Coffee with Coach Bennett

[Swamp Gas]

[quote="Sir Trolls A Lot] .... Perhaps talking about football is new to you. Sometimes, coaches have leverage due to the things they have done in the past. Examples of coaches like that are Gibbs and Parcells who have won multiple championships. Bennett has won four games in his three years of being head coach, which does not give him a lot of room. Your comparison does not really hold under any scrutiny.[/quote]

On the contrary, YOURS is the comparison that holds no water. Even on the relative scale of professional teams versus college teams, compare the talent level of those teams inherited by Coach Bennett, Coach Gibbs and Coach Parcells. It's not even close. Coach Bennett has had to build from the ground up, whereas Coach Gibbs and Coach Parcells -- while not with playoff-caliber talent -- has some game-changing players. Gibbs arrived to a team with a big, athletic offensive line, Laveranues Coles, Patrick Ramsey, LaVar Arrington, overrated-but-still-talented Fred Smoot, Rod Gardner, etc., and then he added Clinton Portis, Mark Brunell, Sean Taylor, etc. Parcells arrived to a team that had players like Greg Ellis, Darren Woodson, Larry Allen, etc., and added folks like Keyshawn Johnson, Vinny T., etc. And more than the "star" players, they both inherited teams with speed and depth.

[quote="Sir Trolls A Lot] .... It is nice to have such a humble coach ....[/quote]

Perhaps you'd prefer a coach who says "gee, I don't know how to coach, I'm really not confident we can win"? Come on, I refuse to believe even you, oh loyal Mustang, would want that. Coach Bennett is confident because he knows a hell of a lot about football -- a lot more than any of us do, or we'd be coaches.

[Dwan]

Did the topic of his moustache come up? I really think if he went with the Pat Hill handlebar moustache it would really turn things around.

[Sir Trolls A Lot]

It's not even close. Coach Bennett has had to build from the ground up, whereas Coach Gibbs and Coach Parcells -- while not with playoff-caliber talent -- has some game-changing players.

My point is that they get more leverage because of past performance. I don't think you can really dispute the fact that they have had more success over their careers (unless you are an absolute lunatic).

However, if Gibbs and Parcells continue on this track for two more years, you can bet Jones/Snyder will not hesitate to pull the trigger. Bennett has had his time, and he has failed. We have to move on.

[PlanoStang]

"Coffee with Phil this morning"

[KnuckleStang]

Plano, that is funny as hell.

[PlanoStang]

I thought that we all needed a little comic relief.

[RGV Pony]

Rarely do I laugh out loud, Plano. I just did. Thanks!

[PonySnob]

Ties in great with that haiku that somebody wrote:

"Bourbon SMU
Bourbon bourbon SMU
Bourbon kills the pain"

[OldPony]

I hate to tell Bennett that the question really isn't whether he knows more about football than anyone in the room but whether he knows as much as opposing coaches. So far, he doesn't appear to. I understand he is tired of being challenged by fans who sometimes don't know much but his response was stupid. By what measure do we know what he knows about football? Wins? Because he worked for some good head coaches? So have a lot of others who never were good head coaches. If he knows so much, why did he take a job in which he couldn't compete? Was he lied to? Get mad at the right people Phil.
BTW-I liked the picture of the coffee meeting. I think I know more about Jack Daniels than Bennett although he may be learning a lot very soon.

[Hoop Fan]

OP, I wasn't impressed by his reported comment(s) either. He also intimated a win over Utep to make them 8-3 instead of 9-2, but that seems like a false sense of confidence to say the least. But lets not make too much of it though. Lets see what happens on Saturday. Some people say every week is critical, but this one really is.

[ponygrad90]

At this point I hope we get creamed, then we can clean house! Bennett has been pumping everyone up about how the talent level is finally to where we are three deep AT EVERY POSITION! Did that include linebacker? Bottom Line he hasn't produced- we are playing Rice and La Tech, meanwhile Baylor beat A&M, if memory serves me right, didn't we almost beat Baylor? Oh but wait, we Lost! I suppose that was because we weren't prepared to win! I am so sick of the excuses from Phil Bennett, Today's headline should of said Win or Quit- Its time to produce Pal!

[Dooby]

At this point I hope we get creamed,

I will never ever hope SMU loses, or evn joke about it.

[carolina stang]

Not to make this a lickfest, but Plano Stang the bourbon is an ESPN instant classic. I was in a bad mood but now see that picture as the beginning of our turnaround.

[Uncle Morty]

[quote="Stallion"]thanks for the assist. I've really dropped the ball with an explanation of just how UTEP turned it around so quickly. I don't think I ever noticed that UTEP had signed the 16 JUCOs. I did notice they got the two Parade All-Americans but they are not eligible to play until next year. Check out the oncoming BCS Division 1A transfers for UTEP- 2 from UCLA, 1 from Arizona, 1 from Washington St. and 1 from Oregon St. UTEP is the likely favorite in CUSA West next year. By the way last years genius-Tulsa's coach- has 1 Division 1A win this year. I could care less if a new coach gets lucky and has one great year. When I discuss the Model that SMU should use I'm referring to a Model which will allow long term sustainable success at the highest level possible.[/quote]

Dont feel bad Stallion, I think its entirely possible that the reason you didnt notice is that it didnt happen. I checked UTEPs roster and couldnt find all those JC kids (lots of transfers from 4 year schools sitting out this year, though,) so I dug up this article on their recruiting class from their website. Looks like they only had 13 scholarships to give last year, and that included a handful of JC players.

http://www.nmnathletics.com/ViewArticle ... CLID=69097

I do have a question for you, regarding this whole model thing, though. Last year you swore up and down, over and over, that the reason for Tulsa's success and bowl appearance was their adoption of what you termed "The Stallion Model." You were quite adamant that their turnaround was ascribed directly to this model. So, my question is, why is your model failing them so badly this year?

[Stallion]

actually I checked the UTEP roster before I made the post-and they did have 16 transfers-I should have looked a little closer in the far right column but only 10 though are from JCs and CCs. and 6 are Division 1A transfers. For the people that don't follow recruiting schools like City College of San Franciso, Butte College, Golden West College, Victor Valley College, etc are schools within community college districts similar to Brookhaven College which don't include JC or CC within their official name. Some may remember O.J. Simpson was a graduate of City College of San Francisco before transferring to USC. Players from those school dot the basketball and football rosters of many Division 1A programs across the West. As for Tulsa I was the one responding the posters claiming "Tulsa had turned the program around overnite" with their "genuis coach". I responded by pointing out last year something to the effect that their leading WR, their leading rusher until a mid season injury, their leading tackler a LB and a top DB who lead the team in interceptions were from JCs, CCs and made significant contributions to the success of the team. What I said is that Tulsa provided a good example of a private school which recruited 3-4 JC players a year to fill holes in their program. Remember at this time last year SMU was not going after JC/CC players-I said they should. I never asserted that they had turned into Tulsa JC as other schools had done. Just a good Model which we should follow. They have been even more successful in the doing the exact same thing in BB in signing some big tome All WAC centers a few years ago which led their NCAA tourney teams. What I did scoff at was the idea that Tulsa's coach was some genius just because he got "hot" and beat Arkansas St, Texas St, and about 3-4 other schools making appearances in the Bottom 10. Just as I expected the "genuis" doesn't look so smart this year. Tulsa is building that program but they've got a ways to go to be consistently competitive. But they also signed about 3-4 big time Division 1A transfers from BCS schools(something SMU is not doing and I have advocated) including off the top of my head Chadd Evans from UCLA, a kid from OU and others. For the Tulsa fans reading this I want emphasize that I'm not criticizing Tulsa but instead am saying Tulsa is doing exactly the same things that SMU should be doing. Most of this board have seen me post many, many times that The "Stallion Model" includes 3-4 recruits per year from JC/CC in FB and 1-2 per year in BB. A few weeks later Bennett was quoted using those exact same words-he hoped to recruit 3-4 JUCOs per year. The only distinction is that I think SMU should be able to recruit the traditional JC recruit not just the rare JC recruit that was fullyb qualified out of high school like Bobby Chase, Tony Eckert et al.