and keep reaching for the stars

[down n out]

lets keep our heads up

and keep reaching for the stars

and make smart comments

[ALEX LIFESON]

I think the odds are very long against Justin returning, I have always liked Justin, and wish him well in the future.

[Hoop Fan]

Fact: BLM had 24 TD's and 23 int's 2008

Fact: If you exclude the lower division team we played in which he had 5 td's and o int's which should be expected playing a lesser team, and breakdown his td's and int's by first half of the year and last half you have:

1st half: 8 td's and 15 int's

2nd half: 11 td's and 8 int's

I had no idea of this, but Willis had 26 tds and only 6 ints as a freshman. wow. Maybe Rusty Burns was quite an offensive coach after all. Pistol up.

[mrydel]

And his 2nd year he won 1 game. Let's give BLM a 2nd and then compare. That would be only fair.

[MustangIcon]

Very sorry to see JWill go. I wish nothing but the best for him. He was a great QB at SMU and I never could have handled losing the starting QB job to BLM with the class that he did and certainly could not have overcome all the hardships Justin has had to. I am proud of his contributions to my school on and off the field.

Willis had, by all accounts, a fantastic frosh season that hands down was better than BLM's frosh year and it isn't even debatable. Not even close. But lets remember that there are a lot of other factors at play there and the numbers don't tell the whole tale.
1.) Our D in '06 was pretty darn good and gave the offense much better field position than the 08 offense had.
2.) '08 team constantly playing from behind (D gave up 450+ points in '08' compared to 290 in '06)
3.) Willis had a redshirt year.
4.) '06 featured the same offense SMU ran in '05. The majority of constributors in '06 knew the offense very well. In '08 the entire team was learning a new offense that no one had experience with.
Again Willis was better as a Frosh than BLM was but you can't just take the raw numbers without putting them into context.

I think that BLM is really going to have a very good season for SMU and once he does we will be able to move past the question of who should have started in '08.

[westexSMU]

Hey Stallion, didn't Texas QB Colt McCoy start at UT as a true freshman after Vince Young turned pro before his SR. year ? The other freshman he beat out starts at Ol Miss now right ? Just wandering...

[Stallion]

Colt McCoy redshirted-so did Vince Young. And BTW USC's Matt Barkley is not a first semester Freshman. He went thruogh spring drills as a mid semester graduate.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colt_McCoy

[Hoop Fan]

[quote="MustangIcon"]Very sorry to see JWill go. I wish nothing but the best for him. He was a great QB at SMU and I never could have handled losing the starting QB job to BLM with the class that he did and certainly could not have overcome all the hardships Justin has had to. I am proud of his contributions to my school on and off the field.

Willis had, by all accounts, a fantastic frosh season that hands down was better than BLM's frosh year and it isn't even debatable. Not even close. But lets remember that there are a lot of other factors at play there and the numbers don't tell the whole tale.
1.) Our D in '06 was pretty darn good and gave the offense much better field position than the 08 offense had.
2.) '08 team constantly playing from behind (D gave up 450+ points in '08' compared to 290 in '06)
3.) Willis had a redshirt year.
4.) '06 featured the same offense SMU ran in '05. The majority of constributors in '06 knew the offense very well. In '08 the entire team was learning a new offense that no one had experience with.
Again Willis was better as a Frosh than BLM was but you can't just take the raw numbers without putting them into context.
/quote]

sure, sounds good. just dont forget the context of Willis' second season. Does BLM have a public edict heading into this season from the AD to go to a bowl game or the coaching staff is toast? well, no. Teams and seasons tend to go off a cliff once you have a lame duck coach in about week 6. besides how much tension and pressing there was from the beginning of that season. And there was the one man marketing campaign. that always helps take pressure off a young player.

[jtstang]

Personally, given that our defense was our achilles heel last year, I have my doubts that our record would have been appreciably different if we'd started Willis or Peruna at QB.

Allow me to reiterate.

[Hoop Fan]

maybe, maybe not. I happen to think the record would have been better with Willis and the season more fun, despite the defense. The recruiting class would have been better, attendance would have been better etc. But the real point is SMU should finally be starting a proven senior QB THIS season, instead we are in perpetual rebuild. Its funny, part of the expectation with Jones and what he did at Hawaii was that he was a guy that would at least make us respectable quickly. maybe not 9-2, but respectable. So much for that cuz we weren't at all and part of the reason was a true frosh qb. I suppose we should now all be thrilled with 3 wins this year and call it tremendous progress.

[MustangIcon]

sure, sounds good. just dont forget the context of Willis' second season. Does BLM have a public edict heading into this season from the AD to go to a bowl game or the coaching staff is toast? well, no. Teams and seasons tend to go off a cliff once you have a lame duck coach in about week 6. besides how much tension and pressing there was from the beginning of that season. And there was the one man marketing campaign. that always helps take pressure off a young player.

I agree with all you are saying about Willis' soph year. And in spite of all that, he still had a very good year. I am just pointing out that when you compare both kids' freshman years, which I agree Willis was by far the winner, there is more to it than just looking at the numbers 24/23 vs 26/6.

Looking back to the end of Justin's first season, and that terrible kick in the nuts, season ending game vs Rice, could anyone have predicted things would eventually play out like this? That Rice game sealed the deal for me in knowing that Bennett had to go but Justin's season gave me a real reason for hope. I never could have predicted this outcome and it almost feels like a bad dream (not that I should be surprised when dreaming of SMU athletics- its always bad).

[Hoop Fan]

Icon, quit your complaining! It is indeed like a bad dream that won't end. I just find the whole turn of events a terrible waste and a shame for Willis as a individual and all of us who have been suffering with this thing the past however many years. I just don't think it had to be this way. Nothing Willis did would get you in the doghouse in most programs for very long. Maybe he was made an example, i don't know. I love SMU and want the best for it, but I refuse to throw kids under the bus, and I loath the "kind is dead, long live the king" mentality. And before someone tells me that BLM just beat him out, I could maybe believe that, but how did 3 guys beat him out, pushing him to 4th on the depth chart and essentially pushing him out of football? If Willis was made the backup and had legit chance to learn the offense and get in some games if BLM struggled or got injured, well that would have been different by far. Still waiting for someone to tell me how braden smith beat out our record setting qb who Orsini thought was a Heismann candidate 12 months before.