Hold Your "Horses"

[The PonyGrad]

The schedule is more difficult as we add a game where we are big underdogs for one where we were big favorites. On the other hand, we get to play W St at home when we threw that one away last season, "literally," and we get Tulsa and Houston at home. The West division comes through Ford stadium.

Rice will be a wild card since they should be much better. ECU is a big unknown at this point.

7-5

[Stallion]

Tulsa is the "wildcard" in my book because they added some really nice JUCOs. The Derrick Hall kid could be as good as or better than Shawnbrey McNeal. Texas Top 20-A&M non-qualifier. Watch him. Problem areas for Tulsa are a returning offensive line which was attrocious last year and lack of talent on defense. As bad as they were against SMU it should be noted that UH robbed another 7-11 by beating Tulsa last year (saw a CBSC replay just last weekend)and they had Boise within range losing by only 7. Remember Tulsa stopped UH on a 2 point conversion with about :20 seconds but UH recovery an onside kick and a walkon hit a 53 yard FG on last play to win. Two pretty good teams that they stayed with in a bad year. I expect them to battle SMU for second. UTEP has a strong backfield with the Best RB in CUSA and a Senior QB who has performed well sometimes erratically spectacularly.

[The PonyGrad]

Tulsa is the "wildcard" in my book because they added some really nice JUCOs. The Derrick Hall kid could be as good as or better than Shawnbrey McNeal. Texas Top 20-A&M non-qualifier. Watch him. Problem areas for Tulsa are a returning offensive line which was attrocious last year and lack of talent on defense. As bad as they were against SMU it should be noted that UH robbed another 7-11 by beating them last year and they had Boise within range losing by only. Two pretty good teams that they stayed with in a bad year.

And Kinne is supposed to have his act together, of course we heard that last year about BLM.

[Stallion]

Kinne was simply running for his life last year. He may have gotten a little happy feet because of the OLine but when I saw him he made plays when given time to pass.

[HorsePower]

5 or 6 wins would be failure

6 wins and going back to the hawaii bowl and winning will NOT be a failure. The great thing about JJ is that as long as we win 6 we can know that we can go to the H bowl. This will be a building year guys, I know we BARELY lost some games last year but do not forget how many games we won because of HUGE plays by ES and Shawnbrey.

I think winning 6 should be possible. I am wanting more, but 6 and a bowl game and I will be VERY happy!

Absolutely right. We lost a few close games last year, but we also won a few. Someone here quoted Coach Jones as having said that we might have been a year ahead of ourselves last year, that some breaks increased our victories total more than it should have. I see us winning about six games this year, but it wouldn't surprise me if we win anywhere from four to seven games. Sanders and McNeal and Kennemer were the headliners who are missing from last year, but Enright and Dennis and Hudman are going to be missed, and I haven't seen enough people mention Chris Parham. He quietly locked up a bunch of blockers — foregoing personal statistics — so the guys behind him could make plays.

I'm saying we'll go 6-6, and if show growth from some of the young players in the process, we'll be building an even more solid foundation for the future. Coach Jones has said many times that 2011 is "the year" ... I agree.

[NickSMU17]

Kinne was simply running for his life last year. He may have gotten a little happy feet because of the OLine but when I saw him he made plays when given time to pass.

BS...I watched that whole game, he sucked...missed WRs all over the place..they pulled him as I recall..

Tulsa will be a tough game, but its at home this year, so is houston, and Marshall....

I think we would have beaten Marshall at home last yearWe played terribly and it was close...

[NickSMU17]

We play anylike close to how we played vs. Nevada, we will be 8-4...

That being said, I think 7-5 is the right call...

[Topper]

All is not doom and gloom

6-6 is now considered "doom and gloom"?
LoL...wow we have come a long ways....as I knew we would!
so ponyte are really that far apart?...i doubt it.
at this juncture I say 6-6 for regular season record
at this juncture what does ponyte say for regular season record this year?

same question to you couch'em ??????????????????????????????????????????????

I appreciate that you are dousing us with the bucket of cold realism. The Tech and TCU games will be very difficult. If we lose both of them, JJ will have to remind the team of all they overcame to be winners last year and to keep their heads up. Even if he is succeeds in keeping up morale, CUSA is one of the craziest leagues I have ever seen. Any team that can put together a really strong defense could dominate the league. Haven't seen anyone, including us, showing signs of doing so.

6-6: Not panicking. Renew my tickets.
7-5: Satisfied but want more.
8-4 or better? : Content.

But expect much more in 2011.

[kent dorfman]

I won't be surprised with a slow start. Against Tech in Lubbock with a team trying to find new kids to step up for ES, McCann, Hudman, Shawnbrey, etc, I cannot say that game is going to be anything but a wash with Tech winning. TCU, who knows, by then we shall see what we have. It's the 4th game, it's family weekend, on TV, and at night. Still I cannot put down a game against TCU as anything but a loss until we can prove it on the field that we are at their level. Then we have Couger High and UTEP to deal with and Tulsa is a wild card. Mix in a "dropped" game with a "steal," and I see a 7-5 team that improves as the season progresses. I'm with IPP: 2011 is when we make our mark. Padron will be a junior, the system will have been in place for 3 seasons, Margus will be hungry, and we will have tons of leaders on the team and tons of competition at many positions.

My fearless prediction for 2011: we open the season with a win in College Station. I will be there to see it and I hope to see many of you all there too.

Pony Up, Mustang Nation!

-Flounder

[couch 'em]

All is not doom and gloom

6-6 is now considered "doom and gloom"?
LoL...wow we have come a long ways....as I knew we would!
so ponyte are really that far apart?...i doubt it.
at this juncture I say 6-6 for regular season record
at this juncture what does ponyte say for regular season record this year?

same question to you couch'em ??????????????????????????????????????????????

Realism is typically labeled "doom and gloom". Predicting 6 wins this year is the same as predicting 2 or 3 wins last year. It's all relative based on the information.

That said, I made a similar although much shorter post back in the spring. I think 6 wins is a good prediction. I wouldn't be surprised to get 5 wins or 7 wins. 5 wins, while disappointing, would not be cause for panic considering what we lost and what we are going to get next year.

We got a lot of good brakes last year, a lot of clutch plays, and lot of luck. We could improve, and the ball just not bounce our way as much, and the competition gets a little better, and end up with a worse record.

[Stallion]

Kinne was simply running for his life last year. He may have gotten a little happy feet because of the OLine but when I saw him he made plays when given time to pass.

BS...I watched that whole game, he sucked...missed WRs all over the place..they pulled him as I recall..

Tulsa will be a tough game, but its at home this year, so is houston, and Marshall....

I think we would have beaten Marshall at home last yearWe played terribly and it was close...

I was talking about the 6 or so games I saw Tulsa play-I already said Tulsa played poorly against SMU.

[ALEX LIFESON]

If June wins 7 this year, he really is the best coach in the country. PONY UP!

[stc9]

I am going to say SMU gets 8 wins this season. I think they will be just as good as they were last season by the end of the November (yes... at the moment I am a hopeless optimist). My reasoning is based upon something JJ said at the beginning of the year. SMU is learning how to win close games. For the past 18 years (when I first enrolled at SMU), we have all suffered through SMU getting walked over in the second half. They would be up 14 pts at half and lose by 21 pts. These kids are starting to believe they can win those games. I don't think they will roll over for other teams like they have in the past. They will continue to compete and believe they have a shot at winning. Especially because their offense should be able to put points on the board.

The Marshall game was the one that told me the most about last years team and how the culture has changed. SMU was horrible that day, yet they still competed. They didn't pack it in and quit. That is a significant difference from years past.

[Mestengo]

Six wins will get you n a bowl? Yeah.

[ponyte]

All is not doom and gloom

6-6 is now considered "doom and gloom"?
LoL...wow we have come a long ways....as I knew we would!
so ponyte are really that far apart?...i doubt it.
at this juncture I say 6-6 for regular season record
at this juncture what does ponyte say for regular season record this year?

same question to you couch'em ??????????????????????????????????????????????

6-6 doesn't excite me. Doom and gloom is a mediocre season which 6-6 or worse fits my definition. Though 7-5 is only one win more than 6-6, it is a consistent winning improvement. Jones will have more of his players this year and less Bennett players. Jones has had time to teach his system and the Defense has a better understanding of its system after a year. We probably are very close in our hopes and potential expectation and the difference is about a hair's width. We did lose key players but a successful team has capable players to take over and others that are more mature than a year ago and posed to have a breakout season.

Our depth is our biggest issue. We stay health, we have a 7-5+ season. We get hurt in key areas and it is doom and gloom.

All in all, I think JJ has overall a better team and a better team attitude and most important, kids that know how to win.