NYC Takeaways

[Get_Some_Ponies]

June and Orsini were back east in NYC on Wed. night. Pretty wide open Q&A situation and as there wasn't any sort of luncheon warning, f it: here are some of the details

Lots of "booster talk" about future conference moves, etc (spec: Orsini sees a move in the next 18-24 months that will not be the "final" move). Sounds like there is some specific talk about moving conferences and JJ was feeling compelled to "just win" until the switch/ switches

June claimed general admission applications are at 2X what they were at this point last year (which remember was 30% higher than the year before). Thought was this was absolutely due to football and program exposure.

June acknowledged Kyle might have had some growing pains and taken a couple steps backwards. Bottom line was "KP is Great" and JJ posited he might have broken all SMU records this year (which is untrue) but that his downfield problems were seen and acknowledged despite overall efficiency numbers.

The redhirt at the corner position is hot sh*t and we should be excited for this.

Ben Got. Is a potential 3 year starter on the o line starting next year.

We're killing it on the recruiting class this year and have been competing and winning kids that were looking at USC , Cal, A&M, other big time programs.

#17 is going to be honored at the Bowl and heAding into next year

Any talk about black jerseys is either "total Internet balogna if you ask JJ or "we might take any Adidas uni" according to S O

As of Wed night ticket sales were at 4k of our allotted 10k. So there are lots of tix available for the gem and we need to step up to secure those.

Team wished they were heading to Hawaii this week but are reAdy to kick some [deleted] in the bowl. JJ stressed the importance of taking a W into spring.

June claims this is the best recruiting class in sum's history and that at this point, he would be surprised to lose even o e of our oral commits. Honor was given to Thad's flick that it has a good 10-12 minutes about rebirth at the end that are going to help lock down recruits.

Finally, there was some talk about how at the football hall of fame meeting last night that Texas was sitting right next to our guys (SO and JJ). It was not lost on our guys that UT will be playing in the Toilet Bowl this year while we're putting in real work.

And PS: there were laughs that Amon Carter was due for an implosion (while at the same time props were given to TCUs commitment to improving their program and a general understanding that there's no reason SMU can't do same.


Pps: June sees this as his last job: four years, and leave wihthe program in line to be top 15 going forward.

[goldenstang]

Thanks for posting this.

[RGV Pony]

Excellent post..much appreciated.

Emphasis on your last line..we're living the good ol days..enjoy these four years

[PonyKai]

I hope the applications number isn't a classic June-ism. Would be great to see that kind of spike so quickly.

Regarding only selling 4k of our allotted 10k...uhh we can't sell less than 33% of our own stadium capacity to a flipping bowl game being hosted at home? It's not like we've gone to 7 straight bowls, and we're all dissapointed because we "missed out on the Cotton Bowl" or something. Around 0.001% of SMU's alumni base went to see the game in Hawai'i. For the overwhelming majority, this is the first chance to actually go see a bowl. WTF?

It's going to look disgustingly bad if we don't sell LESS THAN 33% OF OUR OWN STADIUM CAPACITY for a bowl game and are OUTNUMBERED IN OUR OWN FLIPPING STADIUM. That is potato-e level embarassing. No matter how much June wins, ain't nobody gonna want to take the school that can't even fill 1/2 its small stadium for a bowl game.

Spare me the crap about playing in CUSA, not playing in the SEC, not winning the conference, or it being cold out. Man up and buy a f#%*#ing ticket. You don't even have to go, just buy it and consider it a tax writeoff donation to enhance the value of your own degree.

[BUS]

Last night I bumped my tickets from 6 to 10. People that are not SMU fans want to see this team. Just ask!
Mustang Militia
"We come to win"

[PonyKai]

Great, I'll believe it when you and I personally, added together, don't account for 1/2 of 1 percent of our entire bowl game ticket sales.

[mrydel]

I am curious as to the red shirt corner of whom he speaks. Parks and Avery both played. Did he give a name so I can let the excitement begin?

[ponyfan84]

Good info. I'm not worried about the bowl tickets. 3 weeks to go. A lot of alumni live out of town and being that the game is mid-day on a Thursday, it will be hard to go down for that. By the week's end I will know if I have that time off so I will try and fly down as well for the night.

Love Army, but Pony up!

[manhattanpony]

I hope the applications number isn't a classic June-ism. Would be great to see that kind of spike so quickly.

I'm pretty sure that the Development/External Affairs guy that opened or Orsini made the comment about apps being up 2x, so not a Juneism.

[PonyKai]

Sorry, unacceptable. Especially in this climate of conference reshuffling and 95% of athletic departments running in the red. Call it 100,000 living SMU alumni and we only have to SELL 10,000. So far, that would be 4% manning up. You don't even have to go, but buy a ticket, and I'm not soliciting hardship stories of why one specific person can't make it. You're fanatical enough to spend your free time on here, pretty sure you pass the fan test. This is a general rant.

[Dutch]

don't read too deeply into that number. season ticket holders were given an option to buy their actual season tickets before oct 30 for the AFB. I bought all 4 of mine, and i'm sure i'm not the only person that did this. the pre-sale tickets that season ticket holders bought don't count against the allotment of 10,000.

that said, i'm calling to get 6 more today which will come out of that number.

[ALEX LIFESON]

How many showed up at this event?

[PonyKai]

Eh, I guess I just view it as a number that should be looked at since Orsini/Jones chose to mention it and phrase it in that manner. Add that in to the fact that we don't have an enormous number of season ticket holders and the apathy and lack of support from big age groups of alumni have been, well, beaten to death already.

[FriscoChuck]

Great info. Thanks for posting.

About tickets: I am not suprised that we have only sold 40% of the allotment. Except for the excitements on Pony Fans, I have seen little effort by SMU to market these tickets. This needs to be a sellout for us with 35k+ in the statium. Let's hope there is a big push over the next several days to sell the remaining 6k.

Thad's show: What a great documentary. I hope that it does help lock up all the recruits. I also think it will open eyes for those that have forgot about or never knew about little ol SMU.

Go Mustangs, Beat Army!

[Mexmustang]

Anyone ask about Orsini's contract extension...doesn't it run out in March? Was NYC, an athletic event or a tag-on to a university fund raising event?