(10-30-2023 06:44 AM)Ourland Wrote: It's still hard for me to believe that we beat these guys nine times in a row following the death penalty.
It shouldn't be. In 1987, the NCAA allowed the entire team to transfer and play immediately. And every coach, including many that did far worse on the recruiting trail than we did, descended on the Hilltop like vultures. All of that SWC talent was lured away. We could not play in 87, and chose not to play the away only schedule the NCAA offered in 88. Just a handful - maybe 3 to 5 players hung around, but not even enough to have a practice. What SMU trotted out in 1989 was a at best, a high school all star team.
And if the NCAA madness was not bad enough, SMUs administration thought athletics needed an additional timeout, raising the standards above the NCAA minimum, and as bad as that was, they then forced the players to be admitted before they could even taken an official visit! There was some other ridiculous hurdles, but you get the idea. It took a decade to start rolling those restrictions back. And then, the SWC unraveled, meaning the one big selling point in recruiting was gone. We were then, like Rice, stuck in ever devolving conferences. SMU never recruited at a what we call now FBS level in that decade. We were beating out FCS and JUCOs for players and trying to spin that as something big. And the results on the field reflected the poor recruiting. Yes, every once in a while we would get a diamond-in-the-rough, or a Ramone Flanigan, or a legacy, but that wasn't nearly enough. Just comparing SMUs lines to SWC teams was silly. Everyone in the SWC whipped us during that time EXCEPT TCU (4-6), and Arkansas. For some reason we gave the Pigs fits going 4-6 after they left for the SEC.
Rice had some good teams and certainly quality depth. We went 1-9 that first decade, which was very frustrating. SMU didn't start turning the corner until June Jones was coach, around 2009. By then all the silly recruiting restrictions were gone. We were investing in the program, improving facilities. We were still largely undersized, but the Jones teams were usually decent on offense, especially against the "G5" schools.
I love a lot of those players because they played their hearts out. And in the early years took some humiliating beatdowns - the one against Houston was pretty bad. But even worse for me was playing #1 Notre Dame in 1989. Lou Holtz towards the end of the game had his players run out of bounds rather than run up the score. I appreciate the "sportsmanship" but it was probably the most humiliating moment I have seen as an SMU fan.
The team today via portal, NIL, and far better recruiting, especially in Dallas, is so much better than the past. I was around in the 80s, and these guys are getting close - especially on defense this year. They LOOK like FBS players, and play like them 2 and sometimes 3 deep.
No doubt SMU has benefitted from playing the bottom of the AAC, so it will be nice to see how we do against better competition. And this will likely be our last meeting with Rice for some time, so let's make it fun.
/
*** SMU@Rice Official [emoji464]Game Thread 11/4 6:30CT ***
