Bennett reins in Mustang bowl talk

MeanGreen61 · September 14, 2006

The Mean Green cloud lingers over SMU. Poor Ponies

Bennett reins in talk of bowl with Mustangs

scoring 4.5 a game

11:58 PM CDT on Tuesday, September 12, 2006

By CALVIN WATKINS / The Dallas Morning News

UNIVERSITY PARK – At the start of the season, coach Phil Bennett said the goal for SMU was to reach a bowl.

After an 0-2 start in which his offense is averaging an anemic 4.5 points a game, Bennett said he's not talking about bowls right now.

That's probably a good thing, because it seems the rest of Conference USA has gotten better.

Rice has increased its scoring average from 21.9 in 2005 to 23 through two games in 2006.

Houston improved its scoring by 10 points to 38 a game.

Marshall, which finished last in the conference in scoring at 18.5, is averaging 32 this season.

Bennett said Tuesday the Mustangs' offense is inconsistent, and when that happens, it hurts the bottom line: wins and losses, which also makes reaching a bowl difficult.

"I'm not writing off the season after two games, but I'm not going to talk about that [a bowl]," Bennett said.

"I don't judge [other] games, because every game has a different mentality."

Athletic director Steve Orsini said the team needs to continue developing the younger players, and reaching a bowl is a goal.

"We played a team that was probably better than us," Bennett said of Texas Tech. "We lost to a team [North Texas] that wanted it more and made more plays than us."

September 14, 2006

I hope SHSU stomps them...

greenjoe · September 14, 2006

I'm inclined to agree with you John Denver, however, doesn't a loss to Sam Houston (by SMU) make our win over SMU less significant ?

I think I'd like to be the team that beat the team that beat TCU or Southern Miss.

By the way, I would like to make the game next year at Ford Field another home game for North Texas. A huge attendance by NT would do 2 things. First, it would help the Mean Green with a home team feel and secondly, it would demonstrate just how important a NT/SMU/TCU yearly series could be.

I like the name Ford Field. It reminds me of a school some still refer to as NTSU.

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chrisfisher · September 14, 2006

"We played a team that was probably better than us," Bennett said of Texas Tech. "We lost to a team [North Texas] that wanted it more and made more plays than us."
←

If we lose to Tulsa, I might agree with him. If we beat Tulsa, I demand a retraction from Bennett stating, "I was mistaken, UNT is a better team then us"

Edited September 14, 2006 by chrisfisher

Talon90 · September 14, 2006

I hope every team on our schedule goes undefeated after we play them. This does nothing but help our ranking.

September 14, 2006

I personally feel that even if all our teams went undefeated after they played us, we would never EVER get ranked higher than 40th. Therefore, I can satisfy my desire for vengence by rooting against certain teams -- regardless if we played them or not.

With this comment, SMU just joined this short list for one more game. After they lose to SHSU, then they will make their way back on the "who really cares about them, hope they win-out for UNT's sake" list.