Out At End of Season

[blackoutpony]

Unless we become JUCO U for a couple of years, the cupboard will be bare.

If this is true, I certainly hope the CofC has already identified a short of candidates.

I think we can relax (at least a little bit) on this subject. I've covered the Mustangs for maybe 15 years, and these kids are the most athletic we've had in that time. We're bigger, stronger, faster, deeper and that's a fact.

In my OPINION, our recruiting issues don't stem from lack of effort (every bye week you'll see a stream of coaches exiting Ford in coat and tie hitting the recruiting trail, every day June is rolling tape on recruits or opponents by 4 a.m.), it's in how we've allocated our scholarship offers to address injury and the natural turnover by position and the fact that we don't have hundreds of kids trying to walk on every year like you might at a large state school (because of SMU's high tuition, EVERY scholarship must count). And also throw in our admissions issues, which admittedly are WORLDS better now, but we're paying in 2013 for admissions decisions that were made in 2009-2011.

This year we're pretty deep (at least for SMU) at the skill positions. Where we're getting hammered is on the offensive and defensive lines. For example, we saw this one coming years ago when we weren't recruiting enough kids to replace an OLine that included LeRibeus, Beachum, Tennison, McJunkin and Brooks, who all "grew up" together and graduated together.

But if you look at where any of those guys started (with the exception of LeRibeus), you've got to be really excited about Briggs (6'5 300+ and maybe the most athletic lineman we've had since the DP), Chamagua (6'6 300+), I hear a lot of optimism about Fister, Lasecki (who as a sophomore has broken a bunch of all-time team strength records), McCarty (a true freshman who is 6'4 290 and is already getting some PT, Rice (a freaky good athlete for a big guy who earned PT as a true freshman), Jerry Saena (who is now 6'5 and skinny at 315; doesn't know what he's doing yet but is growing into a scary specimen), Weeks (6'5 300+ and is only a sophomore).

I can go on, but I point that out to demonstrate that there are no more 5'10 offensive linemen (all of whom were listed at 6'2 on the roster ). So whether it be June or someone else, from a personnel standpoint, we're light years ahead of where we've been. In fact, you could make the case that this team might even be pretty attractive to a potential coach due to the youth of some many of these players.

This. Not sure why everyone thinks the sky is falling.

Also, the DLine has been an issue at times this year, but we've got Nabusoshi (6'4 260+), Minor (6'3 275), Hollie (6'4 310), Lawler (6'4 240) and Gentry (6'7 255) all in the pipeline as Freshmen or Redshirts. Webmaster- any updates on how our younger DL guys look?

Size, strength, and speed mean nothing if you aren't skilled at the game of football

[East Coast Mustang]

Agreed. But the days of 265lb starting offensive linemen are at least behind us.

[smu2004]

Dino Babers for hc...carry on (assuming we can't get Morris)

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 2

[StallionsModelT]

Our starting OL

LT Chauncey Briggs 6-5 300
LG Sam Rice 6-4 295
C Taylor Lasecki 6-3 290
RG Daniel McCarty 6-4 290
RT Kris Weeks 6-5 310

That is an OL that has the size/strength to hold its own in The American.

Our 3 deep DL

DE Zach Wood 6-3 270
NG Darrian Wright 6-0 290
DE Beau Barnes 6-5 250

DE Elie Nabushoshi 6-4 265
NG Nick Reed 6-1 300
DE Zelt Minor 6-3 275

DE Andrew McCleneghan 6-5 260
NG Spencer Hollie 6-5 310
DE Cameron Smith 6-3 260

That's plenty of size that goes 3 deep.

[sbsmith]

Dino Babers for hc...carry on (assuming we can't get Morris)

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 2

Interesting background, 52 years old with 20 years of FBS experience in various capacities (OC, QB, ST, WR, RB) and regions (Midwest, East, West, South), learned the Briles spread from his time at Baylor (DFW was his recruiting territory). Installed the Briles spread at Eastern Illinois and turned a 2 win team into a 7 win conference champion and now they're 6-1 and ranked #2 in 1-AA with the #1 offense.

[Treadway21]

EastCoast.....I agree
if we can't get the big name "shock the world" type guy,
Willie Fritz is a guy we should have on our list.
My gut tells me Coach Fritz would fit in at SMU...
be able to deal with Turner...
run a clean program
has Texas ties
is about the right age...not too young...not too old
has been a winner at lower tier schools
I wouldn't be mad if that's who we end up with
but it won't get much more than a blip on ESPN
and some are gonna cry foul if it's not a big splash hire all over ESPN

Well, I don't care too much about a big splash hire. We tried that and had a big splash public humiliation before LB saved us from ourselves.

I liked Orsini, but his coaching searches and hired weren't exactly stellar.

[ojaipony]

Ok, so I plead guilty to being a sometimes sunshiner and fall "victim" to comparing today with OUR yesterday (a very strong argument is made to get AWAY from that I agree and understand).

HOWEVER . . .

I've been actively following since the late 80s. We are BY FAR more talented and deep than ever. With the exception of this not very impressive class, although we have our first 4 star that actually looks like he'll make it to campus, our classes HAVE been getting better.

They aren't ALL great, but here's some that are amazing and that we wouldn't even SNIFF pre-JJ . . .

- Myers (beat out aTm!)
- Sanders (laundry list of BCS offers - and with some big time programs)
- Gaines (laundry list of BCS offers - and with some big time programs)
- Richard (laundry list of BCS offers)
- GG! (I don't care that we didn't get him right out of high school, we still got him and had to do SOME recruiting to get him)
- Minor (I hope he sees the field - I'm starting to have my doubts)
- Acker (#7 player in his state!)

There are others.

And don't "yeah, but" me. I know, I know. We are light years ahead of where we were but not where we need to be. And, instead of this year's class continuing the upward trend (despite the 4 star), it went backwards. That is my concern. If we had another class with several high 3 stars with some good offers PLUS the 4 star, I'd tell all you debbie downers that you are nuts. However, I agree with you . . . this time.

[Rebel10]

Agreed. But the days of 265lb starting offensive linemen are at least behind us.

True because the O line Bennett recruited that June used for 4 years proved that.

[ghost]

Two weeks ago Mac was on the way out too! One victory later the talk has disappeared and he is probably going to ask for an extension if they win all or maybe even lose one. So with winnable games coming up if they get to 6 wins the same will probably happen. Doesn't matter that so many of those teams are having down years.

[sbsmith]

Two weeks ago Mac was on the way out too! One victory later the talk has disappeared and he is probably going to ask for an extension if they win all or maybe even lose one. So with winnable games coming up if they get to 6 wins the same will probably happen. Doesn't matter that so many of those teams are having down years.

Who the Hell is Mac?

[feelthehorsepower]

Two weeks ago Mac was on the way out too! One victory later the talk has disappeared and he is probably going to ask for an extension if they win all or maybe even lose one. So with winnable games coming up if they get to 6 wins the same will probably happen. Doesn't matter that so many of those teams are having down years.

Who the Hell is Mac?

Mack Brown

[PlanoStang]

Unless we become JUCO U for a couple of years, the cupboard will be bare.

If this is true, I certainly hope the CofC has already identified a short of candidates.

I think we can relax (at least a little bit) on this subject. I've covered the Mustangs for maybe 15 years, and these kids are the most athletic we've had in that time. We're bigger, stronger, faster, deeper and that's a fact.

In my OPINION, our recruiting issues don't stem from lack of effort (every bye week you'll see a stream of coaches exiting Ford in coat and tie hitting the recruiting trail, every day June is rolling tape on recruits or opponents by 4 a.m.), it's in how we've allocated our scholarship offers to address injury and the natural turnover by position and the fact that we don't have hundreds of kids trying to walk on every year like you might at a large state school (because of SMU's high tuition, EVERY scholarship must count). And also throw in our admissions issues, which admittedly are WORLDS better now, but we're paying in 2013 for admissions decisions that were made in 2009-2011.

This year we're pretty deep (at least for SMU) at the skill positions. Where we're getting hammered is on the offensive and defensive lines. For example, we saw this one coming years ago when we weren't recruiting enough kids to replace an OLine that included LeRibeus, Beachum, Tennison, McJunkin and Brooks, who all "grew up" together and graduated together.

But if you look at where any of those guys started (with the exception of LeRibeus), you've got to be really excited about Briggs (6'5 300+ and maybe the most athletic lineman we've had since the DP), Chamagua (6'6 300+), I hear a lot of optimism about Fister, Lasecki (who as a sophomore has broken a bunch of all-time team strength records), McCarty (a true freshman who is 6'4 290 and is already getting some PT, Rice (a freaky good athlete for a big guy who earned PT as a true freshman), Jerry Saena (who is now 6'5 and skinny at 315; doesn't know what he's doing yet but is growing into a scary specimen), Weeks (6'5 300+ and is only a sophomore).

I can go on, but I point that out to demonstrate that there are no more 5'10 offensive linemen (all of whom were listed at 6'2 on the roster ). So whether it be June or someone else, from a personnel standpoint, we're light years ahead of where we've been. In fact, you could make the case that this team might even be pretty attractive to a potential coach due to the youth of some many of these players.

This. Not sure why everyone thinks the sky is falling.

Also, the DLine has been an issue at times this year, but we've got Nabusoshi (6'4 260+), Minor (6'3 275), Hollie (6'4 310), Lawler (6'4 240) and Gentry (6'7 255) all in the pipeline as Freshmen or Redshirts. Webmaster- any updates on how our younger DL guys look?

Size, strength, and speed mean nothing if you aren't skilled at the game of football

Yup, U R right. That Margus Hunt guy just SUCKED

[LHS81]

Two weeks ago Mac was on the way out too! One victory later the talk has disappeared and he is probably going to ask for an extension if they win all or maybe even lose one. So with winnable games coming up if they get to 6 wins the same will probably happen. Doesn't matter that so many of those teams are having down years.

Who the Hell is Mac?

Mac Davis

[SMU 86]

Actually other than the bowl game I think most would agree that Margus under performed most of the time he was here as a DE.

[mrydel]

A little off subject but found it interesting to hear yesterday during a conversation of the size of today's players that John Hannah, Alabama All American and All Pro many years with New England was drafted at 6'2", 265. Probably would not be considered draft worthy today.