SMU fires coach

Is he the first to be officially canned?

http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaaf/news;_ylt=AoDz__u6sdAmeLzTU7shu.gcvrYF?slug=ap-smu-bennettfired&prov=ap&type=lgns

 

No. The guy at Indiana State got the ziggy couple of weeks ago...I think.

 

He was.

 

Doesn't say anything about the whole staff being gone, though.

Their DC is the former head coach at the Juco here.

 

The effect of the "Death Penalty" claims another soul...

Dickerson and Craig James weeps.

EDIT: FIXED FOR WICKED.

 

Is this really having an effect 20 years later?

 

I guess it's hard to know. Would they ever have been good if they hadn't been cheating? Or would they have just been what they are now?

I don't guess too many players in this day and age know about the death penalty. But, then, I don't think they know much of anything about SMU. It's a private school in a lesser conference. That probably has more to do with it.

 

But you can make the argument that it's a private school in a lesser conference because of the death penalty. Without that happening it's not out of the realm of possibility that either the SWC doesn't break up or SMU is in the Big 12 instead of Baylor if the football team does not fall off the map in the late 80s.

 

It merits a discussion. It's been 21 years since the death penalty, but whereas everyone else has moved on, there might be a sense that SMU, as a campus, it's fan base, and program, hasn't gotten over being shut down for a year. Regardless on how many coaches have come in to do something new and change the mindset, it's still there, in my eyes.

 

Being in C-USA probably has more to do with their woes than previous indiscretions.

 

Don't be surprised if Terry Bowden's name comes up for this job.

 

... or the Ole Miss job since Orgeron is likely gone after this year.