SMUleopold

There are those of us who tend to believe that Morris' was in over his head as a HC and that his real talent is as an OC. It's been shown a number of times at a few different schools, and that alongside his contacts at the HS level he would be a very strong OC pick. Not being funny or picking a fight - if you can get him, get him. As far as Norvell goes.... I grew up in Memphis. A number of people are saying that that the inside scoop on Norvell is that the reason that he was passed over for a few P5 jobs is that he has some personal issues that could be a concern. The term 'college girls' has come up in a few discussions, and that has scared a few programs off. We'll see if that matters here. If I were a razorback I'd take a look at Fritz. National championship at one level and now rebuilding Tulane? Seems like a winner to me.

Arkansas spends $10M on Chad's buyout. Dykes goes to Arkansas, who spends another $6M on Sonny's buyout. Buechele graduates in one year with his MBA, and due to new transfer rules goes to Arkansas to get his PhD in Feline Hunting and Culinary Preparation. He is joined by the upper half of SMU's 2020 recruiting class, never to be heard from again. Arkansas opens with a loss to Nevada and Sonny is fired when they lose to Charleston Southern 51-9, costing them another $15M. Heard it here first.

You can transfer without sitting out a year if you graduate from your school and have at least a year remaining. I believe there is some sort of requirement that the school you go to have a program not offered at your first school, thus acting like there is an academic reason for the transfer. That, and the fact that he only played in four games last year at UT allowed for that season to be considered a redshirt year, so he had two years of eligibility remaining when he showed up. TBH I would imagine that if someone managed to graduate their master's program in a year (not that difficult a notion) then, yes, they could move on - hope he doesn't do so.

Us graduating players has never really been an issue, and, to be honest, I fully expect players who were able to graduate in three years from schools like Texas, Rice, Illinois, and UCLA to be able to handle the course load expected of them. We fully expect the DC, Kane, to have a P5 job offer after this season, but we expect to have 15-18 starters back for next season.

Thank you, we're excited. We probably can't keep him from in-state poaching. I have suddenly become a very big Red Raiders fan as a result of his success.

If an academic scholarship counts against the limit, then it counts against the limit. So be it, and it makes sense to me. I feel confident Sonny can handle the player management aspects of this. Here is a list of the 16 transfers we landed this offseason: https://247sports.com/college/smu/LongFormArticle/Shane-Buechele-Richard-McBryde-Thomas-Shelmire-Kedrick-James-Chevin-Calloway-CamRon-Jones-SMU-Mustangs-college-football-transfers-new-players-134499064/#134499064_3 Notice at the end of the article the specific mention of the 'walk-on' transfers.

Fair point about the top 25 - honestly thought of that after I wrote it but didn't bother to change it. But, no, the actual price of the school, both undergraduate and graduate doesn't match the sticker price. I choose SMU because they gave me financial aid in both - they were not my first choice for either. They made it happen, and I would argue that an MBA from SMU is worth it, on top of playing college ball. To be fair, I'm certain there are some players who turned it down but I maintain, especially where they are now, it's a steal. But to answer ADLER's original question, yes and yes.

Yes, and probably yes. Stephens, the starting CB, graduated from UCLA as a RB and had fallen to third on the depth chart. So the kid A) had his undergrad degree paid for, and B) was going to rot as a football player if he stuck around. McBryde, the starting MLB, got hurt at Auburn late in his third year and was considered damaged goods, so he finished his degree as well and e-mailed 30 schools and got no answer. So I think both players - like any 21 year old would - just wanted a chance to play. I know Stephens has been given a scholarship, and I believe McBryde has. As far as academic scholarships are concerned, Grayson and Abercrombie both graduated Rice in three years and did it playing football, as did an Charlie Flores, all-Ivy League OL from Columbia. As far as I'm concerned, they've earned the academic and intellectual benefit of the doubt - give them an academic ride and don't look back. But lets say they are paying tuition out of pocket. If the parents aren't paying then they are racking up only 2 years of student loans in order to A) Get a MA or MBA from SMU and B) Play for a top 25 football team, and that's with half the presidential candidates talking seriously about student loan forgiveness. I mean, they'd be stupid not to take the deal.

Forgive me for being the voice of reason here, but please take a slightly closer look at those two lists. Damarion Williams was committed to SMU and chose to go to Houston instead - Holgs stole him from us. He is starting at UH, otherwise he would have been guarding Busey instead of a non-scholarship walk-on RB who graduated and left UCLA without a so much as a peep. Jonathon McGill decommited from us and went to Stanford, of all places. We lost him. Jha'Quan Jackson decommited from us and went to Tulane. We lost him. (Sounds to me like he did about the same so far) A few others that went to similiar programs with a better recent success, like an FIU or Brandon Crossley going to Colorado State, may have rejected us. Shamar Jackson's whereabouts aren't 'unknown' - he is at ULM with a full ride to a FBS school. As far as the others go, I don't know if we rejected them or they rejected us. Grades are a consistent problem with us as well - not to try to sound above anybody but we do sometimes lose kids at the last minute due to grades and test scores, and I know UNT does, too. As a result, many of them end up at the FCS level, so I wouldn't be so sure about someone who lost their offer at the last minute and ended up at a SFA or Lamar. The kid may just not have qualified. Lastly I've mentioned losing the equivalent of an entire recruiting class to the likes of Baylor and Arkansas, and I guarantee you this is a consistent problem. You win some, you lose some. But I'm telling you there is consistently more to the story than what people post online.

Okay, so for starters SMU effectively had two straight recruiting classes gutted before this last one, so we had some room to grow. When Morris left for Arkansas two years ago he basically took the upper half of the recruiting class he was building with him, and if a kid didn't leave with Morris to Arkansas you can imagine that Morris wasn't particularly high on him; I mean, Morris even took our starting QB, for god's sake. Dykes had to take the leftovers and try to pull a rabbit out of his hat but IIRC we came in well under the 25 man limit that year. The year before that was the Baylor scandal fallout when they were playing with a stop-gap coach and had ONE recruit committed. Morris had been knocking it out of the park with recruiting - he had Baylor's current starting QB, Charlie Brewster, committed amongst others but Rhule came in offered the upper two-thirds of THAT class, so they left and I'm sure they're happy, but we had to scramble there, too. But Dykes has essentially brought in an enormous amount of walk-on's, transfers included. They've got a platoon of non-scholarship freshmen out there if for no other reason than practice bodies. Stephens, the DB we put on Bussey, asked for a shot to play but he didn't received a scholarship offer until after the season started, supposedly. I wouldn't be surprised if the two from Rice, Grayson and Abercrumbia, were somehow on academic scholarships - I mean, they graduate Rice in three years.

Certainly a large roster change after 2020. But what I'm mostly concerned about is the whole idea 'You live with the sword, you die by the sword.' UNT, Houston, Memphis, UCF, USF, Tulane, Tulsa, Cincinnati, maybe even Temple are positioned to do exactly what SMU did this year and bring in a truckload of transfers. I don't think it would work the same way at Kansas, KSU, Kentucky, and other places that don't have a lot of home grown talent. But a truckload of talent leaves North Texas every year only to be passed over on the depth chart in college and never to be heard from again. UNT and others would do very well if they were able to tap into those players, and it is going to start to change, faster and faster, along those lines.

Can't argue with that one bit. Of course, you did take the player who was 'busted for cheating,' you know that right? https://meangreensports.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=71 (I think whomever listed the high school as 'SMU' got a kick out of it, don't you?)

Honestly, I think we end up 10-2 - the second half of the season looks more daunting than the first. Love to win the conference, though. But for next year? Sorry to be argumentative, but we have as many as 18 starters back. Call me whatever you want, but at this point, I expect us to be ranked in the preseason. The school has actually shown some initiative and started selling 2020 season passes.

SMU basketball under Larry Brown is a good comparison point. SMU and Larry had to sell roughly 6k tickets a game to get people to come to recently renovated state-of-the art basketball coliseum to watch a Hall-of-Fame coach with a top 25 and even top 10 team play nationally recognizable programs such as Louisville, UConn, Memphis, Cincinatti, Southern Cal, and others. Even SMU could market that. SMU football, on the other hand, has to sell 32k tickets a game to get people to come to a 'high school stadium' to watch a retread coach with retread players play schools nobody in Dallas knows, like East Carolina. Totally different monster. I genuinely hope the 'Dallas' thing works out.