Nate says the SMU running backs should be able to run effectively Thursday at Houston (photo by Max Franklin).

PonyFans.com is proud to have 19-year-old Nate back as a guest columnist, this time to review SMU's victory over Temple and look ahead to Thursday's game at Houston.

Feel free to post comments and constructive criticism, ask him questions, and/or give suggestions for upcoming columns! (He can be followed on Twitter at @Pony_NATE_tion.)

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SMU is on top of the world, sitting at 7-0 and atop the American Athletic Conference standings. Boise State was ranked ahead of SMU, but the Broncos fell Saturday to BYU, which made SMU the highest-ranked non-Power Five team. Saturday could not have gone better for the Ponies, as Boise State’s loss gives SMU the inside track to the Group of Five New Year’s Six Bowl bid.

The No. 16 Mustangs are coming off a surprisingly dominant 45-21 win over a rock-solid Temple team. There was so much to love about how the Mustangs performed Saturday, because with TCU struggling, you could make a good argument that SMU really had not beaten a high-quality opponent. A dominant win over Temple greatly helped to change that narrative, and the train kept on rolling.

SMU’s offense obliterated a Temple defense that has been awesome all year. Temple had surrendered just five touchdown passes all season, but Shane Buechele had six, as he went 30-for-53 with 457 yards. Buechele’s deep ball was perfect, hitting chunk play after chunk play. He spread the ball around well to eight different receivers. His performance earned him Walter Camp National Player of the Week honors.

His favorite target of the day was Reggie Roberson, who racked up eight catches for 250 yards and three touchdowns. “After I scored on one dude, another dude was out there,” Roberson said. “And after I scored on another dude, another dude was out there. And after I bombed another dude, they put another dude out there. So, I don’t know what was going on, but they tried every corner I think they had.” Roberson torched Temple corners all day long, as he established himself again as one of the premier receivers in the nation. Buechele had a 149.3 passer rating when targeting Roberson, who had 67 yards after the catch.

James Proché also had nine catches for 80 yards and a touchdown, as Proché and Roberson continued to be one of the top duos in the country. Kylen Granson was also key, as he has been a welcome addition to the passing attack as a reliable tight end. He finished with 50 receiving yards and a touchdown.

SMU’s defense was very good again, holding Temple to 273 total yards, including just 69 yards on the ground. Temple converted just 25 percent of its third downs and had a crucial fumble deep in its own territory. The Ponies got home for three sacks and 10 tackles for loss. Linebacker Richard McBryde led the SMU defense with eight tackles, three for loss. Fellow linebacker Patrick Nelson made more splash plays with 2.5 tackles for loss and back-to-back sacks on third and fourth down when Temple was making its last legitimate push, killing the drive.

SMU defensive coordinator Kevin Kane has done wonders with this defense, in which the players seem to feed off each other’s energy. They are fired up at all times, and the turnover “Bottle Service” has been a marketable way to show the energetic and exciting culture this team has now. They swarm to the ball and constantly make plays and it has been a joy to watch and night-and-day from the old Van Malone defenses that got shredded often.

(photo by Max Franklin).

SMU will now take its 7-0 record about 200 miles south down to Houston to take on the rival Cougars. This is certainly one of the more intriguing Houston teams and it is not the high-powered offensive juggernaut we are accustomed to.

The Cougars have introduced tanking into college football. In a shocking move, star quarterback D’Eriq King redshirted following the Cougars’ 1-3 start. But what blew everyone away was he did not sit out to redshirt and transfer. The senior intends to return to Houston next year as first-year head coach Dana Holgorsen seems to have mailed it in already. No. 2 wideout Keith Corbin did the same thing. The new NCAA rule that allows players to redshirt after four games has shaped the landscape of college football’s transfer market, and now the tanking market as Holgorsen appears to be playing for 2020.

A former grad transfer for Houston, Justin Murphy, left the program after he grew tired of the program and its lack of motivation and desire to win. He took his complaints to Twitter and stated that Holgorsen approached several seniors about redshirting. It gained plenty of attention, with more than 6,000 retweets and 24,000 likes. To say it has been a controversial first season in H-Town for Holgorsen would be a massive understatement. But weathering this storm could pay off into a successful 2020 season for Houston.

The 3-4 Cougars come in to Thursday’s game with a poor record, due in part to a brutal early schedule that included trips to Oklahoma and Tulane, along with home matchups with Washington State and Cincinnati, all of which resulted in losses. While it is not as bad as their record indicates, this is still a subpar Houston team.

SMU head coach Sonny Dykes is not taking Houston lightly though.

“They always have a lot of speed and this team is no different,” he said. “Real explosive skill-position players, and to me, when you look at them, the thing that stands out the most probably is they've improved every week. I think that's the sign of a good football team, is that they're getting better, and they certainly are."

But 2020 is irrelevant Thursday night. No one knows what Houston is going to do at the quarterback position. Following King’s departure, Houston has rolled out backup Clayton Tune, who did not play very well. Enter freshman walk-on and coach’s son Luke Holgorsen, who again did not impress but helped secure a win against a poor UConn team by a score of 24-17. He seems to be purely a game manager, as he completed just 46 percent of his passes for 123 yards but did not throw a pick and had one touchdown. The point of saying all this: Houston’s quarterback play is likely the worst SMU has seen so far in 2019. The Cougar passing offense currently ranks 113th in passing yards per game.

Houston also has had trouble protecting the quarterback, surrendering 18 sacks through seven games — not bad, but SMU puts constant pressure on the quarterback and Kane likely will bring more pressure on a freshman walk-on quarterback. The only outside threat of note is Marquez Stevenson who has 445 yards and four touchdowns while averaging an impressive 15 yards per catch.

The Cougars love to run the ball, averaging 221.6 rushing yards per game. Kyle Porter is the lead back with 448 yards and three touchdowns, averaging an impressive 5.5 yards per carry. Patrick Carr also gets plenty of run with 6.4 yards per carry for 301 yards and three touchdowns. For SMU, defending Houston will be quite simple: defend the run and make Tune or Holgorsen beat the Mustangs with their passing arms. Each is an inexperienced backup quarterback who has shown nothing on tape that scares a defensive coordinator, especially against a defense that has been playing as well as SMU has.

Defensively, the Cougars still have some talent and have played well at times. They are giving up 30 points per game and 470 yards per game. Teams are running for 170 yards per game with a solid 5.1 yards per rush and are passing for 300 per game with an impressive 8.20 yards per attempt. The Cougars don’t put too much pressure on quarterbacks and don’t help their offense out by flipping the field with takeaways.

Houston is middling in all these categories but has some individual talent. Grant Stuard has been extremely productive at the safety position, leading the team with 63 tackles (25 more than the next leading tackler). He also has seven tackles for loss. There are a few other playmakers like David Anenih who leads the team in sacks with 5.5. The 6-3 defensive lineman has been giving offensive lines fits all season long. Payton Turner is another pass rusher to look out for, as the 6-6, 288-pound junior is second on the team in sacks and tackles for loss.

Last week’s performance said a lot about SMU. Temple is a high-quality football team that has beaten some good teams and SMU manhandled the Owls. Houston has struggled thus far and simply does not match up well with SMU at all. The Ponies have torched every defense they have encountered, and this will be no different. It will come down to whether or not SMU can stop the run. If the Mustangs stop the run, they then should be turned loose against a walk-on freshman quarterback who has done nothing that scares me in the slightest.

I anticipate a decent contingent of Mustang faithful to make the short trip south to support the squad, which nullifies a bit of the road factor. Weird things happen in college football, seemingly more so on a random Thursday night Week Nine game. An upset would not floor me, but I still feel that SMU is the far better football team and its maturity showed against Temple. SMU matches up very well with the Cougars and will win decisively. By this time next week, the Mustangs will be 8-0 and ranked in the Top 15.

Nate’s take: SMU 45, Houston 24