Undefeated SMU Mustangs climb to No. 23 in the nation
DALLAS — When most people think of the powerhouse football programs in Texas, many names come to mind. There is the University of Texas, Texas A&M and even TCU used to be a major name nationally. But how about SMU? The Mustangs have started their season perfect following a 31-24 comeback win over Navy last week. Their perfect start has not gone unnoticed as they are now ranked No. 23 in the nation. With the toughest part of their schedule coming up, including games against Houston and Cincinnati in the future, it begs the question of just how far SMU can go this season.
Following the comeback win over Navy this past Saturday, SMU head coach Sonny Dykes spoke to the media about continuing to win, and what it meant to beat Navy on the road.
“There’s some games that are just tough matchups, and these guys that played, Navy, didn’t play very well early in the year, and have played well in the last two weeks,” he said. “It’s hard to win, it’s hard to win here. There’s a reason they’re 21-4 in their last 25 home conference games. It’s a difficult place to win, we hadn’t won here in 23 years, all that stuff is going against us. Just proud of our guys for getting down. We know we got to get better and improve. We’ll go back to the drawing board and continue to make sure we do a better job, in particular on third down.”
Following the game, one of the keys to SMU success, quarterback Tanner Mordecai, spoke to the media about the play of his offensive line.
“I don’t know what my numbers were,” he said. “There’s so many people back there in the holes. Whenever that happens, we got to run the ball. The O-line did really good job of running the ball, blocking, blocking really well. Our running backs ran really well. And yeah, the guys up front really dominated the line of scrimmage for the most part. Kind of shot ourselves in the foot, specifically me. That fumble and interception could have easily been avoided. … I think we shot ourselves in the foot more than they did. … I was really proud of the O-line, the way we ran the ball, and they’re taking steps each week.”
Mordecai would finish the game with a season low two passing touchdowns and 324 yards in the air. SMU finished the game with 80 yards rushing and one touchdown on 29 carries.
In the game against Navy, SMU allowed 21 points in the first half. After halftime, however, they would hold Navy’s offense to just a field goal in the 3rd quarter and shut them out completely in the 4th quarter.
Following the game, SMU defensive tackle Mike Williams spoke about the slow start to the game defensively.
“It’s just adversity,” he said. “I think we have a history of just starting slow, and we know when we play our best football, we can play with anybody in the country. I think we came out there first half and we didn’t play our best football at all. And we knew we would play better, and once we played better, we just start rolling.”
The slow start problem will have to be addressed quickly for SMU’s sake if they want to continue their undefeated season. As mentioned, the Mustangs are about to enter the “make or break” portion of their schedule with games against Houston, Memphis and No. 3 Cincinnati, all within their next five games. If SMU can continue to win and win impressively, that November 20th game against Cincinnati could have not just conference relevance, but national relevance as well. There is a lot of football to be played before that game so for now SMU will take it one game at a time and just focus on continuing this impressive form they have showed all season.
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