Bennett-era Meltdowns

[SoCal_Pony]

Navy 38 SMU 7
OK State 52 SMU 16
Hawaii 42 SMU 10
TTech 58 SMU 10
OK State 52 SMU 6
Boise State 45 SMU 3
LA Tech 41 SMU 6
TCU 44 SMU 0
OK State 59 SMU 7
Rice 44 SMU 10

Meltdowns are games in which we lost by more than 30 points.
adjustments compliments of LaTech77

IMO, this ranks besides Rashaun Woods’ 5 TD first half schooling as the most disappointing and embarrassing.

Old Pony is right. It is difficult to explain given Rice’s recruiting standards.

I had been planning a trip to Fresno, now I wonder….what’s the point?

[The Q]

The point? This is your team! And Fresno hasn't looked in the last two weeks like the team that went into Manhattan and slapped Kansas State around. We might get beat, we might get clobbered, or we might pull off an upset. Don't bail on this team. The option has always given us fits (see Navy, Rice last year, etc.), so tonight shouldn't have been a total shocker. From here on out, we face more conventional offenses. I don't pretend to know if we'll win, or how many we'll win, down the stretch. But I'm going to be at every home game and I'm trying to get to El Paso and/or Fresno. This team needs us - they're our team.

Go Ponies! Beat LaTech!

[that's great raplh]

you gotta have patience - and at SMU, its a ton of patience...bennet will take us to a bowl game soon

[The Q]

you gotta have patience - and at SMU, its a ton of patience...bennet will take us to a bowl game soon

I don't know how soon, but I agree - it will happen .... at which point many of today's doomsdayers will be singing Coach Bennett's praise. Sort of like when a recruit chooses SMU over another school and the jilted school's fans claim their school "didn't want the guy anyway."

[QuietManDisciple]

Is this a serious prediction or an extreme case of wishful thinking? Living as I have for the past 35 years on the Texas Gulf Coast, I don't pretend to have any educated insight into SMU's football program. I can only go by the results, and 29 games into the Phil Bennett Era the Ponies are 4-25. Worse than that, there appears to be no significant improvement in any phase of the game.

So if anyone has a concrete reason for believing "Bennett will take us to a bowl game soon," I'd sure like to hear it.

[couch 'em]

Because remember - the future always looks good on ponyfans.com. We'll be rid of Cavan soon. We'll have a QB soon. We'll be playing with Bennett's recruits soon. We'll be in conference soon. We'll play easier teams after Boise. We'll play more conventional offenses soon. We'll play easier teams soon. Bennett will turn in around. It'll be better next year. Later. Next year. What about now? I'd like to see decent football before I graduate. Unfortunately, it isn't going to happen. Oh well. Maybe before I'm 30.

[LaTech77]

SoCal, since you're making this list, you forgot last year's game at Louisiana Tech. Tech 41, SMU 6.

[QuietManDisciple]

You're a breath of fresh -- should I say "sane" -- air, Couch 'Em. You do make me feel slightly guilty, though. In my 59 years, I watched Don Meredith's debut season in the 1950's, the Mustangs' (Levias & Company) Cotton Bowl season in the late 1960's, and of course the Pony Express in the 1980's. And my father before me was on the Hilltop during the Walker/Rote era.

Will I see the revival of SMU football before I die? Will you see it before you get dentures and start collecting social security? The way things are going no one in his right mind would say our chances are good.

The blind faithful on this board may think they're helping the cause by beseeching the rest of us to stand by Bennett, but I don't see what polyanna optimism accomplishes. I've yet to see anyone explain in fact-based terms why I should believe Bennett is the coach to turn the football program around or even that he has made any tangible progress. In my opinion, he has only managed to lose ground. Weak as they were, several of Rossley's teams were more competitive.

[SoCal_Pony]

in the immortal words of PK..."bump"

Navy 38 SMU 7
OK State 52 SMU 16
Hawaii 42 SMU 10
TTech 58 SMU 10
OK State 52 SMU 6
Boise State 45 SMU 3
LA Tech 41 SMU 6
TCU 44 SMU 0
OK State 59 SMU 7
Rice 44 SMU 10
LA Tech 41 SMU 10
Fresno State 42 SMU 0
UTEP 57 SMU 27
Texas A&M 66 SMU 8


Meltdowns are games in which we lost by 30+ points.

[RGV Pony]

Good thing we have a defensive-minded HC, huh?

[Stallion]

so we are literrally twice as likely to have a "meltdown" than actually win a game under Bennettt.

[Charleston Pony]

what's really disturbing about that list is that in each of Bennett's years, the number of "non-competitive" games appears to be increasing. We've already had 2 this year if you count Tulane. I fear UAB could be another. I really thought this year's team would be more competitive...not that I necessarily expected to win more than 3 games...but I didn't expect these guys to be slapped around like they have been.

[KnuckleStang]

Well, we have indeed been "slapped around" by aTm and Tulane. "Competitive" against Baylor and Marshall. Victorious against TCU. It really depends on which team shows up. We could be competitive vs. UAB, but I doubt it. We may lose to ECU as well. It could take this team another couple games to wake up. I only hope we can beat Hatfield and also that freaking HELMET Kragthorpe, and call it a season. 3-8. Ah, yes. Feels bad, don't it? (That's what an oldtimer turned around and said to me during the loss to TCU at ACS in '97. "Feels bad, don't it?" Yes...it does.)

[abezontar]

Don't count on a Rice win, if there is one thing that seems to befuddle PB more than anything else it is the option offense.