Men's soccer No. 27 in collegesoccernews.com preseason poll

[PonyPride]

27. SMU - The Mustang’s string of fourteen consecutive NCAA Tourney appearances came to an end last year with a disappointing 10-6-2 overall record, but consider than an anomaly. Tim McClements should reap the rewards in 2009 for starting a bevy of young players last year. Ten starters return including RS senior forward Paulo da Silva (7g, 2a).

http://www.collegesoccernews.com/index_ ... age424.htm

[redpony]

That is a big drop from the top 10 that we used to be rated at. If this season is another disaster like last year I hope SO has the 'balls' to start looking for a replacement. Not top 25 like promised!!

Our spring season seems to have been kept an absolute secret. Why??

GO PONIES!!!

[Ikus]

27th is not acceptable. Our talent is way too good for that,

Then again, that site means little. I'm curious to know what the NSCAA thinks.

[redpony]

When do the NSCAA pre-season rankings come out? I have looked on their website but there are no current rankings.

GO PONIES!!!

[EastStang]

Last year was a bevvy of injuries and defections plus a coaching change. This is McClements year to show he deserved the promotion. If FC Dallas continues to be near the cellar, we might get SH back next year.

[redpony]

I am not sure that we want SH back. Although he did many good things for SMU and he consistently had winning records he was never able to get us to the NCAA finals.
I agree that this is a ‘make or break’ year for TMc. Last year he had an excellent incoming class (that was recruited by SH) along with many experienced players and failed to prove that he could put a winner on the field. Last years' failures were totally unacceptable. Injuries and defections can be debated but they are the same problems that occur in many universities and are not unique to us.

In the future when we need a new coach we should not settle for less than one who has a record of winning at the national championship level (top 4 finishes), is a proven leader and excellent recruiter.

GO PONIES!!!

[Roach]

You wouldn't want Coach Hyndman back? All of those victories and top-10 finishes wore you out, huh?

I'm not saying Coach McClements should go — I hope he has a great year — but if he did go, you couldn't do better than Coach Hyndman.

I know, he never won it all, but he had us nationally competitive and in position to win it all just about every year. I'd take that any day.

[redpony]

You wouldn't want Coach Hyndman back?
I know, he never won it all, but he had us nationally competitive and in position to win it all just about every year. I'd take that any day.

Normally when you make a coaching change you try to improve from what previously existed. SH did a lot for this program. However, he also left us without much time to select a new coach and you see what we had to settle for.

GO PONIES!!!

[The XtC]

You wouldn't want Coach Hyndman back?
I know, he never won it all, but he had us nationally competitive and in position to win it all just about every year. I'd take that any day.

Normally when you make a coaching change you try to improve from what previously existed. SH did a lot for this program. However, he also left us without much time to select a new coach and you see what we had to settle for.

GO PONIES!!!

OK, fair enough, you want to improve. Now, could you list for me the coaches you would consider to be an improvement over Schellas, who would be willing to leave whatever job they have now, to come here? Considering that your criteria stated above is reaching the national finals, it cant be a very long list.

[redpony]

[quote="The XtC
Now, could you list for me the coaches you would consider to be an improvement over Schellas, who would be willing to leave whatever job they have now, to come here? Considering that your criteria stated above is reaching the national finals, it cant be a very long list.[/quote
XtC,
I agree, the universe of coaches that we would want is rather small. Some of the potential candidates are: Jay Vidovich- Wake Forest, UCLA- Jorge Salcedo, Sasho Cirovski- Maryland, Mike Freitag- Indiana, Dave Masur- St. Johns, Bret Simon- Stanford andGeorge Gelnovatch-Virginia. Any of the first three would be my primary choice. I have no idea if any of these coaches are interested in leaving their current program. Of course, attracting this level of coach to SMU would be challenging. However, getting JJ to come to SMU was considered next to impossible by many, so we know it can be done.
With state schools facing severe financial problems this might be an opportunity for us.
Nothing ventured-nothing gained.


GO PONIES!!!

[EastStang]

Every one of those schools gets either a BCS check or a huge television network check (St. John's for BE basketball). That means that they have more money to spend on non-revenue sports and to pay for coaches and scholarships. For us to hire one of the coaches you mentioned we would need to have another gang of 10 to get together and put up a huge pool of money to dangle in front of one of those coaches. Soccer is futbol, but it ain't FOOTBALL. You might get a group to put up $20 Million for JJ, but finding the similar group to pay for a soccer coach is going to be a tough sell. And such a coach is also going to have demands on how big the number of scholarships he has to offer. We took a run at the Cal coach who was even an SMU alum, and he stayed put. That should tell you something about the size of the salary that we had to offer.

[redpony]

We took a run at the Cal coach who was even an SMU alum, and he stayed put. That should tell you something about the size of the salary that we had to offer.

I do not believe we ever offered Kevin G.. I looked up his contract (it is public information) and he had a modest base with lots of incentives.
I agree that we would need to pay more for one of these people than what we are probably paying TMc but we need a winner. Besides, SH is probably making a lot more with FCD than he did at SMU. Why would people here believe he would want to come back? Don't sell Dallas short. The cost of living and taxes is a lot lower than most of these locations and the quality of life is much better.

Since we are not currently in the market for a coach and have no vacancy this entire exercise is purly academic. Like most that post on this subject I only want a championship team- not something that resembles the disaster of last year.

GO PONIES!!!

[EastStang]

If SH gets fired and has a buyout from FC Dallas, he might very well be willing to come back to the Hilltop. But of course we all hope that we have a great year this year, win CUSA and go deep into the NCAA tournament.

[Hal]

1. Vidovich put feelers out there about the SMU job
2. An offer was never made to Grimes, who withdrew from the process before that stage ... and parlayed his dance with SMU into a considerable raise at Cal.
3. It will be a long, long time before FCD fires Coach Hyndman. The owner, Clark Hunt, played for him at SMU and is fiercely loyal. He'll get plenty of time to turn that around, if he wants it. If he ever leaves to return to SMU, it will be his choice, not FCD's.