SMU Last Season: 2 Wins & 10 Losses (Awful, just awful) – If TCU football over the last 10 years is Tarzan, then SMU is a shipwrecked child raised in the jungle by a colony of Tree Sloths who went to prep school in Baltimore and like to buy fake Chinese Molly off the internet. In their 10 losses, the Ponies took more punishment than a discount rental car giving up more than 51 points per game on average. Indeed, they were impressively inept. I’ll admit that they gave us a run at the Carter last year, but they failed to capitalize on that brief moment of success and lost to FCS James Madison at home the following week. The truth is that 2 wins was an improvement from SMU’s 2014 season where their sole victory arrived in the last week of the season against Connecticut. I doubt too many of the Southern Methodist faithful were on hand at Rentschler Field in Storrs, Connecticut (all of which I had to look up) to witness it.
Fun Fact: James Madison’s first Vice President’s name was George Clinton, which is also the name of a jam band that I’m told I once saw in concert.
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SMU This Season: 2 Wins & 1 Loss – Well, look at you Ponies… doin’ a little better on the old gridiron these days. I stand corrected. Chad Morris is already earning his check in his second season in Dallas, which is a monumental task since most Texas footballers are taking a major downgrade in stadium size when they commit to SMU. The Ponies most recent victory came against Liberty University and was delivered on the back of RB Braeden West, who rushed for 220 yards and a couple of scores averaging nearly 10 yards per carry. If one looks beyond the comic value of playing against a team named after an unalienable right, one sees that SMU has some weapons and is beginning to close out games. They’re leveraging a college football trend (A&M transfer QB Matt Davis), a dynamic young head coach who blends right in on campus (two first names) and a bevy of other young talent at the skill positions (OK maybe not a whole “bevyâ€).
How the Frogs Stumble: The Frogs need to do a better job of tackling and we’re giving up too many points. We did a great job of limiting Allen Lazard’s impact on the Iowa State game, but we gave up passes of 41, 34, 32 & 20 yards elsewhere on the field. The Frogs simply won’t outscore our conference opponents with a pass defense full of more holes than OJ’s alibi. Now comes another test in SMU super sophomore Cortland Sutton who is, in fact, an All-Conference wide receiver and not the team’s rush chair. Sutton torched the Frog’s secondary for 115 yards and a touchdown last year and is averaging nearly 26(!) yards per catch this year. The Frogs should continue to tighten up the downfield coverage and blitz SMU QB Ben Hicks who is starting in place of last year’s starter Matt Davis who is out with a torn ACL.
How the Frogs Triumph: After two weeks of being one of the most penalized teams in college football, the Frogs are certainly improving. 9 flags for 95 penalty yards against Arkansas may have done more than anything else to boost the Hogs to their overtime victory and GMFP’s displeasure was palpable.   The Frogs running game has improved as well. Kyle Hicks broke off a big run last week, Trevorris Johnson picked up some nice yardage in limited play and true freshman Sewo Olonilua made another appearance on the field. I’d like to see more of him as the year progresses. He’s built like Pony great Eric Dickerson, let’s see if Mr. Olonilau can run like him. The Frogs should put this one away early, because SMU football is just like a Portobello Burger. It is high priced without substance, it bears little resemblance to the real thing and if you bring it up at a tailgate, people are likely to feel compelled to explain the basic rules of the game to you.
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