Gunner Kiel

[Terry Webster]

While we sit around and gripe about what is going on for us, check out the story about Gunner Kiel, considered the top qb prospect in the country. Committed to Indiana U., switched to LSU, and then, apparently out of the blue, enrolled at Notre Dame this week. The folks at LSU are saying things we haven't even thought of.

[SMUfiji43]

LSU and Notre Dame are in my top 5 least favorite teams.....yawn

I don't trust anyone named Gunner anyway

[SMUer]

Sounds like the old SWC days

[Mustangs_Maroons]

I think this is very good for ND football. Not unlike us, they have been suffering from a lot of recruits de-committing as well. It's positive news for them to offset those loses. I'm a huge ND fan (almost went there for undergrad), and I frankly don't understand the dislike for them, especially from an SMU perspective. They are one of the few private universities that has shown that it can compete with the big public state schools in athletics, while also being one of the best academic universities in the country. How many private universities can really compete against these public state schools in athletics for as long as they have? I can't name one that is consistently good across many sports. The possible exception is possibly Duke (mainly basketball) and that was only since Coach K went to that school. As a private school, I think we can learn a lot from ND in terms of how to be successful as a university and to compete in athletics as well.

[SMUfiji43]

Well they're easily the most overrated team in America, have by far the most annoying fan base(fellow Pony Fans excluded) and their tater tot head coach reminds me way too much of Gary Fatterson

(alert: some bad language here)

[PonyKai]

Nothing says naturally born leader like a pronounced inability to make a decision.

[Mustangs_Maroons]

Well they're easily the most overrated team in America, have by far the most annoying fan base(fellow Pony Fans excluded) and their tater tot head coach reminds me way too much of Gary Fatterson

(alert: some bad language here)

My point was that they are a top academic school and they have a heck of a tradition in college athletics. That's a good template for private schools that aspire to do well in both.

[redpony]

And if the preachers in the Methodist churches across America hyped and promoted SMU to the masses the way the priests in the Catholic churches promote ND we would have recruits begging to come here. And the bloody baptists aren't far behind the catholics.

GO PONIES!!!

[Mustangs_Maroons]

And if the preachers in the Methodist churches across America hyped and promoted SMU to the masses the way the priests in the Catholic churches promote ND we would have recruits begging to come here. And the bloody baptists aren't far behind the catholics.

GO PONIES!!!

Quote of the day!! And by the way, your assertion is probably right!

[Terry Webster]

Ah, but the Priests can use guilt. We protestant preachers aren't so good at that.

[redpony]

MM- I know it's right = been there and heard it- both places.

GO PONIES!!!

[RGV Pony]

And if the preachers in the Methodist churches across America hyped and promoted SMU to the masses the way the priests in the Catholic churches promote ND we would have recruits begging to come here. And the bloody baptists aren't far behind the catholics.

GO PONIES!!!

Yep. Has to be like 70% of UMC preachers in the south went to Perkins.

[solomouse]

let's see...notre dame...is it the only private school that competes? how about stanford,miami,baylor,usc,maybe tcu,byu,as well as duke...they seem to compete and really,so does smu except in the money sports...

[LHS81]

Just glad Gunner wasn't an oral commit to SMU

[Mustangs_Maroons]

let's see...notre dame...is it the only private school that competes? how about stanford,miami,baylor,usc,maybe tcu,byu,as well as duke...they seem to compete and really,so does smu except in the money sports...

This is my statmemnt: "They are one of the few private universities that has shown that it can compete with the big public state schools in athletics, while also being one of the best academic universities in the country".

This meant top academic schoosl with top athletic programs that have been successful over an extended period (70+ years). I should have mentioned Stanford as well. Stanford doesn't have the same historical football history but it has been very competitive in other sports.

As for baylor, tcu and byu being part of my criteria, they're not even in the same zip code. First, they're not top academic schools. Second, they haven't been competitive across various sports for an extended period of time. You could make an argument for USC, but I was focused on schools with smaller undergraduate enrollment (ie, less than 10,000). USC is one of the largest private schools.