Don't look now, but Coach Bennett...

[RGV Pony]

...may be deserving of credit for an unlikely head coaching turnaround. Honestly, most unbiased & objective observers said that 3-4 wins would be the expectation required to show progress this year. Now, there are three wins, even with injuries to the likes of DD Lee, Phillips, Foy Munlin most of the year, and a litany of others on the defensive side of the ball. If someone were to have projected those injuries before the season began, they'd have been told that would be a recipe for disaster.

At this point, despite the injuries Bennett has coaxed three victories, and however remote, has a chance to finish the season with four including three in a row and one over a ranked team. That's enough to make this one-time naysayer (see my remarks after TCU & Rice) say, "now wait a second...mayber there's something to it after all). What's more, it's worthy of note as an excellent coaching job in the face of adversity and a lot of b*tching from the likes of folks like me.

[LA_Mustang]

Dont forget about the injury to Cory Muse. He'll be a star before he leaves SMU....and he still has three more years.

[PerunaPunch]

Yep, and Muse is/was our best pass rusher.

Don't forget to give props to Rusty Burns as well. He called some beauties last night.

[Otto]

And just wait until these guys hit the recruiting trail. If we somehow upset the Miners, they'll have momentum and a "we're turning the corner" message that will sell like spring water in the Sahara, and we'll get players even the most optimistic among us couldn't have hoped for. I get the sense that even if we lose to UTEP, these coaches are going to surprise us in February.

Go get 'em, coaches!
And BEAT UTEP!

[PlanoStang]

I've been on top of the fencepost leaning one way or the other as the wind blows this season. After Tulsa, and Nevada, and the DMN article on how Coach Bennett's a HCIT (Head Coach In Training), I guess we're keeping him for a while

Hiring Coach Burns was his best decision since he's been at SMU.

[SCAMP6381]

WAY TO GO GUYS TIME TO JUMP ON THE SMU MUSTANGS BANDWAGON NOW! I SOLD COACH TO MY SON BY READING HIS BIO IN THE TEAMS 2004 MEDIA GUIDE. YOU GUYS NEED TO READ HIS BIO. HE KNOWS WHAT HE'S DOING! HE JUST HAS A BUNCH OF JEWELS IN THE ROUGH PLAYING FOR HIM. THEY WILL MATURE

[TacoPony]

I don't really think injuries have played a major role this year, especially compared to previous years, DD Lee being the exception (as a returning starter). At QB, I believe that injuries helped us.. look at the offense with Eckert in there, we actually throw the ball down field. Phillips has really struggled with the passing game, and so the coaches wouldn't even call a 10-yard pass play. that was crippling to the offense.

still, for me 3 wins was the target, and coach & the team achieved it. I think that's the first time ever the team achieved my pre-season target or prediction. now let's go for 4!

[Ikus]

I think I predicted 2-4 wins, although realistically, I was hoping for 2 .... MAYBE 3. Now I'm really excited about the fact that we can beat UTEP. Don't know that we will, but we CAN if we play well. I'd say we're still prohibitive underdogs, but who knows?

I also hope Matt Rushbrook is healed enough from his concussion that he's able to play his last college game, since he'll be in his hometown.

I disagree about injuries not hurting us. Cory Muse was the best pass rusher on the line - out. Reggie Carrington was supposed to start ahead of Lee in the middle - out. Lee - out. The loss of Neal, Hargis and Eidson greatly hampered the depth of offensive line. They might or might not have started, but the added depth would have helped, to be sure (like Saturday, when Kieschnick and Simmonds got hurt, leaving us with nobody to deep-snap on kicks). I look at Muse, Lee and Carrington as healthy "extra" recruits for February's class.

Go Mustangs! Finish up with three straight!!!!!!

[The PonyGrad]

I see this season as achieving its goals and if UTEP was as lowly as predicted in the preseason then I would agree that we could get excited about a fourth win. As it is UTEP is a top 25 team and any win, especially away, would be an amazing feet. So let's not get ahead of ourselves and then get disappointed.

Regardless of W or L vs. UTEP this season has shown good progress.

Congratulations team and coaches and beat UTEP.

[gostangs]

Injuries not a factor - three starting quality linebackers out and not a factor - wow did you catch that Rice game?

Anyway - you have to give coach credit for a couple of things -
- new OC
- aggressively pursuing the two juco QB's
- encouraging a more go-for-broke mentality on D.
- getting in Vince Gil's...er Leach's face - still my favorite non-play of the season.

[GoRedGoBlue]

IT WOULD HAVE BEEN NICE TO AT LEAST NOT GET BLOWN OUT EARLIER BY LESSER TEAMS..(RICE ETC).

But, it does appear this team is starting to play unafraid and with more confidence.

[SoCal_Pony]

Agreed.

But they aired the Fresno State / Hawaii game on Fox West. 49 – 0 at halftime with Fresno State already over 500 yards total offense. That helped put our FS game in better context.

By the way, we are 22 point dogs to UTEP. It would be a great way to end the season, upsetting our new conference mates and creating a new rivalry.

[PerunaPunch]

TacoPony,

To set the record straight, DD wasn't the returning starter. He was returning at #2. We lost MLB #1 (Carrington) to a torn pec muscle. We also lost Cole Horton, which people tend to forget because they haven't seen him play much. As mentioned earlier, we also lost our best OLB/pass rusher in Muse.

We're so thin at linebacker now that we've had to convert two safeties (Nnabuife and Harris) and resort to a pipsqueek 195 lb. true freshman (my apologies to future stud Wilton McCray, who I think will be awesome after a few more years of Coach Faucette) to get the job done. They're all excellent athletes, but how many teams do you think roll out a starting linebacker corps that averages a hair over 6' and 200 lbs.??

To compound the issue, when you move safeties to LB, you then have to ask young guys like Joe Sturdivant to step in and step up. Both Harper and Sturdivant were pulled in as true freshmen because of injuries to upper classmen.

[Charleston Pony]

I EXPECTED these guys to win 2 games and thought we would be competitive in 6 games with a chance of winning as many as 4 because 4 of the 6 games I thought we'd be competitive in were at Ford. La Tech and Rice (and of course, TCU) will remain huge disappointments to this season...but injuries absolutely hurt this already thin 2-deep. It would have been nice for some of the frosh who were forced into action to have a year to mature physically, but when all is said and done, it was critically important to recruiting momentum to show that SMU can and will win under Bennett. You have to be reasonably pleased with the 3 wins, but it would be a huge step for SMU to close by beating a top 25 team on the road. Granted, it's UTEP and most of the country doesn't know they are in the top 25, but SMU hasn't beaten a top 25 since the death penalty and hasn't given anyone even a scare since tieing the Aggie$ so long ago I can't remember the year. I'd say Bennett is deserving of being here for the length of his contract, but next year remains the key. If he improves on this year's results, SMU needs to reward him with a contract extension and keep the momentum going.

[Higher Authority]

Injuries not a factor - three starting quality linebackers out and not a factor - wow did you catch that Rice game?

Anyway - you have to give coach credit for a couple of things -
- new OC
- aggressively pursuing the two juco QB's
- encouraging a more go-for-broke mentality on D.
- getting in Vince Gil's...er Leach's face - still my favorite non-play of the season.

Very good points, one and all. Some didn't like it at the time, but charging after Coach Lovitz following the opener really galvanized the team. I've heard several players say the respect they had for Coach Bennett skyrocketed after that. And it looks like Coach Burns is a huge addition to the staff. He's still ironing out the wrinkles and teaching the system (every player on the offense, of course, is in their first year in the system), and there still will be days when we get frustrated. But the last two games have shown Coach Burns is a creative play caller who's got an offense that's capable of putting up some points, not just yards.

And Charleston Pony makes a great point about how big it would be if we could somehow win Saturday. UTEP is a relatively anonymous team on the national scene, playing in a relatively anonymous conference (Boise State's impressive three-year run notwithstanding). But beating a top-25 team on the road? In front of 40K or more? On their seniors' last game? That would be a monumental accomplishment. I'm not predicting it. But I do believe it's possible. And I'm hoping ....

Go Mustangs!