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Correction: Rossley never had a winning record. Career Record was 15-38-3

Not saying we had great teams back then. But we did have some very good and exciting players. Tom Rossely had his hands tied. He couldn't even bring a prospect in for a visit unless he was academically better than the average student on campus. By the time he was qualified, most of the good athletes were already committed to other schools. And he still had to compete in the SWC. Today that problem no longer exists. And we compete in a lesser conference.

Oh I agree, Gregg, Rossley, Cavan and Bennett would all likely have taken SMU to at least 1 bowl playing in the current CUSA under present admission standards. That's why Jones should be held to an entirely different standard

Stallion wrote:Oh I agree, Gregg, Rossley, Cavan and Bennett would all likely have taken SMU to at least 1 bowl playing in the current CUSA under present admission standards. That's why Jones should be held to an entirely different standard

Yep

Stallion wrote:Oh I agree, Gregg, Rossley, Cavan and Bennett would all likely have taken SMU to at least 1 bowl playing in the current CUSA under present admission standards. That's why Jones should be held to an entirely different standard

Caven and Rossley had an assistant coach that found ways of circumventing the rules. I know that Caven DID bring in players that could not even get into SMU today (I am making an assumption that Jones runs a cleaner program than Caven did).

As for the lower competition today. I recall Caven/Rossley teams losing to Tulane, North Texas, Navy, Rice, UTEP, TCU, Tulsa, Houston, and La Tech. Many of these losses by 30+ points...

You are making a completely incorrect assumption. There are probably in the neighborhood of 25-30 players on this team that couldn't or wouldn't have been admitted to SMU at the START of the Cavan regime including Division 1A transfers, JUCOs, low qualifiers, and late qualifiers. An estimate of about 8 players every year may even be on the low side based on the records that were leaked from SMU's admission director a couple of years ago. If you want to go back to the Gregg days and early Rossley days I have little doubt that the number is greater than 50%. The alleged "June Jones Miracle" is a lot less miracle and whole bunch more readjustment of the admission standards of the university over the period of 2000 and culminating in about 2008 when June Jones was hired.

Stallion nails another one. Long time ago, but I don't remember a Gregg coached team that ever looked or acted emotionless.