Back To Earth

Rice Curbs SMU’s Sky-High Hopes for Now; Texas State Next

DALLAS – Last Friday in Houston, as kickoff time against Rice approached, SMU’s euphoria balloon was pumped about as tight as it’s been in twenty years. Hours later, that happy orb’s p.s.i. sagged as reality set in: Rice 56, SMU 27.

Though the Mustangs showed flashes of great things to come, they’re still the youngest team in the nation, with 13 true freshmen on the two-deep chart. And Rice’s offense - led by a pair of seasoned seniors, quarterback Chase Clement and All-American wideout Jarrett Dillard - is simply tough to stop.

June Jones says SMU's game with Texas State Saturday will be a "knock-down-drag-out" affair.

Clement hit on 24 of 37 passes Friday for 258 yards with six touchdowns and no interceptions. He also rushed for 87 yards on 13 carries. Dillard had seven catches for 89 yards and three touchdowns.

Rice’s defense claimed five turnovers, including three picks of SMU’s true freshman quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell. Andrew Sendejo ran one back 55-yards for a touchdown as the Owls blew up for 28 third-quarter points.

Rice’s 29-point victory matched its margin over SMU in 1989, the Mustangs’ first post-death penalty season. Only once since had the Owls hammered SMU worse.

This night, poor tackling and turnovers - persistent problems from last year - were back.

Should SMU fans worry?

No, said Jones at Monday’s media gathering. “I’m not concerned,” he said, “because I saw what you saw too, but I saw a lot of the other things. The bottom line is we kind of gave [Rice] 28 points. … We had chances to get three interceptions - right in our hands. And then [we had] two dropped big-play passes – one, for sure, that was a touchdown.”

“You cannot win games if you don’t make those plays.”

“As bad as I think the bad was, there was good stuff,” Jones said. “If we just catch the football, it’s probably a different game. … Until you get the mindset, the confidence and belief, you’re going to continue to fight those things. The second we start to make those plays, it will really snowball.”

Mitchell completed 25 of 43 throws for 244 yards and three touchdowns. And he looked comfortable doing it. “I was pleased that he wasn’t nervous,” Jones said. “[And] pleased that he played with poise and confidence. He made some good throws. … The mistakes that he made were freshman mistakes, which unfortunately happen. But, you know, each game that goes by, he’ll get a little more confidence and a little bit better and those will slowly go away.”

Logan Turner spelled Mitchell late, hitting 5 of 6 passes for 82 yards and one touchdown, a 32-yarder to Emmanuel Sanders to end the scoring. Sanders led SMU with eight catches for 121 yards.

Early on, it looked like the Mustangs might really rip the Owls. Mitchell calmly tossed two first-quarter scores – a 26-yarder to Alderick Robinson and a 19-yard screen to Bradley Haynes – to put SMU up, 13-0. Both receivers made nice runs after-the-catch.

(Robinson finished with seven catches for 91 yards and two touchdowns, but also dropped a sure 71-yard score in the second half and fumbled on the next play.)

Rice roared back to take the lead before the quarter ended and led, 28-13, at the half.

Defensively, missed assignments and incorrect alignments were problems for the Mustangs, Jones said. “We had a lot of mental errors that should have been eliminated before the snap. Defensively, communication was not very good. We have to get that cleaned up. You know, it’s ten guys doing the right thing [and] one guy doing the wrong thing.”

“But when everybody did the right thing and played with confidence, we played pretty good on defense. … Our defense is going to create turnovers, get sacks. We’re going to do what we do.”

Jessie Henderson averaged 20 yards per kickoff return on eight attempts, with a long of 37. Morstead punted six times for a 46.5-yard average with a long of 57.

Safety Tyler Jones led SMU with eight unassisted tackles.

Next up for SMU is Texas State, an FCS school coming off a late 21-14 win over Angelo State at home. Senior quarterback Clint Toon threw two fourth-quarter touchdown passes to rally the Bobcats.

Texas State’s offense could give the Mustangs fits. Sophomore running back Karrington Bush was the Southland Conference’s Freshman of the in Year in’07 with 1,039 yards on 139 carries. Senior Cameron Luke is the first receiver in Texas State history to surpass 1,000 receiving yards in a season. He had 60 catches for 1,035 yards last year.

Saturday’s game will mark the first-ever football meeting between SMU and Texas State.

“It’ll be a knock-down-drag-out football game and we’re going to have to be on top of our game to win,” Jones said. “We’re not at that point where you’re going to show up and throw it out there and win. We’re not there.”

Quotable Jones:

• On Alderick Robinson’s up-and-down game: “Once he gets that confidence that he’s one of those special guys, then I think he’ll go really to the next level.”
• On how reserve quarterback Justin Willis, SMU’s record-setting two-year starter, has adjusted to his demotion: “He’s been great. He’s a team guy. I feel for him just like everybody else does … There’s only two ways you can handle this. You can make it a real bad thing and ruin your life or you can turn it into a positive thing and get better.”
• On “big” games: “Every game in football is big. Is this one any bigger than last week’s game? To me, they’re all the same. Every one of them is a dogfight. Every one, you hold on to your rear end and hope you score enough points to win the game.”

SMU Football Notes:

• Kicker Thomas Morstead’s school-record streak of 78 consecutive PATs ended at Rice with a miss after SMU’s second touchdown.
• SMU started three true freshmen last week: DB Chris Banjo, WR Cole Beasley and QB Bo Levi Mitchell. Twenty players saw their first action as Mustangs.
• Jessie Henderson now has 2,049 career kickoff return yards, second only to Jonas Rutledge’s 2,154 from 2000-03.
• Emmanuel Sanders now has at least one catch in all but one of his 25 collegiate games.

On Deck: SMU vs. Texas State, Saturday, September 6, 2008, 7 p.m. CT, Ford Stadium (32,000), Dallas, Texas; no television; radio: KTCK 1310 AM.

Prediction: The Bobcats make it squirrely for SMU but the Mustangs hang on, 31-19.

Did You Know? On Saturday, June Jones could become SMU’s first head coach to win his initial home opener since Bobby Collins and the Mustangs beat Tulane, 51-7, in 1982.

Article by Rick Atkinson -
CUSA Fans SMU Correspondent