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Rebel10 wrote:To be fair to AD Hart I believe Orsini scheduled those games during the Bennett years.

By AD I meant Athletic Department, basically meaning the various guys that have scheduled those games over the years.

I think we will beat Rutgers. Conf game at home.

We will have to play four quarters to do it, but we can if we come out focused and play some inspired football.

DO IT!!!!!!

I know I've been labelled a JJ to the death sunshiner so I guess I should give the mob what they want.

I expect to play our best game of the season on Saturday and from what I can tell that should be enough to beat Rutgers. So I expect to win.

I am most worried about the mind set of the kids. If it's not right then we could be in trouble. Our D was fantastic against TCU until it got gassed, and played pretty well against TT too. I think people are missing that while we made every mistake in the book against The Frogs we held them to 335 total yards of offense. Our O lost us that game. And they way we lost it in the end could have a really damaging effect on the players. The 4th quarter took me back 10 years to the Bennett Doldrums.

I am also worried about the mindset of the fans. This is a huge game for the program and being upset that JJ is our coach cannot be the focus for the fanbase. This is BCS game time. The AAC does not seem strong at all. Why can't we dream of 8-0? Is it sunshiney? Of course. But that's what fans are supposed to be. It's a day out to watch your team. Enjoy it. And help the kids enjoy it too.

I expect JJ to have impressed upon the team how important this is. And I expect to see some things we haven't seen yet. (Insert joke about Offense). I'll take a 1 point win but I think we can win comfortably.

Mustangsabu wrote:I am also worried about the mindset of the fans.

I suppose it's possible since it's been awhile since we played at home we could see a good turnout,
but Mustangsabu at 1-3 I am worried that the crowd with the 11AM kickoff could be abysmal this weekend.

I don't have any quit in me as a fan and I fully expect SMU to come out and play smart, tough football. At the same time, I belive that Rutgers is going to bring it. SMU better be ready. Hioping for a good turnout as well by the fans and the team.

smusportspage wrote:I don't have any quit in me as a fan and I fully expect SMU to come out and play smart, tough football. At the same time, I belive that Rutgers is going to bring it. SMU better be ready. Hioping for a good turnout as well by the fans and the team.

Agree - Rutgers will show up for this and be ready to go. I see Rutgers as about the same level as Texas Tech - they just won't have home field advantage in our own stadium, and hopefully won't throw Tortillas.

Mustangsabu wrote:I know I've been labelled a JJ to the death sunshiner so I guess I should give the mob what they want...

I am most worried about the mind set of the kids...

I am also worried about the mindset of the fans. This is a huge game for the program and being upset that JJ is our coach cannot be the focus for the fanbase...

I expect JJ to have impressed upon the team how important this is. And I expect to see some things we haven't seen yet...

I wouldn't say you are to the death. I think you are reasonably preaching caution. There is nothing wrong with that. There is a lot of frustration coming out of the woodwork, because the fan base started to believe that the crap the administration has put us through for 25 years was finally over. They believe, with some pretty good empirical evidence, that the coach doesn't care about the fan base or the school.

The greatest on field accomplishment that JJ has achieved at SMU is that he changed the mindset of the players. His first year was really rough, but the kids gained confidence and started winning. We went to four bowl games in a row. The problem, from my perspective, is that we have moved back to that mindset. Our players appear to always looking for the bad to happen. It almost becomes a self full-filling prophecy. When it happens, they start looking for the next bad thing to happen...etc. The final step is quitting on the game before it is over (see A&M, TT, TCU)

I am sure that JJ has impressed upon the kids from day 1 how important the "regular season" is. The question that I will throw right back at you is, "Is there enough leadership from the coaching staff and upperclassmen to change the mindset to compete?" This is not an idle question. This is what the Rutgers game really is all about for SMU as a program. It is OK to lose games... God knows the fan base knows how to handle that. But it is not OK to mail in the effort. As a student, I watched Rossley's teams just get physically [Gary Fatterson] slapped (I really felt bad for those guys). Yet, they kept getting up. JJ has bigger, stronger and better athletes. Will they have the same fight? Is there any leadership that lift the kids back up?

There's not much empirical about June trying to leave for another job and recruiting for that job on our dime. The inference is that he doesn't care to be here. The evidence is factual, not empirical.

malonish wrote:There's not much empirical about June trying to leave for another job and recruiting for that job on our dime. The inference is that he doesn't care to be here. The evidence is factual, not empirical.

I was trying to be non confrontational...

Insane_Pony_Posse wrote:

Mustangsabu wrote:I am also worried about the mindset of the fans.

I suppose it's possible since it's been awhile since we played at home we could see a good turnout,
but Mustangsabu at 1-3 I am worried that the crowd with the 11AM kickoff could be abysmal this weekend.

I am worried about that too. With the way things have gone and the time hitting right in the middle of brunch it could be a small turnout which will not look good or feel good. I hope I'm wrong.

We will have less than 9,000 in the stands at the beginning of the game.

Less than 4,500 by the fourth quarter.

The question that I will throw right back at you is, "Is there enough leadership from the coaching staff and upperclassmen to change the mindset to compete?" This is not an idle question. This is what the Rutgers game really is all about for SMU as a program. It is OK to lose games... God knows the fan base knows how to handle that. But it is not OK to mail in the effort. As a student, I watched Rossley's teams just get physically [Gary Fatterson] slapped (I really felt bad for those guys). Yet, they kept getting up. JJ has bigger, stronger and better athletes. Will they have the same fight? Is there any leadership that lift the kids back up?

That is a huge question for me, and will have an impact on my ever evolving understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of JJ. They didn't show much fight in the 4th quarter on Saturday and I hated seeing that. But they showed real fight against Montana State and were rewarded for it.

Leadership is what I want/need to see.

Just remember this:


We are a last minute miracle drive against a 1AA team that we paid 300K from being 0-4. Is that worth $2M a year combined with a recruiting class that is on pace to be the second worst of all D1A Texas programs?

StallionsModelT wrote:Just remember this:


We are a last minute miracle drive against a 1AA team that we paid 300K from being 0-4. Is that worth $2M a year combined with a recruiting class that is on pace to be the second worst of all D1A Texas programs?

The losing I could handle - if we played smart and hard and still lost to better teams, I think most SMU fans could/would accept that.

But we don't play hard or smart. Penalties. Turnovers. Not executing on ST, etc.

And our recruiting is looking worse and worse each year, save for a few coaches getting a pipeline (like Peters has done at Lamar) or an outlier coach grabbing a good player (Mumme with 4 star QB). There seems to be no plan, no urgency, nothing.

I want to see a class that wows people. Even if only on paper. I want to do what we have done in BB - grab national attention for getting local Dallas stars to play at SMU.

That is not an impossible dream, is it??