TIgreen01

He’s very good, but started getting alligator arms a couple games back. Makes me think he’s already planning for the next move.

It’s a fact that both things are true.

Coming back to this. We’ve seen 10 games from this bunch. It’s enough. Time to move on. I could get behind the idea that we need to give them time to bring in players to fit their scheme IF they mixed in schemes that allowed us to use our current players strengths and adjusted to obvious gaps. A good coach, in my opinion, reviews his roster every year and every game, then devises a plan that plays to his team’s strengths while attacking the opponent’s weaknesses. A good coach does not force his team to play a style that it cannot. Once you recruit and bring in players to play the scheme you want, then you can play more of it. But for goodness sakes, have some situational awareness and adjust your philosophy so we can WIN TODAY. NOT TOMORROW.

It’s been pretty obvious since game 1. When you swing and miss this bad, it’s obvious to everyone. We’ve seen it with Dodge and Benford. For some reason, we stick things out. This defense has needed to make a change all year and hasn’t. Giving up 300 rushing yards every game is the problem. That should be the only thing the coaches focus on fixing until it is fixed. Yet we see the same thing every game. I don’t see why anyone would want to give them a whole second season to prove they can adjust and fix it when they’ve already proven that they WON’T adjust right now. Better programs recognize mistakes and correct them.

Opening night of HS playoffs and ESPN thinks it’s a good time to force a DFW area college game to move from Saturday to fill a schedule. ESPN has to die.

Recent matchups have proven, without a doubt, that smu’s football team cares more about this rivalry than the UNT fans do. Which, considering how much we hate them, is saying something. Unfortunately, our football team could literally care less, or so it has appeared. Tulsa gave up 69. Our defense wants to leave no doubt who is #1, gives up 80.

2021 - 28 2022 - 55 https://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/years/2021-team-defense.html

The defense? I’m not ready to give up on Morris. He’s clearly leveled up the offense and special teams are at least holding steady. I am concerned that the defense is such a disaster that it’s going to be hard to recruit to and really fix. This offseason is make or break. Hopefully all of these recruiters he’s hired come through. If not, the defense will be what drags him down.

I’m skeptical of your reading comprehension

Arkansas got Rocket Sanders back at full strength today. That was the difference. With him on the field, their QB can legit run the RPO and be a dual threat. Without him, defenses key on QB and they become one dimensional. So it was players. Mostly.

This just looks like a slightly better Todd Dodge at this point. Dodge brought in Vizza in year 1, and turned our returning QB who was not good the previous year into a legit FBS passer in one offseason. He was a QB wizard. But he brought with him Mendoza. I never thought I’d see the day that someone gave Mendoza a run for the worst defense ever title…but we’re there today. This year’s is, without question, the worst I’ve ever seen. I know it sounds like a give up to compare him to Dodge, but the similarities are pretty stark and hard to ignore. Biggest difference is that Dodge inherited a dumpster fire and nuked it. Morris inherited a decent team and turned it into a loser. But firing Dickey and firing Littrell was not the problem. We just have no idea how to hire a complete football staff.

We have given up 233 yards rushing on 28 carries, 8.3/carry. We’re in a 3 man with 5 guys in the box on 2/3 plays. It’s just impossible to understand what these coaches are trying to do. I give up.

I'd love to have enough time one day to go through every FBS conference champion in the past 10 years and record how their total & scoring offense and defense ranked within their own conference. My bet is that defense almost always comes up as a strong indicator, offense not as much. None of these air raid coaches have ever won any trophies that I can recall. They collect stats and fill up the scoreboard, but they *never win championships. *Baylor is the lone exception, from memory. As they say, offense sells tickets, but defense wins championships. Considering where our season ticket holder numbers are at, maybe that's why we keep seeing our AD hire for offense first.

Much more fun to debate this than talk about how bad the defense is. Ultimately they have different strengths. Fine had the most accurate deep ball I’ve ever seen and a knack for standing in the pocket to deliver late. Rogers is crazy accurate on the short and intermediate throws, but has the mobility to get out and run. Both appear to be absolute gamers with ice in their veins. Rogers has better overall size and athleticism and should get a legit shot at an NFL training camp if he can keep playing at the level he currently is. Having a QB playing on Sundays would be awesome and you’d have to think a boon for recruiting.

Normally I’d agree with you. IF we had a defense that wasn’t the worst in the country. But we do, so you freaking keep them OFF the field as much as possible and don’t let them beat you.

Me too. Worst case you kick to tie. But you had 3 plays to get a TD. You run on first down. Maybe you still score, but if not, they have to burn a timeout or you run clock. Then you get two plays to get the TD.

I have no clue, but I sat there today counting linemen. We don’t have more than 3 or 4 on the bench as far as I could tell. That’s with 44 and 10 playing basically every snap.

We were down three. A TD wasn’t required. You burn at least one down there and make Memphis use a timeout.

He’s showing some inexperience himself. After the long catch to get inside the 5 with under a minute left, you have to run some clock or try to get Memphis to burn a timeout. We only needed a field goal to tie, so you have to run it on first down. Have to. Instead we throw and score quick. The defense is absolutely the worst I’ve ever seen. Morris has to recognize that and call the game to limit that weakness as much as possible.

Looking down at the sidelines, we don’t have many dlinemen suiting up. Have we run all but 6 or 7 off? I can’t imagine many guys that like taking on double teams constantly on every freaking down.

Yep. IMHO, he is a risky hire until he wins with someone other than Harris. He didn’t recruit Harris and hasn’t proven he can land a difference making QB. That’s got to be the number one qualification at most schools. Coaches need to either be considered an elite defensive guru or someone that can recruit and develop QBs. Traylor has certainly helped turn Harris into a winner, but again, didn’t land him. Maybe that will be enough to get someone at our level to bite, but probably not at the next level up.

Quit being so nice. Smu sucks. Offense intended.

Why does the Army - Navy game need to be out of conference? Every press release keeps referencing "preserving the Non-conference matchup". Why does that matter?

At what point can we actually name the commits? Only if they themselves post it first?

They have improved. I agree. They have improved from the worst defense I've ever seen to still bottom of the FBS in 2023 (125/130 in total defense, 123/130 in scoring defense). We gave up 245 rushing yards to Tulane. I do not have more confidence in them at this point. Confidence, to me, means that when the game is on the line you think they might get a stop.