Keeping up with the Jonses

[coloradoStang]

I'm sorry 81 but I completely disagree - athletics (especially football) are a huge source of pride for most alums, ex-players and the entire community at any university or college. If they are a source of pride, they can also become a source of embarrassment.

Personally - I have SMU stuff all over my office. Helmet, framed ED jersey, etc. And I work with mostly ACC/SEC alums - and we talk a lot of football.

If athletics were not a huge source of pride, why do so many boosters/alums break the rules in order to win?

Exactly. No one brags about academics

[ponyinNC]

I'm sorry 81 but I completely disagree - athletics (especially football) are a huge source of pride for most alums, ex-players and the entire community at any university or college. If they are a source of pride, they can also become a source of embarrassment.

Personally - I have SMU stuff all over my office. Helmet, framed ED jersey, etc. And I work with mostly ACC/SEC alums - and we talk a lot of football.

If athletics were not a huge source of pride, why do so many boosters/alums break the rules in order to win?

Exactly. No one brags about academics

If I wanted that, I would have gone to Emory or W&L.

I wanted academics AND athletics. That's why the bowl run and the excitement from LB and staff have been so great. I don't want that forward momentum to end.

[Stallion]

when people don't understand the mechanics of a problem they have a tendency to hit on wildly irrelevant and incoherent explanations for a problem. That's why this is poor journalism which I'm embarrassed appeared in the SMU school paper. I'm not necessarily criticizing the opinion but the total lack of factual, rational foundation for his opinion. If you want to boldly assert that SMU should fire an SMU employee in the school newspaper and SMU community then make a rational, well thought out argument. I often have the same opinion about these "Letters to the AD" and "Letters to Turner" which describe their ANGER at losing but fail to ARTICULATE the precise DEFICIENCIES which need to be addressed. Its not good enough to say that Turner is not committed unless you articulate a strong factual basis of your opinion. Less conclusions-more constructive criticism and suggestions that persuade not spew anger-otherwise I'd throw that crap away or respond with Form Letter 17

[ponyinNC]

I often have the same opinion about these "Letters to the AD" and "Letters to Turner" which describe their ANGER at losing but fail to ARTICULATE the precise DEFICIENCIES which need to be addressed. Its not good enough to say that Turner is not committed unless you articulate a strong factual basis of your opinion. Less conclusions-more constructive criticism and suggestions-otherwise I'd throw that crap away.

For me, it all comes down to an organized plan for success (or a lack thereof)

*IPF - Have we secured funding? If not, why? If we have, why haven't plans been drawn or construction scheduled? This should be easy to answer. Either we have the $ or we don't, and we therefore need to raise funds. That is fine. But communication from some level of admin would be nice.

*Measureable, accelerated goals for each program. Now perhaps these are in place, and they are not for public view. Again, that is fine. But something tells me that we may not even have that. I know the whole "Top 25 in all we do" was ridiculed -- but at least it was something. A goal.

*An overall commitment from top that SMU understands how important athletics are to the entire university, and a plan of action. Just something that shows we have folks thinking about this stuff.

[SMU_Alumni11]

when people don't understand the mechanics of a problem they have a tendency to hit on wildly irrelevant and incoherent explanations for a problem. That's why this is poor journalism which I'm embarrassed appeared in the SMU school paper. I'm not necessarily criticizing the opinion but the total lack of factual, rational foundation for his opinion. If you want to boldly assert that SMU should fire an SMU employee in the school newspaper and SMU community then make a rational, well thought out argument. I often have the same opinion about these "Letters to the AD" and "Letters to Turner" which describe their ANGER at losing but fail to ARTICULATE the precise DEFICIENCIES which need to be addressed. Its not good enough to say that Turner is not committed unless you articulate a strong factual basis of your opinion. Less conclusions-more constructive criticism and suggestions that persuade not spew anger-otherwise I'd throw that crap away or respond with Form Letter 17

I agree with you that this wasn't a letter with journalistic attributes. If anything this qualifies as a blog post about JJs performance and joining in with the pitchfork mob. I think (if not already) the daily campus should have an opinion/thoughts column to segment the academic, journalistic letters and then have the funny light-hearted opinion posts to amuse the JJ haters.

[Stallion]

I thought about that but the fact is that if you want to write an article in the SMU newspaper suggesting that an SMU employee should be fired then that is not the proper subject of funny, light-hearted material

[ClassOf81]

Looking back, I wasn't very clear before. I am VERY proud of my alma mater, and yes, part of that is because of the athletic teams. When we made the Hawaii Bowl for the first time, I was almost in tears. But I'm proud of these teams when we win and when we lose. I go to every home football and basketball game, and I try to make one or two road trips a year, and I appreciate the teams and the effort they put in. If I had any athletic ability, I would have wanted to play when I was in school, but I didn't (and our team was awesome, so I would have had to have a lot of athletic ability). For the record, I wear SMU stuff all the time, and I have posters and pictures and other SMU gear all over the place. My pride in SMU definitely includes my fondness for the teams. All I meant is that when we lose a game or have a bad season, it can be frustrating, but my pride in SMU doesn't waver.

[AusTxPony]

Wouldn't this be called an Op-Ed? If so, he is writing his opinion and in a clever way. I read Op-Eds in the Austin paper all the time, which are no reflection on the views of the staff, editors or publishers.

[SMUer]

Why is the onus on us to lay out clear, well-thought-out plans of action in our emails? That's not our job. We're consumers of a product and we're expressing displeasure. It's Hart's problem if he can't come up with solutions to soften fan displeasure. It's also his problem if he doesn't take them seriously. How can he judge a situation's seriousness? The volume of letters, not the content.

Some of you think you can send an email and Hart will say, "Gosh, this guy is right. I'll do exactly what he says!" LOL. He glosses over every email with the same indifference and only writes what it takes to calm you down and preserve your season ticket. The only way to change his opinion is by the shear volume of discontent getting him to reconsider whether things are alright.

[East Coast Mustang]

Wouldn't this be called an Op-Ed? If so, he is writing his opinion and in a clever way. I read Op-Eds in the Austin paper all the time, which are no reflection on the views of the staff, editors or publishers.

It was a [deleted] article with [deleted] jokes that weren't funny. If you want to do a takedown of JJ, point to the drop off in recruiting, failure to develop QBs, lack of talent at the WR position in year six, questionable playcalling, etc. Making stupid jokes that lack actual humor and taking potshots at current players is low class IMO

[Statler]

OK disagree with that type of article in student newspaper-poor analysis and journalism I would expect from SmuAlumni11
Agree that GG is having a better year
But stop with the BS that GG is anything more than an average college QB throwing mostly 5 yard uncontested completions. He has been mediocre with some stats that are inflated,. His poor QB rating and Yards per Catch tell a very different story. If he can throw the ball downfield like he did late in the Rutgers game without making the mistakes that have plagued his career then you can start talking about him being an above average college QB. Right now he is not

Disagree - the sideways plays and the failure of his receivers to come back to the ball has hampered his yards per completion stats.

[gostangs]

stallion - he wasn't writing a friggin legal brief - its an op-ed, and a humorous one at that. These type of pieces run in student papers all the time all over the country - particularly at schools where the student body cares about sports. I thought some of it was pretty funny - agree that players should be off limits, and was somewhat encouraged that it was written and published. All of this helps to add to the weight on the scales of doing something different.

[redpony]

I find the outrage about this article to be interesting. IIRC a couple of years ago one of the players wrote an article in the Crampus about the students/fans. Don't recall much outrage about that article. While I disagree on panning GG (he plays all out and is an inspiration to the team) I believe that fair is fair. If players can write articles about the fans then should not the fans be able to complain in articles about the team as well??

[SMU_Alumni11]

I have to agree that it is, if anything, more unprofessional for people working/attach to the school (scholarship athletes, coaches, professors, etc) talking bad about the fanbase or individual groups than the other way around. I will say yeah this opinion letter isnt going to persuade anyone on how to fix issues. I will say it just gets lumped on the pile of letters and word of mouth frustrations with the program. I dont think its going to provide any results directly, but I think it will get mention in the board rooms of SMU.

[Grant Carter]

I find the outrage about this article to be interesting. IIRC a couple of years ago one of the players wrote an article in the Crampus about the students/fans. Don't recall much outrage about that article. While I disagree on panning GG (he plays all out and is an inspiration to the team) I believe that fair is fair. If players can write articles about the fans then should not the fans be able to complain in articles about the team as well??

There was all sorts of outrage about it on here and people still bring it up periodically.


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