Disaster Averted – For Now

SMU’s Fourth-Quarter Rally Turns Back SFA, 31-23

Sterling Moore, right, celebrates a defensive stop. Moore had one of SMU's five interceptions.

DALLAS - One can’t imagine what losing to Stephen F. Austin would have done to SMU’s football program. Not now. Not after selling out the home opener. Not to start Coach June Jones’ much anticipated second season.

Not after the last 23 years!

Fortunately for SMU, the nightmare unfolding in the third quarter as SFA built a 23-14 lead instantly evaporated as the Mustangs’ snapped awake for 17 fourth-quarter points and a win.

But nightmares can linger and this nearly dead-even scrap with a middle of the pack Southland Conference team, surely still gives SMU fans some shivers.

This much is clear: 1) sophomore quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell is not yet the dead-eye thrower Jones’ offense requires. (Two Mitchell passes were hauled a grand total of 130 yards the other way, each to SMU’s five-yard-line, resulting in SFA touchdowns.); 2) Mustang receivers drop too many balls; and 3) there are no more SFAs on the schedule.

Mitchell finished 23-45 passing for 202 yards with one touchdown. He was sacked once.

“I’m disappointed he threw high on that one pick in the second half,” Jones said. “He had the passing lane. He just kind of let it go. That’s certainly an error that you don’t want to have.”

The dropped passes affected Mitchell too, Jones said. “That makes Bo lose confidence in what he’s doing. I think if we catch the football in the first half, you feel a lot better about how you’re playing.”

On The Up-Side

Miami-transfer running back Shawnbrey McNeal is a hometown real-deal running back who might make SMU folks not worry so much about Bo’s woes.

McNeal carried 19 times for 158 yards, including a 49-yard touchdown jaunt to ice things down with 1:31 left in the game.

Jones wasn’t surprised. “We knew what he was,” he said. “He loves the game and, you can tell, he turns it up when he goes.”

Said Mustang linebacker Chase Kennemer, “I’m glad I’m not going against [McNeal] because he’s got that explosive speed that we’ve kind of been missing at this school.”

Jones said SMU rushed an uncharacteristic 27 times because SFA wasn’t making adjustments and also because Mitchell “tweaked his knee” on a fourth-and-inches touchdown dive midway through the fourth quarter.

“I felt like I needed to put the ball in Shawnbrey’s hands a little bit more there at the end,” Jones said

SMU’s D provided another highlight, nabbing six turnovers - five interceptions and a fumble recovery – for the team’s highest takeaway total in 58 years. Senior safety Rock Dennis had two of the picks and the fumble.

Though giving up 460 total yards, the Mustangs forced four field goal attempts and allowed SFA’s two touchdowns on drives totaling just 10 yards.

Game-breaker Emmanuel Sanders had a blazing 79-yard punt return for a touchdown to tie the game, 7-7, in the first quarter. He also led Mustang receivers with eight catches for 66 yards.

Most importantly, SMU overcame a 9-point fourth-quarter deficit to win.

“Last year we would have folded,” Jones said, “no matter who it was. We would have not come back and won the game. So I think the guys are hanging together, getting together.”

True freshman Darius Johnson lays out for his first collegiate touchdown catch.

’89 Team Honored

“We’ve got to catch a couple of passes that were out there that hit fingertips,” said former Mustang receiving great Korey Beard (1989-92). “If you get your hands on it, you’re supposed to catch it.”

Beard ought to know. He’s the Mustangs’ fourth all-time leader in career receptions, with 165. Beard and his 1989 teammates - SMU’s first post-death penalty squad - were honored at halftime Saturday.

Beard praised Mustang defenders for the turnovers, adding the team was “hanging tough.”

Mike Romo, SMU’s record-setting first post-DP quarterback, said he sees similarities between SMU’s ’89 team and the situation facing today’s Mustangs.

“I think June is kind of rebuilding this thing from scratch, unfortunately,” he said. “But he’s the right guy for the job, much like our coach, [NFL Hall of Famer] Forrest Gregg. It takes a marquee name to recruit and SMU did the right thing by going out to get him.”

For Beard, Gregg was larger than life. “I remember being 18 years old and a senior in high school and this six-foot-something humongous man walked through the door here at the [former Ownby] Stadium. … When Coach Gregg walked through the door and I saw the Super Bowl rings that he had, the trophies in the trophy case, I heard his voice and I heard him ask me to answer a challenge, … he sold me in about two seconds flat.”

And The Miracle on Mockingbird, the 31-30 thriller over UConn, the program’s first win in its second game back after not playing in ’87 and ‘88?

“We worked so hard in ’88,” Romo said. “A lot of people don’t talk about ’88 but we were out here practicing week end and week out. At times it felt very redundant. Nobody really understood why we were doing it, but Coach Gregg was getting us ready for those situations.”

“Everything came together in the second half [versus UConn]. The defense played well. They made the stops. We had an onside-kick that we recovered and we put some drives together. We believed in ourselves when other people didn’t.”

“Nobody was left in the stadium, hardly,” Beard said, “except for our family a few really close friends.”

“Then when the fans [who’d heard the game was close, by radio] started to come back in, we fed off of them being in here. ... It just lifted us on to victory. When Mike found Michael Bowen in the end zone, it was instant jubilation.”

“It seems like the blink of an eye that 20 years have passed,” Beard said. “Once they brought us down here on the field to see the action and feel all the electricity in the air for this team right now, and how hard they’re playing, it brought back a lot of memories for us.”

Back To SFA

SMU’s starting offensive line went most all the way Saturday, including true freshman Bryan Collins. “They did a great job,” Jones said, noting Collins finally “ran out of gas” and J.T. Brooks came on and “did some good stuff.”

Mitch Enright and Josh LeRibeus also won praise.

“Those guys hung in ‘til the end,” Jones said of the O-line. “They were the difference in the game with those runs for Shawnbrey.”

“They’re just a great group of guys,” McNeal said. “I love them to death.”

And SMU has its kicker. Texas A&M-transfer Matt Szymanski drilled 4-4 PATs and hit a crucial 53-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter to pull the Mustangs within six points when it appeared the game would get away.

The Mustangs outscored SFA, 14-0, the rest of the way.

Szymanski also punted eight times for a 40.8-yard average, dropping two inside the 20.

“It gives you more confidence,” said Kennemer of Szymanski’s performance. “Having him kick the ball like he can is going to be a big weapon for us.”

True freshman wideout Darius Johnson is out at least a week with a shoulder injury. His laid-out touchdown grab – an instant classic - gave SMU its 14-10 halftime lead.

“He’s a gamer,” Jones said. “That catch that he made, that says it all about him. And he’s [still] kind of feeling his way.”

One last positive: two reviewed plays went SMU’s way. One was Johnson’s TD catch. “I would say that’s the first time in a year that calls have gone our way, to be quite honest,” Jones said.

Was it just your night, Coach? “Well, I do believe that the good Lord is on our side,” Jones grinned. “And that might have proved it.”

The Mustangs fire up before the game.

A Look Ahead:

The Mustangs open conference play Saturday at UAB, the first of three road games that could tell SMU’s tale. ( Washington State and TCU follow.) Win two and something’s cookin’. Win none, with C-USA East beast ECU waiting in Dallas on October 10, and things could get all too familiar.

UAB trounced Rice, 44-24, at home last week, as senior quarterback Joe Webb exploded for 415 total yards - 194 of it rushing - and four touchdowns. The Blazers’ offense will be quite an upgrade from SFA. Though SMU’s defense could battle, the passing game doesn’t look ready - especially with Johnson out.

UAB, 35-20.

Notes:

*DeMyron Martin was the last SMU rusher before McNeal to top 150 yards. Martin had 171 yards against Rice in ‘05.

*Blake Warren last ran a punt back for a touchdown for SMU, a 63-yarder against Rice in ‘03.

*Matt Szymanski’s 53-yard field goal ties the third-longest in SMU history.

*Mike Romo has the two top single-game passing yardage performances in SMU history: 450 yards vs. North Texas in ’89, and 449 yards at Rice in ’90. Romo holds school records for most pass attempts (503) and completions (282) in a season (‘89), and most completions in a single game (40, at Rice in ’90.)

*Korey Beard is also tied for fourth all-time with Emanuel Tolbert (’77) for season receptions (64, in ‘92), and fifth in career yardage (1,964).

*SMU- UAB kicks off at 3 p.m. CT, Saturday, September 12, 2009, at Birmingham’s Legion Field.