Bennett on TXCN

[ClassOf81]

Borrowed from the other site:

"Coach Bennett's going to talk with Mark Followill Tuesday night on Sports Talk. It's from 6:00 p.m. to 7 live, and then replayed at 11."

[Hoofprint]

OK, PonyFans, this is NOT an accurate transcript of what Coach Bennett said last night, but I was scribbling as fast as I could:

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(The first 8 or 9 months on the job) have been fun. It's something you work for your whole career. It's been really exciting.

(On his anticipated feelings when the season opens against Navy, which will be his first game as a head coach) I think "anticipation" is a good word. You prepare all year to play 12 games - hopefully 13 games. It's going to be exciting, and I expect I'll be kind of emotional.

(On what it will take to get the program to make significant improvement) It all starts with recruiting. There are great high school coaches in this state. That's why, at Kansas State, we always came down here and took a lot of players out of here. Now I kind of wish (first name?) Pierce came to SMU instead of K-State.

(On his talent to rely on ShanDerrick Charles and the rest of the running game) ShanDerrick is such a talent. I told him we're going to find as many ways as we can to get him the ball. We're going to hand it to him, pitch it to him, throw it to him … But we also have some other running backs we're excited about. Kris Briggs is a senior now, a guy who kind of got put on the shelf last year. He's up to 225 now, and I'm excited about what he can do. And we have Keylon Kincade and another guy, Derron Brown, who have real talent.

(On scheduling out-of-conference games against regional teams) There's no doubt about that, we need to do that. When I talked to Jim Copeland about this job, we talked at length about scheduling. I told him I wanted to play two regional Big 12 games every year. This year, we play Texas Tech at home, and we go up to play Oklahoma State on the road. Next year we play Baylor … For the fourth game this year, we're trying to get as many Mustangs as possible up to Stillwater, Okla., for that game against Oklahoma State. So we're excited about that.

(On his plan to lead the program back to prominence, to make SMU a factor to fans nation-wide) Obviously, again, it's all about recruiting. You have to have relationships with high school coaches, and we have that. To say that we're going to go out and beat Texas and Texas A&M for every kid - that's just not going to happen. What we have to be able to do is "project" a kid. If he's 2 inches shorter than you'd like, that's OK if he can play. So we have to do a good job of projecting kids.

(On his approach to the season, and in dealing with his players) I've always said, and I've told our players, the mind is a powerful thing. You can be whatever you want to be. One year at Kansas State, I kept hearing how we weren't going to be as good on defense, because we'd lost 8 starters. For 8 guys, the first play of the season was going to be their first as a starter on the Kansas State defense. And we finished up third in the nation in defense. My expectancy is that we're going to win the WAC championship. I expect to win every time we go out on the field. But we're going to take it one game at a time.

(On his coaching style) The players have to have fun, the coaches have to have fun. If you go out there and every move you make, you tighten up, that's no fun. And football is supposed to be fun. We want, when you leave the stadium, to say SMU played football the way it's supposed to be played.

For those of you who haven't been Mustangs, come check us out - you'll be pleasantly surprised.

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Again, this isn't word-for-word. But you get the idea.

[SMUguy]

I liked the fact that he came straight from the practice field, in his SMU Mustangs football shirt. The man just looks like a coach.

And the shirt he had on has those huge block letters that stood out nicely on TV.

Thought Mark Followill did a hell of a job with the interview, too.

[ClassOf81]

Sounds like Bennett wants to get the ball to Briggs this year, too. I thought he was being moved to fullback, and that the only way he'd touch the ball was on short passes. Everything I'd heard was that he was supposed to be almost exclusively a blocker for ShanD and Kincade.

[PK]

Bennett creates so much enthusiasim, he could sell refridgerators to Eskimos. I'll take three refridgerators, thank you. I predict this will be if nothing else a fun year for SMU football fans.

[91Stang]

The defense was already good. And with that story about Coach Bennett taking a bunch of no-names and making them the #3 defense in the country, SMU's defense is going to rule the WAC.

[MustangMan]

It's good to see Coach Bennett realizes that nothing will improve on the field without top talent. He wouldn't have had nearly the success he had at K-State or A&M or his other stops along the road without top players. Let's get him some great players and see what he does with them.

[MustangMan]

Looks like Hoofprint took some fast notes, too.

From all PonyFans who are out of range to watch that channel, thanks for the effort there.