Financial commitments

[MustangFan]

Here's how I see things:
- Bennett is making significantly more than Cavan did
- Assistant coaches are supposedly going to make significantly more
- Recruiting budget supposedly is going to be increased
- Marketing budget is supposedly going to be increased

In other words, it looks like the school is putting its money where its mouth is, when it comes to making the financial commitment to building a winner at SMU. So the question remains ... WHEN WILL THERE BE A TRAING TABLE? There is no better way to monitor the athletes' nutritional intake than to provide their meals, as determined by The Diesel and the rest of the staff. Pre-determined diets for linemen, will differ from those for receivers and DB's, as they should. This would be a huge boost to the program.

Also would help athletes in other sports.

Anyone know if a training table is in the plans?

[jettison]

I thought some sort of quasi-training table had been started? Maybe not along the same lines as other schools, but something more than what they had when this topic first came up last year?

Have I been smoking crack?

[fbdad]

The "Training Table" consisted of dinners at the campus cafeterias with pre-game day meals at a local restarant. It was very loosely organized to say the least. The quality of the food was not what one would expect at a training table.The program only covered the playing schedule. We now have time to get a real training table. I would also recommend the reinstitution of housing the players in local hotels prior to home games. This was dropped this last season due to budget constraints. This team needs to be together more especially prior to games!!

[DiamondM]

Alright. I will now ruffle feathers. You all know how much I LOVE college football and support it, BUT ...

Of all the things this program needs to get better, this is so far down the list of relevance I cannot even explain adequately.

I have no problem with having a nutritionist or dietician on staff to help direct the players to the kinds of things they ought to choose in order to, say, develop muscle mass versus footspeed, but actually babysitting adults at meals, just like babysitting adults the night before a game by putting them in a hotel IN TOWN instead of trusting adults to follow curfew (there I go attacking another staid fixture of the college football empire), is ridiculous.

Training table just seems to me one of those things that was "always done" (for the football team only, mind you), and thus people think we ought to do it too. The actual impact simply isn't that great. Not to mention (1) it saps resources that could be spent in ways with a lower cost/benefit ration, (2) (even if someone could prove that training table makes a significant difference, you cannot give the football players training table without giving it to other athletes as well, which just circles back to number 1.

People are just going to have to get over the days when the football players were treated like gods instead of regular students and got the plushest housing, better food than everyone else, got to spend university money by staying at a hotel 5 miles away from their own dorm rooms before home games, flew on charter jets with select members of the board of trustees, etc. I could go on, but I will end my rant now.

[Guest]

You make good points DiamondM. But if you want SMU to be on a competitive playing field and hopes of one day cracking the top 25, these things help in making that happen. Why not give these things to the team, most other schools do. It sure as heck won't hurt.

[DiamondM]

It's exactly that "everyone else is doing it" that is the hollow reasoning I don't like. I don't think the REASON (or even a statistically significant percentage of the reason) that Nebraska succeeds is that the guys get good food and eat it together. It's something that they have always done, and that's why they do it. Like I said, IMO, it is a relic of the high on the hog years for college football.

Do the pros do it? No, they don't eat together every day with food specially selected. They may be advised what choices they should make given whatever goals they have, but then, like the adults they are, they make choices.

While many poo poo school food, the fact is that our cafeterias are actually not bad, offer a number of choices in all of the food groups, and are all you can eat. If the kids are disciplined (like they should be) then they can make it work towards their nutritional goals.

BTW, I also don't have a problem with Faucette's goal of having a sponsorship deal with a supplement company (like Met-RX) who can provide stuff through the weight room (though personally, I think supplements are mostly hogwash and not healthy, at least long term).

[Guest]

No the Nebraska guys get top of the line roids...

Another thing, I would not be calling 18,19 and 20 year football players adults. They simply are not. And to bring in the pro comparison come on, those guys are getting paid millions of dollars to play. What do our guys get, a great education? Pay me 3 million a year to play ball and I'll eat whatever my personal chef who I hire tells me to.

[PerunaPunch]

MetRx rocks. I added 8 lbs of lean body tissue, while dropping 27 lbs in 60 days on that stuff (multiply that by a year and it'd be like adding close to 50 lbs of muscle!).

Proven by pre- and post- ultrasound readings.

Many suppliments are hogwash, but I'm a believer in MetRx. Should buckle down and get on it again in fact.

So go for that endorsement baby! Besides, they need to get Aikman off the box now.

[PK]

DiamondM, I'll agree with you on the hotel deal, but a training table is something we should be doing. In most cases the other athletes don't need to put on weight, but in football size is important and we're not talking about 30 pounds of french fry fat. You can tell a kid what he should eat, but if you don't supply it for him he's not going to do it right most of the time.

[ponystudent]

DiamondM,

The training table offers more than just finer foods. It offers the athletes a well-balanced, hand picked meal to help them meet the physical goals they are constantly trying to reach. It also gets the team together three times a day.

Your statement about the pros is a horrible argument, in fact, you loose credibility in my mind. As Swami said, pros get millions, SMU's football player's stipends pay for fast food. I ate in the cafeteria for two years and if you say that is quality food, you are a moron (don't take that personally). Not only does the taste suck, the quality of meats is horrible, not to mention the cleanliness. They also make Monday's hamburger patties into Tuesday's Salisbury steak and Tuesday's Salisbury steak into Wednesday's meatloaf. Damn, that is quality in itself.

I have no doubt in my mind that our lines would have an extra 10-20 healthy pounds on them.

If you want to hold our football team, coaches, and staff to D-III standards then fine, no training table, no hotels, no perks. But we are a D-I football program who just fired a coaching staff and cannot fill up a 32,000 seat stadium. It is time we start acting like a D-I program. We have made two great steps; Ford Stadium and Bennett, lets make a few more.

Diamond M, please clarify to me what level you want SMU to play on, because right now you look like a backer of the drop to D-III.

I am not trying to be an [deleted] or offend you, please don't take this post like that. I just get pissed when fans put so much pressure on athletes and staff and then they make the playing field unleveled. We are D-I, lets act like it.

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Go Ponies!

[This message has been edited by ponystudent (edited 12-12-2001).]

[Mickey]

Being housed in a hotel the night before a game is necessary. They shouldn't be in a dorm or apartment the night before a game. Are you kidding? Who can sleep in a dorm on Fri night. Others schools doing it is a good argument. If we don't and others do, they have an advantage - rest, camaradarie, logistics, etc. I remember last year, Aldridge didn't start because he was late for a team bus. That doesn't happen if you stay in a hotel.

Once SMU turns this around, the night before games could be pretty wild. It is best to get them off campus.

A training table is a must.

If SMU is going to compete with the D1 schools, we have to do the same things they do to be competitive.

[DiamondM]

There are lots of things that "big time" football programs have traditionally done because "it's the way it's done" but that have little or nothing to do with actually winning on the football field. Auburn flies all Board of trustees members and families via charter airplane to all away games. When Texas hired Machovich years ago, they spent $50,000 to take off the oak panelling in his office and replace it with mahogany panelling. Other "big time" schools do similar. JUst because they are wasting money by the thousands on things not PROVEN to have a positive effect, doesn't mean that we have to do them to prove our committment to be a Div I program. College football has traditionally been a huge money waster on unnecessary expenses, bleeding money from other programs within the athletic department. I simply think that it's silly to suggest that lack of a training table is what prevents us from being successful on the field. Somebody prove it to me without the "everyone else is doing it so we should too" argument.

Any one who doubts my committment to college football and SMU success obviously doesn't know me. But I don't think a desire for a successful Div. I program requires me to suspend all critical analysis of what kinds of excesses go on unquestioned in college football.

My point about the pros was not to make any direct analogy, but to show that a training table does not spell the difference between success and no success. As for whether these kids are adults, I think that part of the problem with college football traditionally is that kids that are supposed to be disciplined on the field are not required to maintain discipline off the field and be responsible for their own actions instead of being babysit. I think a good coach should instill and require such discipline, whether that's in maintaining a good diet directed by a nutritionist/
dietician or getting enough rest before a game and not going out to party at the Elephant. I personally think that anyone given the ability to choose our leaders is an "adult" especially when scholarship athletes should be held to an even higher standard of discipline and doing what's best for themselves and the team as far as preparation goes.

Two final points, if the food in the cafeteria sucks that bad, let's improve it, offer more healthy choices to all students -- instead of solving this problem by singling the football athletes out. And if eating together is the issue, team rules can require them to eat at the same time and sit together in the cafeteria -- many of them already do.

[PerunaPunch]

Two more training table issues...

When a recruit is checking out the facilities, they see the stadium, the athlete's dorm, the weight room, the training table, etc.

That's an obvious hole and an area where we don't compare favorably to other programs a recruit might be considering. Probably not a big negative, but a negative nontheless.

In regards to the SMU cafeteria... I thought it was pretty good, but you guys know me, I'll eat just about anything I can catch.

But consider the students in general -- even the ones who come from ultra afluent families and drive Mercedes and BMWs. They just don't have a lots of disposable cash. Once you spend half your allowance on beer, you're not left with much else. So you use your Pony Express Card (they still have that??) and buy pizza and/or burgers at Hughes-Trigg. Further, your leftover bankroll lasts much longer at Campisi's, Snuffer's and Burger House than is does at... Hell, I don't even know where you buy healthy food around there.

But I can guarantee students aren't going to take their hard-earned beer money to Whole Foods to stock there pantries (or course Whole Foods DOES carry a nice beer selection...).

[ponystudent]

Can you tell me when a football player has time to make himself a healthy meal, shop for healthy foods, and figure out what he is going to eat?
6:30AM lifting
8-11 AM class
1:30 meetings (film)
3:30-5:30 practice
7-? study

Also, where does the funding for this come from? The 6 dollars worth of per diem?

<B>"If the kids are disciplined (like they should be) then they can make it work towards their nutritional goals."-Diamond M.
"Scholarship athletes should be held to an even higher standard of discipline"-Diamond M.</B>

I think the discipline of student athletes is high enough. Spending 5+ hours a day in athletic facilities, taking 15 hours a semester, maintaining a high GPA, that is high enough standards, then throw in thousands of fans shouting at them, constant belittlement by peers in newspapers, and enormous pressures from fans, staff and teachers: THAT IS A HIGH STANDARD...but wait, Diamond M thinks they should also be their own nutritionist, put up their own money and spend more time preparing food for themselves.

If you want to see the athletes take on nutrition for themselves, fine, no training table is needed, but funds, education, and raising the standard bar--yet again--will be needed.

Is that an "everyone is doing it" type of answer or do you need more data?

The argument here is funding. SMU does not have it. Diamond M doesn't want it, but she sure as hell wants the team to perform better. A training table will call for more funding. No training table but an increase in nutritional education will call for more funding. An increase in stipends so athletes can eat better food than fast-food-chains will call for more funding.

<B>"I simply think that it's silly to suggest that lack of a training table is what prevents us from being successful on the field." Diamond M</B>
Who ever said this? Of course it is not why we have losing records, but if you think that nutrition in athletes has no correlation with performance on the field, you need to learn something about the human body and athletics. Fatigue and endurance has a lot to do with nutrition. I don't think--and I don't think anyone else does--that we would be in a bowl right now if we had a training table, but I do believe that our team would be bigger, stronger, healthier and more fit to compete in fourth quarters.

<B>"Two final points, if the food in the cafeteria sucks that bad, let's improve it, offer more healthy choices to all students -- instead of solving this problem by singling the football athletes out." Diamond M</B>
I agree with this, but it hasn't been done nor will it.


Bottom line: If you want to compete or hold SMU at the D-I level standards (that means at a level with Rice, Nebraska, or pretty much any D-I school) give them the same standards to compete at the same standards. We go into battle with one less missile on our plane, if you think about that it makes sense, especially in a time of war--if you need explanation, let me know.)

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Go Ponies!

[Guest]

If our athletic department decides Bennett needs new office decorations instead of a training table, kiss this program goodbye.

Good point about how a training table can make or break a recruit's decision. If the two other schools he is considering offers top of the line food and we dont, it has to hurt our chances.

Im not saying a training table will equate into a WAC championship, but it sure will not make us any worse. What is the harm in that?