DRC: Friday Q&A with Billy Embody of Pony Stampede

[Brett Vito]

DRC: 

https://www.dentonrc.com/sports/friday-q-a-with-billy-embody-of-pony-stampede/article_b37964e6-99d3-5f04-96bb-41a707c773ba.html

[NorthTexasWeLove]

 

[Withers940]

[greenminer]

Are they that much deeper than us? Should I believe this guy?

I thought the difference last year was Sutton.  Now they don't have him, they have a new coaching staff and we are - crossing fingers - vastly improved defensively, and should be super charged offensively.

I don't buy it.  This is our best shot for a SMU win in a long time.

[drex]

No room for error on our part.  The difference between talent is razon thin.  If we do what we are capable of doing, coupled with a good rowdy home crowd, we should win this one.

[MeanGreenTexan]

15 minutes ago, greenminer said:

Are they that much deeper than us? Should I believe this guy?

I thought the difference last year was Sutton.  Now they don't have him, they have a new coaching staff and we are - crossing fingers - vastly improved defensively, and should be super charged offensively.

I don't buy it.  This is our best shot for a SMU win in a long time.

Sutton was the game-changer.  No doubt.
But they also lost Lawler, who was wreaking havoc in the backfield all night (2 sacks & 3 TFLs).
Fine should have a little more time to work.

[akriesman]

In their last game (bowl) they lost 51-10 to LT.   And, they lost so much talent.   NFL players at G5 schools are much more rare, but much more dominant at that level, than the P5's.   Those guys SMU lost were THE reason for beating us the last 2 years.   Every time they through up a jump ball to Sutton, I knew he was going to come down with it.  And, he did.

I have no doubt that SMU will eventually be a pretty good team with the staff they now have.   And, they have the top G5 recruiting class for 2019 (just ahead of us).     This is the perfect time to catch them.

This is our best chance and we have to take advantage of it.   Home game with a large crowd.   An SMU team that has not played together in a real game.    And, we roll out the same offense (minus 1 NFL caliber RB) as last year.

We just need to win.  While a blowout would be great, a 1 point win is still a win, especially considering the lopsided record against these guys.   I don't care how we win, just win baby.

Edited August 31, 2018 by akriesman

[97and03]

I think you guys are crazy expecting an easy win. Throw out the bowl game result since that team was kind of in chaos with the sudden coaching change. Btw our bow result wasn’t too hot and we were a focused team. And they do have more depth and talent. 

We have to hope this coaching staff has the team prepared and players are loose and execute the game plan.

Very little margin for error here. Home field advantage is the equalizer/advantage.

[TIgreen01]

Our oline was badly outmatched last year.  Should be closer to even this year.  Both teams lost their most explosive offensive playmaker.

This is an even game, unless our defense just completely craps the bed.

[TheColonyEagle]

He says he's surprised UNT is favored....then he gives the reason why they're favored:

"but that's what happens when you lose two NFL receivers, your top sack producer, your center and are breaking in a new coaching staff."

But.................all that doesn't matter so yeah, SMU is still going to win....

[NorthTexasWeLove]

1 hour ago, greenminer said:

Are they that much deeper than us? Should I believe this guy?

I thought the difference last year was Sutton.  Now they don't have him, they have a new coaching staff and we are - crossing fingers - vastly improved defensively, and should be super charged offensively.

I don't buy it.  This is our best shot for a SMU win in a long time.

They did rush the ball better than us and stopped the run with more success. At the LOS they are better, or showed to be better in comparison to us last year. 

Going off the top of my head, their back went 16 for 84. And Jeff went 14 for 39. Something along those lines. 

They soundly beat us last year. The tosses to Sutton were the daggers. 

[RiseUNT]

Slightly deeper means nothing especially first game of year.

He says how can defense get worse. Well when you lose your best player to the NFL that was able to attack our weakest link yes it can get worse.

See you guys this is a homer beat writer. Pathetic.

[SWC]

You can't replace Courtland Sutton easily, but you guys act like we lost him, Quinn, Lawler, and others and just rolled in underclassmen.  We have transfers at WR from Notre Dame and West Virginia, along with P5 transfers at OL, DL, and LB.

I think the game will be fairly close (with a decent chance of a UNT win), but largely due to SMU stepping into a newer system.  Personnel-wise, it won't be as much of a drop off as you guys seem to think.

[RiseUNT]

35 minutes ago, SWC said:

You can't replace Courtland Sutton easily, but you guys act like we lost him, Quinn, Lawler, and others and just rolled in underclassmen.  We have transfers at WR from Notre Dame and West Virginia, along with P5 transfers at OL, DL, and LB.

I think the game will be fairly close (with a decent chance of a UNT win), but largely due to SMU stepping into a newer system.  Personnel-wise, it won't be as much of a drop off as you guys seem to think.

Are those transfers gonna be playing on Sundays next year? 

[MeanGreenTexan]

15 minutes ago, RiseUNT said:

Are those transfers gonna be playing on Sundays next year? 

Not likely, or they wouldn't have needed to transfer from wherever they came from.
See Alec Morris, our QB transfer from 'Bama as a recent example.

Solid players, but not world beaters.

[RiseUNT]

55 minutes ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

Not likely, or they wouldn't have needed to transfer from wherever they came from.
See Alec Morris, our QB transfer from 'Bama as a recent example.

Solid players, but not world beaters.

Well in that case we have a p5 transfer at a position which has been bad for us.

 

[BillySee58]

I agree that SMU is deeper. They’ve recruited very well and our depth outside of receiver and nose tackle is underwhelming/unproven. Our backups at the other positions are primarily walkons and inexperienced players who haven’t really jumped scholarship players who are older than them on the depth chart.

Like I’ve seen people say, Ben Hicks is not the most accurate QB and, outside of his connections with Courtland Sutton, he’s been pretty pedestrian against us. I’m really interested to see us get after him on third downs without Sutton or Quinn. Their running backs worry me a little, but I feel like our defense has defended the run well in the Littrell era.

I think it’ll be close but I think we do get them. I think Guyton will look like the best player on the field.

[Harry]

8 minutes ago, BillySee58 said:

I agree that SMU is deeper. They’ve recruited very well and our depth outside of receiver and nose tackle is underwhelming/unproven. Our backups at the other positions are primarily walkons and inexperienced players who haven’t really jumped scholarship players who are older than them on the depth chart.

Like I’ve seen people say, Ben Hicks is not the most accurate QB and, outside of his connections with Courtland Sutton, he’s been pretty pedestrian against us. I’m really interested to see us get after him on third downs without Sutton or Quinn. Their running backs worry me a little, but I feel like our defense has defended the run well in the Littrell era.

I think it’ll be close but I think we do get them. I think Guyton will look like the best player on the field.

I agree.  I think they have more talent more depth overall save the positional areas you mention.  The Hick interview someone else posted was pretty spot on.  If our intensity level can stay strong through the game we could build a big enough cushion to take this.  Hick mentioned that we went up 10-0 last year, and after that we sort of ran out of gas.  Fine did not have a great game and I think he is a MUCH different player this season which should help our cause.

[Greenrex]

16 minutes ago, BillySee58 said:

I agree that SMU is deeper. They’ve recruited very well and our depth outside of receiver and nose tackle is underwhelming/unproven. Our backups at the other positions are primarily walkons and inexperienced players who haven’t really jumped scholarship players who are older than them on the depth chart.

Like I’ve seen people say, Ben Hicks is not the most accurate QB and, outside of his connections with Courtland Sutton, he’s been pretty pedestrian against us. I’m really interested to see us get after him on third downs without Sutton or Quinn. Their running backs worry me a little, but I feel like our defense has defended the run well in the Littrell era.

I think it’ll be close but I think we do get them. I think Guyton will look like the best player on the field.

 

6 minutes ago, Harry said:

I agree.  I think they have more talent more depth overall save the positional areas you mention.  The Hick interview someone else posted was pretty spot on.  If our intensity level can stay strong through the game we could build a big enough cushion to take this.  Hick mentioned that we went up 10-0 last year, and after that we sort of ran out of gas.  Fine did not have a great game and I think he is a MUCH different player this season which should help our cause.

Can we just agree to agree?

[RiseUNT]

Old Denton.

This is new Denton! 

We will have a sellout.

We will impose our will on offense. 

SMU is not on our level right now.

[SWC]

2 hours ago, RiseUNT said:

Are those transfers gonna be playing on Sundays next year? 

No one thought Trey Quinn was an NFL caliber player when he transferred from LSU.

my point is that the drop off in talent isn’t as significant as you think on offense and our defense is going to be much improved. We will see what that means on the scoreboard but unless your defense is monumentally better it’s going to be a long day for your guys up front with our RB talent.

[RiseUNT]

27 minutes ago, SWC said:

No one thought Trey Quinn was an NFL caliber player when he transferred from LSU.

my point is that the drop off in talent isn’t as significant as you think on offense and our defense is going to be much improved. We will see what that means on the scoreboard but unless your defense is monumentally better it’s going to be a long day for your guys up front with our RB talent.

Lol im sorry. Let me change my question. Are any of those transfers 4 star highschool all-americans? I honestly don't know.

[Silent Eagle]

1 hour ago, SWC said:

No one thought Trey Quinn was an NFL caliber player when he transferred from LSU.

my point is that the drop off in talent isn’t as significant as you think on offense and our defense is going to be much improved. We will see what that means on the scoreboard but unless your defense is monumentally better it’s going to be a long day for your guys up front with our RB talent.

[Texas Stranger]

8 hours ago, SWC said:

along with P5 transfers at OL, DL, and LB.

Y'all got kicked out of the P6 already?  That didn't last long.

[greenminer]

6 hours ago, Greenrex said:

 

Can we just agree to agree?

Stop fighting