Wednesday, September 14, 2005

I am glad we play A&M

I am glad SMU plays A&M. I am glad SMU plays A&M on Saturday. I am glad SMU plays A&M a week after beating TCU. I cannot think of another team on SMU's schedule I would rather SMU play this week than A&M.

TCU beat OU. TCU thought they were bad ass. TCU didn't take SMU seriously. TCU got beat.

Imagine what would happen if SMU played anybody else this week? What if SMU played ECU? What if SMU played Tulane? What if SMU played Tulsa?

Anybody but A&M and the players would not be taking things too seriously. They'd go through the motions, but you'd hear the same stuff from Bennett that you heard from Patterson: team wasn't focused and it was a bad week of practice.

But A&M is A&M. The players know they have to focus if they want to compete. They know the game will be tough. The players know that if they want to win, they will have to play the best game of their lives. Add to that the fact that Bennett is returning to his alma matter.

I love it.

1 comment:

Chris Yount said...

That's a really good point. I hadn't thought of it from that angle.

Add to that if they can play A&M close then they can take a measure of satisfaction from that, even though they would be disappointed that they lost.

I remember when Baylor played OU in Norman two years ago, we gave up 28 points in the first quarter, but then in the next 3 quarters the score was OU 13, BU 3. We played them to the closest margin of anyone from the Big XII south, sacking White 5 times.

It was awful losing by 31, but the last three quarters showed the players that they could play with anyone in the country.

Good luck against the Ags.