Monkeypox

Stop, I'm gonna have to call a doctor.

This. My schadenfroner is gonna be at full mast for the next 4-ish years watching the bottom half of the P5 getting dumped in the garbage by a system they've propped up and benefitted from for decades.

Oh, I don't think it's dead forever, or even very long (but at this point, it's at least a year). ESPN is going to want to get them to the table early if they can. The current playoff media deal lasts until 2025, after 3 of the 5 P5 deals are up. Some of the board already have said that they might want to wait until expiration of that deal, so that they can re-align fully prior and possibly shop the playoffs on the open market. BUT, they're also already talking about taking it down to 8. Any G5 counting on being included in the new playoff model is setting themselves up for disappointment, especially if they're basing it on their current standing.

There is no expanded playoff. The board meets next week and they've all but said that, after the move of Texas and OU to the SEC, that particular model is dead and they will have to start over. They are unlikely to even bother voting on it at this time. Even if they did, it would require a UNANIMOUS vote, and more than one member has already stated that they would not vote for it now if it did come up.

Yeah, I'm not sure what he means by "back in our favor". We've never been ahead in this series. I guess if you cherry picked the right years, like 1990-2006, where we only played 3 times, or 1990-2014, you could say we won 2 of 3 and 3 of 5, but you'd have to ignore the breaks and subsequent years. Since 1990, we are 4-8 vs SMU. Since 2000, we are 3-7. Since 2014, when we began playing them every year, we are 2-6. We won the first one in 2014, so we are now 1 for the last 7. We've never, in the entire history of this game being played, beaten them twice in a row.

Fine to Bussey with 17 seconds left vs UTSA in 2017 was pretty damn good. Casey Fitzgerald's 99-yd TD against ULM (96 yac).

I say this as one of the people who didn't want him to leave, but I'm not sure we really want Harrell back right now. I believe he would do better here than he's doing at USC, if only for the recruiting and all the family ties in the state, but they aren't exactly enamored with him at USC right now. There's a lot of grousing about the raise they gave him to keep him from bolting, not unlike what we're saying here about Littrell. If you pay attention to USC, what they're saying about his offense is it gets a bunch of yards but bogs down/fails in the red zone and in short-yardage situations.

Yeah, I wanna get halfway through the conference or more before pulling a QB. Gotta stick with a guy and see. The coaches have seen these guys in a lot more reps than we have, particularly the guys that have been in the building for years. But if we’re in the last few games of a losing season, I don’t think we have the answer sitting on the bench. Have to face it that if you’ve got guys on year 3-5 and they’re not getting it done, they probably aren’t going to get there. Aune, Ruder, and Martin are all in year 4. I don’t really care about the eligibility they have remaining if they aren’t getting it done now. So, in my mind, it’s like this: Ruder - coaches clearly think he’s the best we have. I’m inclined to believe them or he wouldn’t have been able to take over coming in when he did and hardly playing in his previous stop. I give him a little leeway for rust and hope real game time and more practice as the #1 get him there. Aune - I can kinda forgive the lack of accuracy last year given the craziness of 2020, losing the QB coach, etc. But he’s been here since 2018, so if he’s not a clear #1 at this point, I’m fine moving on. Martin - look, everybody loves this kid, but he’s also been here since 2018, and if he’s not better than the above 2, again, it ain’t gonna happen. I could see Littrell going with him if he’s desperate and has the death-knell vote of confidence after a bad streak or something, but at that point, why not play a (the) freshman and try to sell “potential” Bryce Drummond - not everybody from small-town Oklahoma is Mason Fine. This kid passes the Mac height test, at least, but certainly would be better off with a year of sitting. The problem is, if he sits a year and Ruder is half-decent, I think he moves on. So, despite their classifications, I think our QB room is kinda a mess from a timing/development standpoint. We have to hope that Ruder or Drummond is the answer, IMO. If not, we’re gonna be scouring the transfer portal next year. TLDR: Gotta stick with Ruder. If we suck and he’s a big reason why, we probably have to go to our 4th QB if we’re trying to get anything out of it.

Bean got lit up and had to come out with an arm/hand injury. Back in but he looks off. Not a guy who can spare any accuracy as it is. Game is basically over, though. Kansas just doesn’t have the horses.

I thought someone said they had 19 of 22 starters returning. Could be wrong, though. Bean with a couple of nice TD runs.

Man, Kansas is BAD. That OL is trash in pass blocking, and the OC doesn’t appear to have any answers for it.

"That team from Denton" = UNT "That team from Dallas" = Cowboys, 5 or 6 high schools, then maybe SMU

Agreed. I believe Ruder is our best chance at a winning record this season, but he threw the exact same ball a little earlier in the game and got away with it when it only got batted down. He’s either got to look the DB off of it and/or have better ball placement on the pass. And especially he should’ve learned from the first one. Now, I also would’ve liked for SOMEONE (OC/HC) to have seen that earlier throw and the DBs aggression on the route and called for a double-move, but I think we were running vanilla in this game. It also might have been intentional to see if Ruder could/would adjust. He didn’t.

I feel exactly the same about the team as I did before the game. Defense is a work-in progress led by a guy who’s come off of 3 years out of football. Offense has ??? at QB and lost its best receiver to the NFL.

This game felt like a LOT of our FCS early games/openers. We look shaky in the pass game, our defense/ST gives up big plays so it’s way too close early. We grind them down with the run because we get behind the 8 ball and can’t afford to lose to and FCS school. You can see on the field that we are more talented than the opponent. But our execution just doesn’t live up to it.

Second time Ruder has made that awful throw. No surprise it got picked here.

This is what happens when you keep giving teams chances. Doesn’t matter who they are if they get 5, 6, 8 downs.

Our DBs gonna be a problem for us.

Ugh. Ruder got lit up.

Gotta track the ball.

Someone needs to have a chat with the WR. Two false starts in a row? Get it together. For a guy who just got here and has all of 10 pass attempts prior to this, Ruder looks good.

Defense smelling blood now. Keep up the pressure.

Defense held. Good job. Time for an offensive explosion.

We always seem to start off slow and grind these teams away. Doesn’t make it easy to watch though.

SMU might be mentioned in one of those crime podcasts or Netflix docs about football players who kill 5 prostitutes.