Former SMU RB Eric Dickerson isn't happy with the state of Mustang football
Eric Dickerson is not currently an advocate for SMU football.
The former SMU RB was on KRLD-FM in Dallas on Tuesday. On Monday, SMU coach June Jones resigned and on Tuesday, QB Neal Burcham was ruled to miss the remainder of the season with a right elbow injury.
Oh, the Mustangs are also 0-2 and lost its first two games to in-state opponents Baylor and North Texas by a combined score of 88-6. Unsurprisingly, Dickerson was not happy.
"It's a shame that my university has gone 10 steps backwards," Dickerson said. (Thanks to the Dallas Morning News for the transcriptions.) "It's hard for me and all the players that went to SMU. A lot of guys that played in my era still feel like they are not welcomed there because of what happened. I could care less if I go to another football game, but when I do, I want my university to be competitive."
Until last season's 5-7 record, Jones had taken SMU to four straight bowl games. And while Dickerson is correct that SMU football isn't what it once was in the 1980s when he was there, it's because of what went on when he was a player there.
Dickerson, who finished third in Heisman Trophy voting in 1982, attended SMU while the program had committed so many recruiting violations that the NCAA shut it down. After being put on probation numerous times from 1974-1985, the NCAA gave SMU the "death penalty" and shut down SMU football for the 1987 season. After the school canceled the 1988 season to regroup, SMU restarted the football program in 1989.
When Jones took SMU to the 2009 Hawaii Bowl, it was the first bowl game for the program since it restarted.
Dickerson is cousins with Texas A&M WR Ricky Seals-Jones. Seals-Jones was a four-star recruit in the class of 2013 according to Rivals and the No. 2 athlete in the country. A Texas native, Seals-Jones had a scholarship offer from SMU. Dickerson said told him not to waste his time considering SMU.
"When he was getting recruited, he told me SMU had sent him a letter and asked me 'do you want me to take a visit?' I said no, do not take a visit," Dickerson said. "Don't even waste your time going there. I didn't want him going there. For what? It's just a waste of time. I wanted him to have an experience in college with football that he really enjoyed like I had like when I went to SMU. He wouldn't have that there. He's at the right school at Texas A&M."
Dickerson has said that when he was at SMU, the school offered him the same perks that other, bigger schools did and that the Mustangs were used as an example. He still feels that college football teams are committing violations to get recruits.
"I'll say this much about college football. They still cheat," Dickerson said. "All of the schools still cheat. The big schools still cheat. You think Texas isn't cheating? You think A&M isn't cheating? You think Alabama ain't cheating? Yeah right. That's laughable. You ain't cheating, you ain't trying."
You can read more comments from Dickerson here and here.
For more SMU news, visit PonyRide.com.
- - - - - - -
Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
