And Another Thing

[mustangxc]

It makes me sad to think we have fans so ignorant of why we sucked for so long that they think Jones did something magic.

Look at TCU.

I don't think PB gets us bowl eligible each of the last 4 years with the same roster. I think at best we would have made 2 bowls with PB at the helm. Right or wrong, the perception is that June Jones transformed SMU from doormat to respectable. SMU created that situation, not June Jones. If we have to keep going to mid-tier bowls for the next couple seasons and keep June Jones until he calls it a career I am ok with that. I am honestly having fun and can say I look forward to the season, unlike the pre-Jones era. While I agree that the changing of the model had more to do with our current success than Jones, you cannot deny that he helped institute those changes, changed the culture of the program from losing to winning and again the public sees it as being all Jones. If SMU fires Jones, it would be a bad misuse of donor funds and would be a bad precedent for luring a top coach to SMU. I don't see how you can be so ignorant to outside perception. Perception is reality.

[mustangxc]

No SMU fan is happy with the, ah, deficiencies in the program, but no one can deny that JJ has lifted SMU football to a higher plane. You can be critical of June and still realize that before he was hired we were praying for a winning season, a bowl invatation. Watching the great performance in the Hawaii Bowl reminded me that Mustang football used to be pretty bad under Cavan and Bennett. Three bowl wins in four tries -- two of them smashing -- was a distant dream then.

The frustrations now are about moving up to an even higher level, into a respected conference and up to where we can be a relevent player in college football again (not just a sideshow). Jones may not be the guy to get us there, but he's gotten us part of the way.

But, there are inherent difficulties with SMU football that are much tougher to deal with and Mustang fans really need to face those without illusions. Getting to where we want to be requires the intersection of several conditions that are just not that easy to engineer.

Actually we creamed Pitt last year as well so we've had 1 very close loss and 3 smashing wins.

[Rayburn]

You're right. See, things are getting better all the time.

[SMU_Alumni11]

No SMU fan is happy with the, ah, deficiencies in the program, but no one can deny that JJ has lifted SMU football to a higher plane. You can be critical of June and still realize that before he was hired we were praying for a winning season, a bowl invatation. Watching the great performance in the Hawaii Bowl reminded me that Mustang football used to be pretty bad under Cavan and Bennett. Three bowl wins in four tries -- two of them smashing -- was a distant dream then.

The frustrations now are about moving up to an even higher level, into a respected conference and up to where we can be a relevent player in college football again (not just a sideshow). Jones may not be the guy to get us there, but he's gotten us part of the way.

But, there are inherent difficulties with SMU football that are much tougher to deal with and Mustang fans really need to face those without illusions. Getting to where we want to be requires the intersection of several conditions that are just not that easy to engineer.

Actually we creamed Pitt last year as well so we've had 1 very close loss and 3 smashing wins.

Of those 4 games, all of them are mediocre. Yay!