When I was an underclassman in the early ’90s, we were inundated with excuses for why the football team could not be competitive.

After all, “we” were only playing for moral victory and the future. Today, unfortunately, is the future.

Every year I see, from afar, the same words written: “This is the best recruiting class since the death penalty,” or, “With our academic limitations, this is a good class.” If the best results only in what I saw today [Monday] on national television, then what hope do we, as faithful SMU fans, have?

As an alumnus, I could not be more embarrassed.

Where is the pride? Where is the talent? Where is the direction?

Where is the sense of accountability?

My wife went to Yale. She experienced bad football – where there was little expectation of anything less.

I went to the school of Doak Walker, Forrest Gregg, “The Pony Express” – where football is supposed to mean something.

I guess I will keep looking to the future, where the promise of respectability, pride and gridiron desire lay in some mystical field where players care, hurt and WIN because they love the game and their school. Then I remember, we are SMU, where excuses rule, players give up and the mediocre thrive.

Pony Up, or give up?

Sincerely (a faithful and humiliated pony),

-Darrin Friedman

Class of ’96