Reminscent of Cavan's Extra Year

[Diehard Pony]

I hope this doesn't come to pass, but this situation very much reminds me of when Copeland decided to give Cavan one more year. The result was a very poor recruiting class, and a big drop off in season ticket holders that has not yet been regained.

[Pony_Fan]

At least we don't have to hear "we're a young team" all year next year...

[Diamond Girl]

It could be "we have a seasoned young team" . . .

[Stampede]

Diehard or PonyFan...

exactly what would you call SMU's football team if "young" can not be used?

It might be interesting for someone to be able to track the "youngest college football team in the USA" for each of the past ten years. Just see how they fared that year.

Interestingly enough, I have personally been the head coach for a high school Jr. Varsity team playing against high school Varsity teams. Let me assure everyone, when your team is loaded with underclassmen, you can not patch the dam fast enough when it breaks. Strength and experience is vital.

As for recruiting, Coach Bennett said last week at his "coffee with Phil", the "coaches are hard at work to recruit better players than we have now so SMU can get to where it wants to be in football". He is very confident in the recruiting now.

[Corso]

Re: the "better players" comment .... as much as I support and cheer for the current players, I hope they recruit players so good every player we now have becomes a backup. If that happens, we're winning a bunch of games!

Good luck in recruiting, coaches!

[Stallion]

the real truth is that the only relatively "good recruiting classes" in the last 15 years have come in the 1st and second full recruiting classes of Cavan and Bennett. Now the key to understanding the problem is to realize that the reason that there has been a slide after those classes is that FRESHMAN and SOPHMORES don't win games. Once a coach gets in his third and fourth year and hasn't shown improvement in the won/loss record recruiting becomes very difficult because he has nothing to sell. It was like that for Cavan and the last two years with 3 wins are the result of senior classes recruited in the slide 3rd and 4th Cavan recruiting classes. It likely will be that way for Bennett unless he can regain lost recruiting ground. What Cavan didn't have and Bennett has limited ability to do is to recruit JUCOS and Division 1A transfers that will keep the team competitive while the youngsters mature. That is why no new coach should have hired at SMU until THAT problem was fixed in the first place. Trying to fix a competitive problem like that in the Model 3 years into a coach's tenure is too late.

[SWC2010]

Stallion, which year do you count Bobby Chase in the class evaluations?

He looks to be quite a steal (for a JUCO transfer).

[Stallion]

....without the minor tweaking of the admission standards which has at least allowed SMU to recruit a small segment of the JUCO recruits-it is arguable that SMU would still be on a 23 game losing streak because there would have been no experienced QB as well as guys like Chase to play after Phillips went down.