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Let's say we beat Houston on Saturday. I know a massively huge stretch! Would you June Jones haters still be calling for him to be fired? Just wondering.

Haters gonna hate

you obviously haven't been around the board for very long. here's how it goes:

we win -- June is the best thing that's ever happened to SMU

we lose -- June needs to be fired immediately

whitwiki wrote:Haters gonna hate

This. We could win against UH, but if when ever we lose another game it will be "fire June" regardless of of record or who we play. Winning is only a band aid to a lot of people on ponyfans. Only covers up the hate temporarily, doesn't change the fact: haters gonna hate. A good amount are probably happy when we lose. Would love to see us lose a BCS championship just to be "right." Haters gonna hate.

No.

But I stopped believing in Santa Claus and the Easter bunny a while back ... I would LOVE to be eating crow come Saturday night. But, my feeling as of right now, is that UH scores 50+ on us. I wish these kids had the PRIDE and fire to not allow that but I'm very pessimistic right now ... this will be an embarrassing loss but the last one from UH for a long time (after Keenum leaves, they are on the down swing and we are on the upward swing ... their last Hoorah).

We are not haters but rather realists. We watch games and give our honest opinions. Recently people have been talking negatively about JJ because of the team's recent performance in our last 4 games and rightly so! But if we beat Houston I'll be the happiest guy in the world and I'll quit rippin JJ about his coaching ability. If we do manage to beat them the only thing we could possibly question JJ about is his ability to get the team to show up for low-profile opponents.

Who knows, we could beat Houston. They haven't played a decent opponent yet and the offense showed up against ranked TCU. Maybe they'll show up against ranked Houston.

Lebanese4Life wrote:We are not haters but rather realists. We watch games and give our honest opinions. Recently people have been talking negatively about JJ because of the team's recent performance in our last 4 games and rightly so! But if we beat Houston I'll be the happiest guy in the world and I'll quit rippin JJ about his coaching ability. If we do manage to beat them the only thing we could possibly question JJ about is his ability to get the team to show up for low-profile opponents.

Who knows, we could beat Houston. They haven't played a decent opponent yet and the offense showed up against ranked TCU. Maybe they'll show up against ranked Houston.

I think this is dead-on, and unfortunately sums up SMU football from the mid-90's to today: lack of mental discipline to take every game seriously. My frustration stems from the fact that despite the money spent, the improvement in recruiting, and the recommitment to football, this fundamental issue still lingers. I think we show up against Houston; do we win, probably not, but I don't see it being an embarrassment because the team generally turns on the afterburners against teams that they deem to be superior, and cool it against those they don't. USM and Tulsa were blow outs because the team felt they were not worthy of their full attention; turns out their assumption was misguided and they got their tails handed to them. Tulane was a win despite our best effort to give them the game (our D gave up 24 pts in a quarter; really guys?) and Navy was a return to the mentality of assuming we can just show up and win, which we CAN'T. June Jones says he knows his team is not one that can just show up and win, yet he seems to have failed to drive that point home to the players despite all the talk.

As for the haters out there, I think it is more complex than that. From my perspective, you can divide the SMU fan base into three categories: the pre-DP folks, the post, and the Jones generation. Looking at them that way, and looking at the promises they saw/were sold in June's hiring, you can understand where some of the hate comes from:

The Pre-DP folks (from which I assume the CoC come, as well as many of the long term season ticket holders) were sold on a return to national relevance by a big-time coach. They saw a guy who turned one school, and an entire state around, and were sold the idea he would do the same at SMU. These are the true believers of SMU, and expect not only success, but loyalty to the school they love. So far, Jones has delivered neither of these things to them, hence the frustration. .500 teams, marginal bowls, and a coach who is perceived as wanting to throw every SMU tradition out the window is not going to hold the support of this group for very long, and their patience is running thin.

The Post-DP folks (the group I belong to), are more patient. We are happy to see any modicum of success, and by and large make up the June Jones' apologist group. However, we were also sold on the idea of steady improvement, and the notion that this steady improvement would allow the academic and the athletic spheres of the SMU community to find some common ground. We believed that June could show us that our school could support a solid football team without compromising its academic integrity (win the "right way"). This work is improving but incomplete, and again patience has limits.

The third group, our current students and very recent alums, are looking for inspiration. They read every piece of hype out there, and use every time we fail to live up to it as an excuse to not get behind the program. They too bought the idea of a meteoric rise to national relevance, haven't seen it, and like the post-DP crowd simply accept the reality that it may never happen. They are excited about the notion of moving to a BCS conference (even a weak one) because it is a perceived upgrade, and though they want to believe the hype that we will be medium to big dogs in a weak BCS conference, they would not be the least bit surprised by a return to mediocrity (see the post about the tour guide to gain insight into this group)

Ironically, all three groups can be satisfied by the same thing; give us a team that wants to win, a coach that wants to embrace the SMU community for all its quirks, and fuel our ambitions to achieve great things by putting out our best effort every week. Until this becomes the norm rather than the exception, yes, the haters will still hate because the big wins feel like flukes rather than trends.

It's amazing to me how people are shocked by simple rolls of the dice and believe something must be done to ensure the next roll is a seven. Ebb and flow, ebb and flow. It's the way of this world.

Beat Houston.

Ryan +1, well stated.

GO PONIES!!!

Yes. They would.

Sample responses (not implying that all of these people are haters):

Mitch - Yeah, they won, but I hate the coach and his offense. They would have won faster with a fullback and a tight end.
Stallion - Yeah, we won, but the system was set up for him to win.
StallionsModelT - Now that we've won, the Big East won't want us. We're going to have to go to the Sun Belt.
Couch'em - Whatever I say, I'm right.
Ralph - go ponies
94 - We won, but it's not OFFICIAL until I say so.
Statler - Yeah, we won, but what did you think of the band's performance?

ender3 wrote:Yes. They would.

Sample responses (not implying that all of these people are haters):

Mitch - Yeah, they won, but I hate the coach and his offense. They would have won faster with a fullback and a tight end.
Stallion - Yeah, we won, but the system was set up for him to win.
StallionsModelT - Now that we've won, the Big East won't want us. We're going to have to go to the Sun Belt.
Couch'em - Whatever I say, I'm right.
Ralph - go ponies
94 - We won, but it's not OFFICIAL until I say so.
Statler - Yeah, we won, but what did you think of the band's performance?

ender3 wrote:Yes. They would.

Sample responses (not implying that all of these people are haters):

Mitch - Yeah, they won, but I hate the coach and his offense. They would have won faster with a fullback and a tight end.
Stallion - Yeah, we won, but the system was set up for him to win.
StallionsModelT - Now that we've won, the Big East won't want us. We're going to have to go to the Sun Belt.
Couch'em - Whatever I say, I'm right.
Ralph - go ponies
94 - We won, but it's not OFFICIAL until I say so.
Statler - Yeah, we won, but what did you think of the band's performance?

not bad. not bad at all.

Go Mustangs

Isn't Coach Jones the creature of Orsini and the Circle of Champions? Probably any change will come when the C of C or the Board of Trustees gets unhappy and might start with an AD who will truly embrace the SMU community.

Having said that I believe we are better off with JJ than we would have been with most of the attempts to pick someone who was never offered the head job before SMU tried to find lightning in a bottle.

The haters are still gonna hate by playing a banjo, or a bongo