2010-11 Men's Schedule is out

[ponyboy]

Number 5 right now.

[redpony]

Hey GSP- great to have you back posting. Needed another big-10 supporter for the season .

Yes, so far this year the men's team is doing great and are #5. Let's hope that it continues throughout the season. Like many, I would have been happier if the OOC schedule would have included some of the usual soccer powerhouses instead of some of the lower rung schools that we have played. This is the first year since SH left that we have seen positive improvement. It will be interesting to see how far we go in the NCAA tourney this year.

GO PONIES!!!

[George S. Patton]

Going to MSP for Ohio State-Minnesota on Oct. 30.

FWIW -- While the shots at Orsini are deserved, I think the reality is that if we are going to be Top 25 in all we do, it has to start with the FB program being top 25 in all it does so the $$$ can flow into the other sports and give them more support and resources.

I think there's a correlation between TCU football being great and the baseball program reaching a great status.

Football drives the train in athletics in about all but about the Big 6 BB jobs in CBB.

[redpony]

GSP- boy you are really a masochist- Minn. vs OSU. I expect OSU to win by at least 30. I wish Minn had a better team. I really prefer the B-10 to be strong throughout. However, I am sure you will have a great trip.
While I generally agree with your comments about fball driving the revenue for other sports I would say that Rice is an exception. Poor fb but pretty good baseball. Not sure that some of our other programs could not have shown much better improvement with good coach selection etc.

Guess the next few years are going to be very interesting.

GO PONIES!!!

[George S. Patton]

I think if Orsini had it to do over again, he would have hired football first and then basketball. But he couldn't do that. He walked into a situation where the job was open and Jim Copeland was leaving.

So he gambled with a known name who was trying to resurrect his career with Doherty. My guess is he did it with the same thinking that he used when he hird George O'Leary at UCF.

Well, it didn't work. Bad fit. Now we're stuck with Doherty playing out the string until the contract fades and he leaves either of his making or ours. The only way I can see Doherty having a chance to see 2011-12 is if he's a contender and CUSA. Not 7-9. A contender.

Obviously, Orsini's got a football coach that seems to be doing well or finally has given the program momentum and regenerated interest.

As far as the soccer hires are concerned, I don't know anything about these guys or their background. But it would appear that the women's program is trying to get better in its third year and the men's soccer program is coming back to its old days. We were just used to Top 10. We got spoiled when Shellas left and thought we were entitled to it.

Maybe we were too pollyanna for that and didn't know how much the new coach had to tear everything down to build it back up.

I have no way of knowing this, but did Shellas leave this program in good shape or did people out there think this was about tip over but were making the new coach the fall guy?

But AD's two primary jobs are hiring coaches and fund raise. A new BB practice facility, 20 guys throwing it down every year to pay June Jones, new tennis center, think we have golf thing going with DAC? A DMN story suggested he's going to ask for a campaign to build the indoor facility (if so, where do I mail my check?) and a pretty good scoreboard as Ford.

The hiring thing is good in some spots and bad in others. But it's clear, Orsini's legacy will be judge on if he got football going in the right direction. That's what the faitthful want the most. So far, he's earned his salary.

[PonyDoh]

I think if Orsini had it to do over again, he would have hired football first and then basketball. But he couldn't do that. He walked into a situation where the job was open and Jim Copeland was leaving.

So he gambled with a known name who was trying to resurrect his career with Doherty. My guess is he did it with the same thinking that he used when he hird George O'Leary at UCF.

Well, it didn't work. Bad fit. Now we're stuck with Doherty playing out the string until the contract fades and he leaves either of his making or ours. The only way I can see Doherty having a chance to see 2011-12 is if he's a contender and CUSA. Not 7-9. A contender.

Obviously, Orsini's got a football coach that seems to be doing well or finally has given the program momentum and regenerated interest.

As far as the soccer hires are concerned, I don't know anything about these guys or their background. But it would appear that the women's program is trying to get better in its third year and the men's soccer program is coming back to its old days. We were just used to Top 10. We got spoiled when Shellas left and thought we were entitled to it.

Maybe we were too pollyanna for that and didn't know how much the new coach had to tear everything down to build it back up.

I have no way of knowing this, but did Shellas leave this program in good shape or did people out there think this was about tip over but were making the new coach the fall guy?

But AD's two primary jobs are hiring coaches and fund raise. A new BB practice facility, 20 guys throwing it down every year to pay June Jones, new tennis center, think we have golf thing going with DAC? A DMN story suggested he's going to ask for a campaign to build the indoor facility (if so, where do I mail my check?) and a pretty good scoreboard as Ford.

The hiring thing is good in some spots and bad in others. But it's clear, Orsini's legacy will be judge on if he got football going in the right direction. That's what the faitthful want the most. So far, he's earned his salary.

He hasn't earned his money, he rallied some frustrated boosters, and paid a ridiculous sum for a non-BCS coaching position. I could have hired June Jones w/the money Orsini had in his back pocket. He raised it, so kudos for that, but all it said was that SMU is incredibly wealthy, not that he has business savvy or industry swag. Not a shot, cause he got it done, but if your legacy is grossly overpaying a HC candidate, at a school that draws like 20k, your ROI is pretty limited in the near and long-term. Love June, but that on the CoC and their willingness to go above and beyond the call, cause Orsini wasn't making miracles out of 500k.

[George S. Patton]

I think you're sandbagging it. When wealthy alums are grumpy and want a reason to donate to their school, all it takes is an AD who has the guts to approach them. That's what ADs do. They sell an idea.

Bob Stoops and Mack Brown aren't overpaid? Gary Patterson isn't overpaid. Just about every head coach in college football and BB -- 7 figures -- is overpaid. But that's what the market bears and so we jumped in.

And if this was so easy, why didn't Jim Copeland come up with a plan like this?

You and I both know that with anything like this,the attendance is the last thing to come. I equate it to the economy. When there's a recovery, jobs are the last thing. When a football program recovers and wins consistently, fan awareness is the last thing to come. One winning season isn't going to do it. TCU went through it to but its grass roots program worked to get more people interested in that.

If the football program sustains, I would be disappointed if the numbers didn't come up over time and hang in there solidly. Heck, the oldtimers will tell you that back in those glory days of the 1980s we weren't busting it out with 55K every home game at TS and if we were, half was from UT or A&M.

Look, June identified that we lost a generation of fans when the DP came -- I tend to agree with that -- and then Ken Pye did his own version of the DP.

I was in school when there was no football. You want to talk about something that split the campus and nullified the atmosphere? That did it. And the recovery from that isn't overnight.

Doherty tried his own grass roots campaign but he ran into three problems. 1. He's an a-hole. 2. He just recruited his 3rd(?) Texas player in 4+ years so no connections with the state (You and I will never agree about that so let's just leave it at that) 3. He has yet to produce a winning season.

Orsini may be a lot of things, and no I'm not a huge fan either, but did kinda like watching SMU play football on Christmas Eve in 2009.

[ponyboy]

You should never use the phrase "that's what the market bears" with the word "overpaid." Economics 101.

[PonyDoh]

I think you're sandbagging it. When wealthy alums are grumpy and want a reason to donate to their school, all it takes is an AD who has the guts to approach them. That's what ADs do. They sell an idea.

Bob Stoops and Mack Brown aren't overpaid? Gary Patterson isn't overpaid. Just about every head coach in college football and BB -- 7 figures -- is overpaid. But that's what the market bears and so we jumped in.

And if this was so easy, why didn't Jim Copeland come up with a plan like this?

You and I both know that with anything like this,the attendance is the last thing to come. I equate it to the economy. When there's a recovery, jobs are the last thing. When a football program recovers and wins consistently, fan awareness is the last thing to come. One winning season isn't going to do it. TCU went through it to but its grass roots program worked to get more people interested in that.

If the football program sustains, I would be disappointed if the numbers didn't come up over time and hang in there solidly. Heck, the oldtimers will tell you that back in those glory days of the 1980s we weren't busting it out with 55K every home game at TS and if we were, half was from UT or A&M.

Look, June identified that we lost a generation of fans when the DP came -- I tend to agree with that -- and then Ken Pye did his own version of the DP.

I was in school when there was no football. You want to talk about something that split the campus and nullified the atmosphere? That did it. And the recovery from that isn't overnight.

Doherty tried his own grass roots campaign but he ran into three problems. 1. He's an a-hole. 2. He just recruited his 3rd(?) Texas player in 4+ years so no connections with the state (You and I will never agree about that so let's just leave it at that) 3. He has yet to produce a winning season.

Orsini may be a lot of things, and no I'm not a huge fan either, but did kinda like watching SMU play football on Christmas Eve in 2009.

It doesn't take business finesse or savvy to overpay w/other peoples money. In no way, shape, or form, did we pay market pricing. Our back end revenue looks nothing like UT or OU and never will. TCU, as successful as they've been on the field, certainly isn't raking in cash, and their attendance still stinks. They didn't jump off into the deep end either. They made a calculated move, improved, and then Patterson got his.

You only paint half the picture of an ADs responsibilities, the fun part. Fundraising & selling ideas is all greasing palms. Meeting a bottom line expectation on a spreadsheet, while maintaining budgets to market the product, is the dirty part. We don't market cause we run so deep in the red. There is forward progression in football, but the numbers don't reflect excitement. Orsini is a high flyer w/little substance. How about this, let's leverage whatever rich boosters we have left, buy a new hoops coach for 2mil plus, and have enough left over to market the programs. I'm all for it. When he bolts, someone is going to spend long hours playing clean up.

[EastStang]

As lousy as our football program was when Jones came on board, one almost certainly had to overpay to get a coach of the caliber that we needed to turn the program around. SMU and coaching graveyard were always used in the same sentence. And it didn't matter who we got in the past, they failed. We got a coach who will show that SMU can succeed again without cheating. Now as far as the Doh hiring is concerned, clearly he was trying to pull an O'leary. Add in the fact that Orsini probably knew Doh from ND where Doh did a great job, and he rolled the dice. UNC is a tough audience for a young B-ball coach. And dealing with the divas that play there has to be trying. So, it was a calculated risk that out of the limelight, Doh could again put together a decent program. Instead, he failed.

[George S. Patton]

I think you're sandbagging it. When wealthy alums are grumpy and want a reason to donate to their school, all it takes is an AD who has the guts to approach them. That's what ADs do. They sell an idea.

Bob Stoops and Mack Brown aren't overpaid? Gary Patterson isn't overpaid. Just about every head coach in college football and BB -- 7 figures -- is overpaid. But that's what the market bears and so we jumped in.

And if this was so easy, why didn't Jim Copeland come up with a plan like this?

You and I both know that with anything like this,the attendance is the last thing to come. I equate it to the economy. When there's a recovery, jobs are the last thing. When a football program recovers and wins consistently, fan awareness is the last thing to come. One winning season isn't going to do it. TCU went through it to but its grass roots program worked to get more people interested in that.

If the football program sustains, I would be disappointed if the numbers didn't come up over time and hang in there solidly. Heck, the oldtimers will tell you that back in those glory days of the 1980s we weren't busting it out with 55K every home game at TS and if we were, half was from UT or A&M.

Look, June identified that we lost a generation of fans when the DP came -- I tend to agree with that -- and then Ken Pye did his own version of the DP.

I was in school when there was no football. You want to talk about something that split the campus and nullified the atmosphere? That did it. And the recovery from that isn't overnight.

Doherty tried his own grass roots campaign but he ran into three problems. 1. He's an a-hole. 2. He just recruited his 3rd(?) Texas player in 4+ years so no connections with the state (You and I will never agree about that so let's just leave it at that) 3. He has yet to produce a winning season.

Orsini may be a lot of things, and no I'm not a huge fan either, but did kinda like watching SMU play football on Christmas Eve in 2009.

It doesn't take business finesse or savvy to overpay w/other peoples money. In no way, shape, or form, did we pay market pricing. Our back end revenue looks nothing like UT or OU and never will. TCU, as successful as they've been on the field, certainly isn't raking in cash, and their attendance still stinks. They didn't jump off into the deep end either. They made a calculated move, improved, and then Patterson got his.

You only paint half the picture of an ADs responsibilities, the fun part. Fundraising & selling ideas is all greasing palms. Meeting a bottom line expectation on a spreadsheet, while maintaining budgets to market the product, is the dirty part. We don't market cause we run so deep in the red. There is forward progression in football, but the numbers don't reflect excitement. Orsini is a high flyer w/little substance. How about this, let's leverage whatever rich boosters we have left, buy a new hoops coach for 2mil plus, and have enough left over to market the programs. I'm all for it. When he bolts, someone is going to spend long hours playing clean up.

Basketball is on the backburner until football is up and rolling, How bout that dose of reality? That's what you got going on here.

[PonyDoh]

I don't have a problem w/hoops being on the back burner. W/the schedule we're playing though, just be forewarned that Doh may play/recruit his way into job security. If Doh only gets 19 wins and goes 8-8, it's going to be tough to fire the guy, that's all. I'm cheering for the kids, don't much care what happens w/Doh. I just find it disturbing that any Mustang fan would cheer against the kids, who work so hard for the school, b/c they want a coaching change. Those same folks can't name 3 legit candidates for the job, that are a definitive upgrade, in a similar price range.

FWIW, for all my griping of the Jfrog signing, he's a legitimately good kid it seems. He loves being at SMU, works hard, recognizes and is grateful for the opportunity. He's quickly becoming one of my favorites. On facebook, current Mav, Dom Jones, glows about Frog and his work ethic. Great stuff.

[RednBlue11]

Going to be interesting to see what attendance will be like for our game game against Memphis.

January 12th right?

Rush Week begins the 11th and regular classes don't resume until the 18th.

[PonyDoh]

lol @ rush week hurting attendance. Its amazing I sweat blood for programs associated w/such a soft student body. Thank God my Terp brethren throw batteries

[RednBlue11]

lol @ rush week hurting attendance. Its amazing I sweat blood for programs associated w/such a soft student body. Thank God my Terp brethren throw batteries

thoughtless comment.

my point is, only about 40% of the student body will be anywhere near campus at that point. and if not for rush week there wouldn't be any.