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Ok - its time for us to do a business school best practices study on the schools that have found success in similar environments to ours. And one that jumps off the page is Northwestern. What have they done to turn that around? 5 -0 at this point - including BC, Vanderbilt and Syracuse (not exactly top 20 stuff - but we would be 0-3 vs those three). THey will be bowl eligible next week after they beat Penn State - if we get eligible at all it will be vs crappy teams in late november.

I know you cant look at any school as an exact comparable, but we can look at several very strong small urban privates as models for us. If they can do it we can.

USC, Stanford, Northwestern and even Vanderbilt and TCU are all examples.

We are on to something with the Dallas connection. we have to beat the drum until people get sick of it and never let up.

But we need a product they will come see - and that means winning a ton more then we lose, and splitting at least with regional rivals. That is going to take a new young, up and coming coach that will bring in a staff that lives and breathes recruiting. Someone that is going to be new best friends with the high school staffs at Euless Trinity, Skyline, Duncanville, Cedar Hill, Southlake, and every other obvious recruiting hotbed in the state...places that know TCU's staff down to the twelfth guy - but who have probably never met June.

Rick Hart - your work is cut out for you - but that is why you came here - to prove we can go from ok to great. June brought has from horrible to ok. Its time for the next chapter. Losing to TCU, Baylor and A&M is not forgivable in year 5 - and it is time to move on up.

I totally agree. These schools were nothing and now more than just something. The sad part is what coach out there that has a special quality for college recruitment (if we go high school route) or doesnt think hes above college recruiting (nfl coach route). We should implement a pay to win system (the more you win the more you get paid-- to create incentive to win and protect against inhibitors like "After we beat UCF, I stop caring"). Also can already tell you that Carroll's High school coach sucks. Hes living off of the remains of Todd Dodge. The guy is a used car salesman DO NOT MAKE that MISTAKE.

im not saying hire a H.S. coach - definitely not. You hire someone who basically goes to live in their world 24/7 along with ALL of our assistant coaches.

gostangs wrote: Rick Hart - your work is cut out for you - but that is why you came here - to prove we can go from ok to great. June brought has from horrible to ok. Its time for the next chapter. Losing to TCU, Baylor and A&M is not forgivable in year 5 - and it is time to move on up.

Great points. It's on Rick Hart now (if RGT lets it). USC and Stanford have bigger enrollments but still they are the model no doubt (our location is MUCH better than USC's). What's another small, private school in an urban environment that has both top notch football AND basketball programs?

everyone has more enrollment then us except for Wake Forest and Rice. But thats ok. If you win big games Dallas will show up. .

gostangs wrote:everyone has more enrollment then us except for Wake Forest and Rice. But thats ok. If you win big games Dallas will show up. .

Has to be all in a row and consistently otherwise people just say fluke or the teams we beat just played like crap. If go 3-1 (HAHHAHA) next years OOC, then yes Dallas will show up for the BE schedule. If we go 0-4, Dallas will ask us to stop putting signs on their property.

gostangs wrote:Ok - its time for us to do a business school best practices study on the schools that have found success in similar environments to ours. And one that jumps off the page is Northwestern. What have they done to turn that around? 5 -0 at this point - including BC, Vanderbilt and Syracuse (not exactly top 20 stuff - but we would be 0-3 vs those three). THey will be bowl eligible next week after they beat Penn State - if we get eligible at all it will be vs crappy teams in late november.

I know you cant look at any school as an exact comparable, but we can look at several very strong small urban privates as models for us. If they can do it we can.

USC, Stanford, Northwestern and even Vanderbilt and TCU are all examples.

We are on to something with the Dallas connection. we have to beat the drum until people get sick of it and never let up.

But we need a product they will come see - and that means winning a ton more then we lose, and splitting at least with regional rivals. That is going to take a new young, up and coming coach that will bring in a staff that lives and breathes recruiting. Someone that is going to be new best friends with the high school staffs at Euless Trinity, Skyline, Duncanville, Cedar Hill, Southlake, and every other obvious recruiting hotbed in the state...places that know TCU's staff down to the twelfth guy - but who have probably never met June.

Rick Hart - your work is cut out for you - but that is why you came here - to prove we can go from ok to great. June brought has from horrible to ok. Its time for the next chapter. Losing to TCU, Baylor and A&M is not forgivable in year 5 - and it is time to move on up.

Great post.

If you're doing comparisons with Northwestern, hire former Northwestern coach Gary Barnett. He may have some off field issues with female kickers playing college football. But, he did lead Northwestern to the Rose Bowl.

Good comparison...NW is moving up the ladder.

anyone familiar with their program? what are the things they have done to accomodate competitive recruits? They are a small private competing with pro sports and bigger state schools - how do they recruit talent to friggin canada? Conference helps i am sure, but what can we take as a lesson from them and others?

Syracuse positions itself as the NYC team - despite being 6 hours away. There are ads everywhere...

Northwestern bills itself as "Chicago's Big 10 team". Should we do that with the Big East? might actually help us starting building some brand for them/us.

SMU as "Chicago's Big East Team" sounds strange

but we haven't tried it yet - it could work!

gostangs wrote:anyone familiar with their program? what are the things they have done to accomodate competitive recruits? They are a small private competing with pro sports and bigger state schools - how do they recruit talent to friggin canada? Conference helps i am sure, but what can we take as a lesson from them and others?

First, Pat Fitzgerald is an excellent coach and former NU football hero, who will never leave Northwestern for a better job. NU promotes Chicago, Big Ten and the quality of the university and its degree. Recruits are drawn to him and his enthusiasm for his alma mater.

High character recruits get to play in a top conference and know that winning consistently is now the norm in Evanston. Stanford, ND, USC, NU and increasingly, Vanderbilt, all embrace the value of going to a first class university. Traditionally only ND and USC could claim that academic and high performance on the field could co-exist on campus.

SMU needs to embrace that we are a Top 55 University, in a great city with a tradition of competitiveness (excluding the "dark ages".) Fitzgerald sells NU, Purple, Chicago and the fact that he is going to stay with the Wildcats. Watch James Franklin at Vanderbilt rebuild with a message that VU, Nashville and SEC are reasons to come to their beautiful campus.

Even the U. of Miami plays on their tradition, despite having bent the rules, in a tough market like south Florida, but NU and Vanderbilt are the role models with the added plus of being in power conference with their money.

I have said this many times, we need to embrace the East and make lemonade. We have the ingredients to be unique and competitive. We must also sell our students on their role in the journey and Dallas that SMU is their team.

Go Mustangs!