SMU 31, Kansas 17! (Game report)

[PonyPride]

Even the most ardent of supporters of the SMU football team could not have written a script that would play out better than the Mustangs season opener. The Ponies debut game in the spectacular Gerald J. Ford, played before a packed house of 32,267 eager SMU fans, resulted in a 31-17 victory for the Mustangs that was far more lopsided than the score indicated.

"I'm so proud of this football team, the players and the coaches, I just can't tell you," SMU head coach Mike Cavan said after the victory, his first in a season opener as SMU's head coach. "We've done the work, and it paid off. Now we have to continue to work if we want to be successful."

The Mustangs burst out of the gate with 24 points in the first quarter, a margin that was the largest an opponent had established over Kansas since the the Jayhawks trailed Nebraska, 28-0, after the opening stanza Oct. 8, 1988. After stifling the Kansas offense on its first possession, SMU took the lead when junior quarterback Josh McCown found tight end Billy Ford -- who only took up the position during preseason workouts after being moved from linebacker -- with an 11-yard touchdown pass in the back left corner of the end zone. Jacob Crowley's extra point gave the Mustangs a 7-0 lead with just over five minutes gone in the 2000 season.

The irony of Ford catching the first touchdown in Ford Stadium was not lost on his quarterback.

"When I've thought about it, I figured I'd throw it to Chris (Cunningham) or Cody (Cardwell) or Johnnie (Freeman)," McCown said, "and Billy's just started playing tight end in the last month. I guess it's ironic that Ford gets the first touchdown in Ford."

As SMU fans rocked the Mustangs' new home, the SMU defense did its best to rattle the KU offense. After snuffing out the Jayhawk offense on its next series, the Mustangs struck again, this time on a 17-yard touchdown pass from McCown to tight end John Hampton. Halfway through the first quarter, the Ponies led, 14-0.

Before the opening period was complete, the Mustangs scored twice more, first on a 22-yard field goal by Crowley to go up, 17-0. Then, after the SMU defense held the KU offense again, the snap sailed over the head of Kansas punter Joey Pelfanio. As he chased the bouncing pigskin back toward his end zone, Pelfanio realized that SMU cornerback Jonas Rutledge was bearing down on him. Rather than try to scoop up the ball and risk a fumble that Rutledge might recover for a touchdown, Pelfanio wound up and kicked the bouncing ball through the back of the end zone, think he had held SMU to a safety. But the officials flagged the KU punter for "illegal kicking" and awarded the Mustangs possession of the ball on the Kansas 1-yard line. (Had Pelfanio scooped up the ball and run harmless through the back of the end zone, SMU would have been awarded two points for a safety. But because he intentionally kicked a live ball backward through the end zone, the flag was thrown.) On the next play, sophomore tailback Kris Briggs plowed into the end zone from a yard out, which coupled with Crowley's ensuing extra point, gave the Mustangs a 24-0 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Cavan said that the atmosphere surrounding the first game of the season and the opening of Ford Stadium offered inspiration, but he said it was the play of McCown that really set the tone.

"I thought Josh McCown, for the total aspect of the football game, played as good a football game as he has since he's been here," Cavan said of McCown, who finished the game completing 14-of-25 for 164 yards and two touchdowns through the air and one on the ground. "But all these guys played well. I've said I have a really special feeling about these guys, and they showed why."

In addition to the miscues by the Kansas special teams -- in addition to the snap over Pelfanio's head, the KU punter also fumbled one snap, had a punt blocked by SMU linebacker-turned-defensive end Kevin Aldridge and fumbled a punt that SMU recovered in Jayhawk territory -- the Mustangs benefitted from a KU offense that appeared uninterested in winning. On the opening drive, Kansas quarterback Dylen Smith rolled out on a naked bootleg to his left and threw to tight end David Hurst, who wasn't within 15 yards of an SMU defender; only to watch Hurst drop the third-down pass.

Hurst's slippery fingers helped the Ponies again in the second quarter. Kansas finally got on the scoreboard on a 23-yard field goal by Joe Garcia, but only after Hurst had dropped another easy pass from Smith while standing alone in the corner of the end zone. Hurst's gaffe wasted a Houdini-like escape act by the exceptionally quick Smith, who had eluded the SMU pass rush long enough to allow Hurst to get free in the end zone.

Having dodged a bullet by holding Kansas to only three points, the Mustangs added to their lead when McCown ran to his right, faked his way past two KU defenders, lowered his shoulder and powered into the end zone on a beautiful three-yard touchdown run. With less than three minutes remaining before halftime, SMU led, 31-3.

McCown said the Mustangs' offense was clicking as well as he could remember.

"I threw two (touchdowns) in the first half and ran for one, too?" McCown asked. "That usually takes a whole game. That's a quarterback's dream."

To their credit, the Jayhawks didn¹t fold, staying in the game with a touchdown three seconds before halftime on a one-yard plunge by Moran Norris, a 6-4, 245-pound behemoth many consider to be the best collegiate fullback in the country. The score was set up by Smith, who sliced through the Mustang defense with his arm on a drive highlighted by a 27-yard strike to wide receiver Byron Gasaway.

Cavan said the Mustangs' big lead was not enough to let his team escape a tongue-lashing at halftime.

"I ate them up pretty good at halftime, because I thought we started to lose it at the end of the first half," Cavan said.

The Mustangs' older players also took it upon themselves to remind their younger teammates that a 21-point lead at the intermission, even with the excitement of the new stadium, was far from safe.

"Josh (McCown) and some of the older guys told us about a couple of years ago when the (played) Ole Miss (at the Cotton Bowl) and it was pretty much the same situation, where they had a big lead and lost," Cunningham said. "They told us to look at it like it was 0-0."

The second half was considerably more even than the first. Each team moved the ball, but neither scored in the third quarter. At one point in the third quarter, McCown was sandwiched by a pair of KU defenders just as he let go of the ball on a third-down (which fell incomplete), and he struggled to get up. As the trainers helped him off the field, the Ponies' groggy signal-caller got sick on the field, but didn't miss any plays.

The only other mark on the scoreboard came when Smith, who finished 207 yards on 15-of-37 passing, wriggled out of the grasp of SMU defensive end Markus Pratt to hit wideout Termaine Fulton in the back of the end zone on a 32-yard scoring pass with 4:39 left in the game. At that point, it was too little, too late.

Cavan said the slower pace in the second half was in part the result of the heat -- the 107-degree temperature at kickoff made Saturday¹s opener the hottest game in SMU history -- and also the result of the Ponies' need to be in better condition.

"We need to be in better shape so we can play longer. These guys love to hear that, because they know it means I¹m going to make them run some more this week," Cavan said with a chuckle as the players at his press conference cringed. "I'm never satisfied. I want to be better as a football team, because we want to continue to win. We're going to enjoy this win, but we know we can play better."

The players at Cavan¹s press conference -- McCown, Briggs, Cunningham and linebacker Vic Viloria -- readily agreed that the Mustangs can pla

[Guest]

Good writeup Ponyfans. Thanks. Liked the banner on the airplane tonight.