ESPN: Rutgers is most important Conference game

[blackoutpony]

They make a good point. I actually agree. Its a spring board one way or the other for the rest of the season

"SMU

Most important game: Oct. 5 versus Rutgers

Why: SMU has a very challenging nonconference slate. The Mustangs open their season Friday, Aug. 30 against Texas Tech and new coach Kliff Kingsbury. Two games later they travel to College Station, Texas, where they will face either an Aggie team coming off the high of beating defending national Alabama for the second year in a row or an Aggie team hungry after suffering a tough loss to the nation's best. One week later, they travel to TCU.

Like we said, very challenging. At least they avoid conference favorite Louisville in Year 1 of a new league.

So that brings us to Oct. 5, with the nonconference slate in the rearview mirror. SMU has a home contest against a Rutgers team that has a lot of unknown parts heading into Kyle Flood's second year as head coach. The first month of the season should test the Mustangs physically and mentally, and if they respond the way most good teams should, they will be ready for their Big East debut against the Scarlet Knights, one of four defending champions.

SMU's offense should be fascinating to watch with Hal Mumme joining head coach June Jones to tutor Garrett Gilbert. Rutgers is breaking in three new starters in the secondary. A bye follows the Rutgers game, and then come games against Memphis and Temple, two programs widely expected to finish at or near the bottom of the conference in 2013.

You look at the tough first month and what it could spell for SMU moving forward, and you look at games against the Tigers and Owls soon afterward, and you cannot help but think of what a win over Rutgers could do for this program in its first game in the Big East. A 3-0 start going into Cincinnati on Nov. 9? UConn awaits after that. A 4-1 start in conference play is very much possible, not to mention the chance of winning one or more of the aforementioned tough early-season games against its Texas brethren.

The possibilities could be there for a strong Big East debut for the Mustangs. But a lot of that only looks realistic if they can beat Rutgers on Oct. 5."

[StallionsModelT]

I agree that Rutgers is a crucial game. In all liklihood we will be 1-3 going into that game. If by some miracle June has the team ready to play against Tech and we are 2-2 then the non-conference slate will be a success IMO. Rutgers will be a challenge, but I truly believe we can and should beat them. If we can then follow that up with wins against Memphis and Temple we could be sitting at 5-2 going into the big game against Cincinnati.

[blackoutpony]

SIDE NOTE - do any of you ever read any blog posts or articles on ESPN (yes, I know theyre the evil empire), BUT they actually have an over/under argument in the comments as the whether we will beat the two menphis fans that commentd on their version of the article. I'm kind of tired of being ripped on for us not having fans...

Maybe if people at ESPN think we actually exist, we can get some more love, and thus more exposure, and maybe more fans, and maybe people won't think we're as small time, and maybe we can get more people to show up to our games, and maybe we won't look like such crap on tv, and then maybe, just maybe we can get some better recruits and maybe win more games.

Will this happen? probably not, but who knows, perception is reality guys. We do a lot of b*tching over here, maybe we should move to our b*tching to somewhere people will see us. That's the point of all this right? RIGHT?

[MV pony]

I read them but zoned out when they side tracked to talking about Louiville and something else about a shower. I find the Memphis and ECU posters to be pretty prickly.

[SMU 86]

SIDE NOTE - do any of you ever read any blog posts or articles on ESPN (yes, I know theyre the evil empire), BUT they actually have an over/under argument in the comments as the whether we will beat the two menphis fans that commentd on their version of the article. I'm kind of tired of being ripped on for us not having fans...

Maybe if people at ESPN think we actually exist, we can get some more love, and thus more exposure, and maybe more fans, and maybe people won't think we're as small time, and maybe we can get more people to show up to our games, and maybe we won't look like such crap on tv, and then maybe, just maybe we can get some better recruits and maybe win more games.

Will this happen? probably not, but who knows, perception is reality guys. We do a lot of b*tching over here, maybe we should move to our b*tching to somewhere people will see us. That's the point of all this right? RIGHT?

Would you mind sharing a link or 2 to the areas on ESPN you are talking about?

[blackoutpony]

Sure. I guess a good place to start is just the comments section on any of the articles in the Big East blog (they're chaning the name soon)

http://espn.go.com/blog/bigeast

They actually want us on the boards since they know nothing about their new conference mates and they're actually really nice about it.

From "Johnny Funtimes" - "No one here really knows anything about SMU so it's up to your fans to try and educate us. Some of us will try and have intelligent conversation but I can't promise that they're wont be trolls from time to time. All teams have some really bad fans but I don't want them to discourage you guys from posting. "

I say we work on our conference image and exposure before we start trolling other conferences and teams. We're stuck in the AAC for awhile so we might as well build some coheasion.

[The PonyGrad]

Memphis attendance was:
39,076[1]
27,112
17,831
22,106
18,796
21,305

Average: 24,371

I am not sure what they are bragging about.

[mustangxc]

I post as smumustangxc.

[PonySnob]

Memphis attendance was:
39,076[1]
27,112
17,831
22,106
18,796
21,305

Average: 24,371

I am not sure what they are bragging about.

I believe their average attendance was about 3K more per game than ours...........

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

Memphis attendance was:
39,076[1]
27,112
17,831
22,106
18,796
21,305

Average: 24,371

I am not sure what they are bragging about.

I believe their average attendance was about 3K more per game than ours...........

Memphis also has the added advantage of being able to easily and naturally appeal to common people as well as selling to a decent basketball base.

[malonish]

It's easy to tell who I am on there, Malonish...