USA Today grades SMU Football's 2013 season

[Lebanese4Life]

ok sure, most of us expected 4-8, but you cant say 5-7 was a pleasant surprise and that we should be happy with that record. None of us knew how sorry the AAC was going to be. It really was one of the worst D-1 football conferences in America last season.

[mustangxc]

ok sure, most of us expected 4-8, but you cant say 5-7 was a pleasant surprise and that we should be happy with that record. None of us knew how sorry the AAC was going to be. It really was one of the worst D-1 football conferences in America last season.

Were you happy receiving a C- when you were in school? I know for me that was a complete failure so I think C- is a representative grade for this teams results. We were very close to earning a solid B or B+ (beat Rutgers, Cincinnati, and win the bowl game), but it didn't happen.

[SMU2007]

At least TCU was more miserable this year than we were.

Yea being in the big 12 sure would make me miserable! Another excellent point FTHP!

[SMU2007]

ok sure, most of us expected 4-8, but you cant say 5-7 was a pleasant surprise and that we should be happy with that record. None of us knew how sorry the AAC was going to be. It really was one of the worst D-1 football conferences in America last season.

Were you happy receiving a C- when you were in school? I know for me that was a complete failure so I think C- is a representative grade for this teams results. We were very close to earning a solid B or B+ (beat Rutgers, Cincinnati, and win the bowl game), but it didn't happen.

I disagree. If we had won the AAC but still gotten throttled by tech tcu and atm, I would have a hard time going above B. The conference games are cute and all, but the real teams should be our measuring stick.

If we had beaten Rutgers, Cincy, and random bowl opponent, I'd go with C+/B-

[GiddyUp]

Would have been interesting to see what we would have done with Garrett the last two games. Really think we would have beaten UCF, at least on that day.

Special Teams was beyond awful and hardly got corrected throughout the year. Inexcusable.

Grade - C- (have to close out games) Until we at least can be within a TD of old-SWC conf teams, SMU/Jones will get no respect from most. I think I predicted 5-7.

[Lebanese4Life]

ok sure, most of us expected 4-8, but you cant say 5-7 was a pleasant surprise and that we should be happy with that record. None of us knew how sorry the AAC was going to be. It really was one of the worst D-1 football conferences in America last season.

Were you happy receiving a C- when you were in school? I know for me that was a complete failure so I think C- is a representative grade for this teams results. We were very close to earning a solid B or B+ (beat Rutgers, Cincinnati, and win the bowl game), but it didn't happen.

apples and oranges. C is average, and we werent close to average. only teams we could beat were garbage teams ranked 100+ like UCONN, Temple, and USF. that squeaker w/ montana state was comical

[SMULaxer]

At least TCU was more miserable this year than we were.

Yea being in the big 12 sure would make me miserable! Another excellent point FTHP!

He's not wrong. They were bad.

[SMU2007]

They lost 1 game by more than 2 scores, and 4 games by 3 points or less. Also they are in the big 12. Our season was decidedly more embarrassing. Assuming anyone on the national scale was even paying enough attention for us to be embarrassed.

[East Coast Mustang]

Please just stop responding to the town clown. He's hopeless

[SMULaxer]

They lost 1 game by more than 2 scores, and 4 games by 3 points or less. Also they are in the big 12. Our season was decidedly more embarrassing. Assuming anyone on the national scale was even paying enough attention for us to be embarrassed.

Counter argument: TCU sucks

[feelthehorsepower]

At least TCU was more miserable this year than we were.

Yea being in the big 12 sure would make me miserable! Another excellent point FTHP!

I would gladly trade our 5-7 season in the American for a 4-8 season in the Big 12, which is what we would have got if we played in the Big 12 this year.

Just playing around...this is what we would have most likely had as a schedule:

Stephen F. Austin W
Texas State W
Louisiana Tech W
OU L
Texas Tech L
TCU L
West Virginia L
Iowa State L
Kansas State L
Kansas W
Ok State L
Baylor L
Texas L
UCF L

Getting paid $18 Million a year to go 4-8 sounds so appealing! Of course this would be with this years team, our teams would get way better like in the SWC days since we will recruit Big 12 depth.

[PonySnob]

At least TCU was more miserable this year than we were.

Yea being in the big 12 sure would make me miserable! Another excellent point FTHP!

I would gladly trade our 5-7 season in the American for a 4-8 season in the Big 12, which is what we would have got if we played in the Big 12 this year.

Just playing around...this is what we would have most likely had as a schedule:

Stephen F. Austin W
Texas State W
Louisiana Tech W
OU L
Texas Tech L
TCU L
West Virginia L
Iowa State L
Kansas State L
Kansas W
Ok State L
Baylor L
Texas L
UCF L

Getting paid $18 Million a year to go 4-8 sounds so appealing! Of course this would be with this years team, our teams would get way better like in the SWC days since we will recruit Big 12 depth.

With the current coaching staff, it's hard to believe we would be recruiting any better if we were in the Big 12............

[PerunaPunch]

I consciously made the decision to give up making season predictions because I really suck at it.

But on paper, I thought we'd be OK on D. I knew we were going to take a step backwards (especially against TAMU, TT and TCU) on the DLine, since we had no size to replace Hunt, Grenier or Pitt. But once we made it past out-of-conference, I thought they'd be able to lock it down like they did in seasons past. As good as TReed and JG were, the new LBs were supposed to be better (or at least bigger and faster and had the potential to be better), and we were healthy again in the secondary. But the LBs didn't show, and when Greenbauer went down, our overall depth was exposed.

Still based, the result (while disappointing) was about what most people predicted, which was a step backwards in a (theoretically) better conference.

We were better than anticipated on offense, and worse than anticipated on defense. We had some things go against us this year (especially injuries to Gilbert and Greenbauer), but we should have been better prepared to contend with injuries as everyone has to deal with them. C-

[ghost]

Great Poll. Seems to measure how a team does based on expectations but takes into account factors that hurt or help. That is a poll a university should use for coaches job performance.

[feelthehorsepower]

Yea being in the big 12 sure would make me miserable! Another excellent point FTHP!

I would gladly trade our 5-7 season in the American for a 4-8 season in the Big 12, which is what we would have got if we played in the Big 12 this year.

Just playing around...this is what we would have most likely had as a schedule:

Stephen F. Austin W
Texas State W
Louisiana Tech W
OU L
Texas Tech L
TCU L
West Virginia L
Iowa State L
Kansas State L
Kansas W
Ok State L
Baylor L
Texas L
UCF L

Getting paid $18 Million a year to go 4-8 sounds so appealing! Of course this would be with this years team, our teams would get way better like in the SWC days since we will recruit Big 12 depth.

With the current coaching staff, it's hard to believe we would be recruiting any better if we were in the Big 12............

True, we would be Big 12 bottom feeders like Kansas and Baylor (before 2010)