SMU coach Bennett will be back in 2005

[Peruna_Ate_My_Rolex]

No surprise here but I figured I'd post it anyway.

SMU coach Bennett will be back in 2005
01:24 AM CST on Sunday, November 21, 2004


By CALVIN WATKINS / The Dallas Morning News



EL PASO – SMU coach Phil Bennett will return next season.

SMU president Gerald Turner and athletic director Jim Copeland said Saturday the football program has made enough progress to warrant Bennett returning.

"We're pleased with the progress we've made toward the end of the season," said Copeland, who speaks with Bennett on a daily basis. "He was never in trouble. Mr. Bennett will be back, so he can focus on building the program with recruiting and other avenues."


The Mustangs finished the regular season with a 57-27 loss to No. 24 UT-El Paso. SMU (3-8) won two of its last three games.

SMU began 0-3, extending a losing streak that dated to 2003 to a school-record 15. The Mustangs ended the streak with a 36-13 victory Sept. 25 over San Jose State.

Copeland and Turner said they wanted the program to become more competitive but understood it would take time. SMU has one of the youngest teams in the nation with 85 underclassmen on its 112-player roster. The Mustangs also had one of the toughest nonconference schedules. The three nonconference opponents had a winning percentage of .718 in 2003.

"We thought the progress would occur at the end of the year because the kids are so young," Turner said. "If you look at the sche- dule, there were four games where we were even with the opponent."

Said Bennett, who finished the third year of a five-year contract: "I'm committed here and I'm going to see this thing through until they tell me different. I expected us to get better. I didn't come into a gravy train ... it takes some time."

[BrianTinBigD]

All Right?

[BUS]

I thought that was a wasted headline. Of course he is.

SMU needs more changes but not at coach. We all know what they are.

Go Coaches - recruit!

[Sam I Am]

I knew Dreibrodt when he was the band diredtor at Brackenridge High in San Antonio before he came to SMU and made the Mustang band into the best dressed band in the land. His type excellence is what SMU used to be about. Wanna talk about Matty Bell? Maybe if we had never been geat in football and half time shows, it wouldn't be so hard to accept the left overs we have now.

[Diehard Pony]

I thought that was a wasted headline. Of course he is.

SMU needs more changes but not at coach. We all know what they are.

Go Coaches - recruit!

I would agree that some additional changes need to be made, but as a game day coach I would rank Coach Bennett third behind Rossley and Cavin, and that is not particularly distinguished company.

You can bet I wish that it were not the case, but I have spent a lot of money and time going to games (and contributing to the Mustang Club) trying to convince myself otherwise.

[SWC2010]

I knew Dreibrodt when he was the band diredtor at Brackenridge High in San Antonio before he came to SMU and made the Mustang band into the best dressed band in the land. His type excellence is what SMU used to be about. Wanna talk about Matty Bell? Maybe if we had never been geat in football and half time shows, it wouldn't be so hard to accept the left overs we have now.

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Hey Sam, be more specific-- please explain who/what are "THE LEFT OVERS WE HAVE NOW"???????????

[Jim Rome]

I thought that was a wasted headline. Of course he is.

SMU needs more changes but not at coach....

Absolutely!
Now it's time for Coach Bennett to work his recruiting magic.

[Sam I Am]

We are now a mid-major football program instead of a SWC champion Cotton Bowl team. The band is smaller than it used to be. In basketball, where is Doc Hayes and a final four squad? That is what is left over from our hay day.

[HixsontoLeVias]

I'm with ya, Sam I Am....MOST on this board do not know who Matty Bell / Ray Morrison / Hayden Fry / Doc Hayes / Sonny Allen, etc. even are, not to mention the days when we actually PLAYED in bowl games, had All-Americans, and guys like Bob Hope used to like to hang around our campus. I't fallen FAR and FAST....but, we hang on to memories, now VERY distant, with the hope that the fun, flash, zip, and glory will return.....got to go, I think I will put the 1982 SMU / ut game in the VCR....long live Gary Moten.

[jtstang]

I'm with ya, Sam I Am....MOST on this board do not know who Matty Bell / Ray Morrison / Hayden Fry / Doc Hayes / Sonny Allen, etc. even are, not to mention the days when we actually PLAYED in bowl games, had All-Americans, and guys like Bob Hope used to like to hang around our campus. I't fallen FAR and FAST....but, we hang on to memories, now VERY distant, with the hope that the fun, flash, zip, and glory will return.....got to go, I think I will put the 1982 SMU / ut game in the VCR....long live Gary Moten.

I remember the days when we played in bowl games and had all-americans. I also remember going to not one but TWO soccer homecomings as a result of those "glory days." Enjoy that 1982 game, but don't forget the legacy that team left us with.

[HixsontoLeVias]

...that's part of the probelm..there is MORE to the legacy than just the Meyer / Collins days...do you know who Chuck Hixson is, how 'bout Freddie Benners? Ever seen Alvin Maxson play? Wayne Morris? What do you know about Kyle Rote? Ray Berry? Jason Wolf? Ever see John LaGrone pop somebody?? Chris Bordano? Was Danny Thomas a celebrity of great SMU kicker? No offense, but, YES, I will enjoy the 1982 tape, but there is so, so much more to the SMU football legacy than what happened from 1979 - 1989.....long live Jerry Norton.

[jtstang]

...that's part of the probelm..there is MORE to the legacy than just the Meyer / Collins days...do you know who Chuck Hixson is, how 'bout Freddie Benners? Ever seen Alvin Maxson play? Wayne Morris? What do you know about Kyle Rote? Ray Berry? Jason Wolf? Ever see John LaGrone pop somebody?? Chris Bordano? Was Danny Thomas a celebrity of great SMU kicker? No offense, but, YES, I will enjoy the 1982 tape, but there is so, so much more to the SMU football legacy than what happened from 1979 - 1989.....long live Jerry Norton.

Well, I've heard of all those old guys, but I never saw them play, most likely because they were playing either before I was even born in '64, or when I was a very young kid. I'd go over to Heritage Hall to read up on them, but well....

Of course, Wolf, Bordano and their contemporaries are post-DP guys who will unfortunately be forever associated with a program that could not get its legs back under it. History is not kind.

[Arkpony]

HIxsontoLevias speaks the truth. I actually SAW Hixson throwing to Levias! I actually SAW Don Meridith almost single handily beat Bear Bryant's A&M team in College Station(He would have too if he hadnt been knocked unconscious on A&M's 2 yard line!) I was THERE when Jim Krebs battled Wilt Chamberlain in our new coliseum for the right to go to the NCAA Final Four. I SAW MAtty Bell come out on the floor and plead for sanity in the over-flow crowd after the ref called Krebs for his 5th foul (Uncalled for!) in the closing minutes with SMU leading by 6 points and beating Kansas!
Yeah..I remember all the great past moments of football before DickerJames (Even the M&M Boys!). I cried when Hayden Fry was canned and wrote him a long letter telling him (to which he kindly replied). We DO have somethig to recall as good as the 82 game (but I also love watching that video also!)

Long live Inez Perez!

[EastStang]

To all those posters who screamed for Bennett's head and intimated that he was going to be fired at the end of the season, and even mentioned possible replacements, and I said that he would not be fired. Just for the record, you were wrong, and I was right.

[jtstang]

Just for the record, you were wrong, and I was right.

I love that post!!!