UNT game - W2W4

[JasonB]

Offense:
- Our most skilled OL is Condon-Osborne-Thomas-Biss-Bryant. Are they all healthy enough that this group starts the game?
- JT hasn't played center before, keep an eye on snap consistency.
- JT, Osborne, and Bis are strong and athletic. I expect us to be able to win in the running game this season up the middle, and remember Rhett likes to run that power dive. Keep an eye on if they can get a push consistently as expected, it is important for the rest of the season.
- We have learned over the past several months that it was the OC and not TM that was holding back from throwing the ball deep. If you wanted TCU last night, they didn't exactly air it out. Today, we should finally learn if TM is willing to throw deep several times a game, or if he is just naturally going to take the safe route. We all expect the former, something to keep our eye on.
- At RB, in practice TJ shows great straight line speed. I'm interested to find out if he has enough lower body strength to keep balance after getting hit. It is what made him special in high school, and want to see if he retains that ability post-injury.
- I expect Maryland to make a splash play every game - a catch over 20 yards or draw a PI. We will see if that happens.

Defense:
- I expect our defensive tackles to make things very uncomfortable straight up the middle. We will see if it is as disruptive as I think it will be in both the running and passing games.
- At DE, UNT is a run-first team. Can we seal the edge and hold up in the running game? In this defense, those ends need to be able to engage the OT on and set the edge in the run game, but then be able to make a move and get past them in the passing game. You can't just dance around and ty to speed rush, because you don't have LB protection. Lots of promise, but that is a big area to watch during the game. For example, last year, Aho didn't get a lot of playing time because he didn't have the strength to engage. He has looked different during camp. Want to see if it translates in games.
- I think Crossley will be good in coverage, but in this defense, that nickelback needs to also make plays in the running game. Can Crossley and others who play that spot play the run and cover?
- Corner was a nightmare last year, and has looked much better in practice. Today we find out if last year was player or if it was scheme. Do they play aggressive and without fear, or is there still a hangover?
- Massey was playing at an elite level at free safety in the spring and early fall camp, then got hurt. Is he really back?

Special Teams :
- Does Rogers show up in the game like he has played in spring camp? Good leg and consistent for the last few weeks, I want to see if the frosh gets rattled in game time.
- Hall has a massive leg on kickoffs, but last year wasn't consistent - sometimes not getting the distance expected or hitting it in the right direction. I want to see if he has improved - either consistently hitting the ball out of the endzone, or really high directional kicks that pin the opponent back. Nothing down the middle.

[Charleston Pony]

Time to get geeked about our opener. Exciting time of year because we are all undefeated and optimistic about the season, although it's tough to be playing on the road against a team that may well be a future conference mate and will play this game as if it is their super bowl

[Arkpony]

Our run defense not so good in the game so far.

[JasonB]

We play a 4-2-5. It means we are going to give up some runs. Need the DL to come up with big stops from time to time, and then you compress space against the run in the red zone. I thought the defense did that perfectly. Giving up 10 points against that team is pretty good at the end of the day.

- OL - surprised that Bis didn't start, but JT did great at guard and Hickman was strong at center.

- JT, Osborne, and Bis are strong and athletic. I expect us to be able to win in the running game this season up the middle, and remember Rhett likes to run that power dive. Keep an eye on if they can get a push consistently as expected, it is important for the rest of the season.

Hickman, Osborne, and JT, but yes, good push pretty much the whole game, which could be a big positive difference in the consistency of the offense compared to Rhett's first spell at SMU.

- We have learned over the past several months that it was the OC and not TM that was holding back from throwing the ball deep. If you wanted TCU last night, they didn't exactly air it out. Today, we should finally learn if TM is willing to throw deep several times a game, or if he is just naturally going to take the safe route. We all expect the former, something to keep our eye on.

Question answered, we took shots and we hit those shots. Confirmed that Riley sucks, and TCU can have fun with that.

- At RB, in practice TJ shows great straight line speed. I'm interested to find out if he has enough lower body strength to keep balance after getting hit. It is what made him special in high school, and want to see if he retains that ability post-injury.

A clear yes! Had his speed, broke tackles, looked really good. Very positive outcome here.

- I expect Maryland to make a splash play every game - a catch over 20 yards or draw a PI. We will see if that happens.

No splash plays, but two catches, a big one early and the one late showed his athletic ability to move in the open field, although I wish he had cut it up field instead of run out of bounds after a 13 yard game. Haskin had shown well in practice, but I didn't ever think he was really going to get time, and yet he was the TE with the splash plays.

Overall, a very good, consistant performance on offense.

Defense:
- I expect our defensive tackles to make things very uncomfortable straight up the middle. We will see if it is as disruptive as I think it will be in both the running and passing games.

Yes, 96 and 40 were great. The second team disappointed a little bit. But the performance in short yardage situations was really impressive.

- At DE, UNT is a run-first team. Can we seal the edge and hold up in the running game? In this defense, those ends need to be able to engage the OT on and set the edge in the run game, but then be able to make a move and get past them in the passing game. You can't just dance around and ty to speed rush, because you don't have LB protection. Lots of promise, but that is a big area to watch during the game. For example, last year, Aho didn't get a lot of playing time because he didn't have the strength to engage. He has looked different during camp. Want to see if it translates in games.

I think DE was the weakest performance on defense. The pocket wasn't clean, there was always a push, but no sacks until the very end. The ends engaged, but a lot of the better runs were on the ends. Nobody really stepped up to be "that guy". Nobody was a disaster, but I thought there a lot of just okay performances.

- I think Crossley will be good in coverage, but in this defense, that nickelback needs to also make plays in the running game. Can Crossley and others who play that spot play the run and cover?

Yes, did a fantastic job in the running game.

- Corner was a nightmare last year, and has looked much better in practice. Today we find out if last year was player or if it was scheme. Do they play aggressive and without fear, or is there still a hangover?

Great play all around. Sam had a big breakup in the endzone. Hall had a rough PI call, and then a really nice PBU later. Hopefully the injury isn't too bad. Unit could have had a couple of additional INTs. Very positive, and again, I think it showed how bad the DC was last season.

- Massey was playing at an elite level at free safety in the spring and early fall camp, then got hurt. Is he really back?

Nope, didn't play. But Roberts did a terrific job in both the running and passing game. Got beat once on the deep pass, but that was it, and got a pick later to make up for it. Our depth looks great at FS, because when Massey comes back, he will add a major playmaker back there. NWO I thought struggled a bit, which was disappointing, but Adimora had a strong game including a FF.

Special Teams :
- Does Rogers show up in the game like he has played in spring camp? Good leg and consistent for the last few weeks, I want to see if the frosh gets rattled in game time.

Every kick was great. We are locked here for the next four years, and it was great to see.

- Hall has a massive leg on kickoffs, but last year wasn't consistent - sometimes not getting the distance expected or hitting it in the right direction. I want to see if he has improved - either consistently hitting the ball out of the endzone, or really high directional kicks that pin the opponent back. Nothing down the middle.

Much better. I thought he had a very good game.

[PNW_Stang]

Thanks, Jason.

What is your take on Camar? He had some extreme athleticism in the little we saw him.

[Charleston Pony]

Thanks, Jason.

What is your take on Camar? He had some extreme athleticism in the little we saw him.

You could see the burst Camar has on his few carries late in the game. I liked what I saw from both Wheaton and McDaniel. This team looks pretty deep at RB

[JasonB]

Thanks, Jason.

What is your take on Camar? He had some extreme athleticism in the little we saw him.

I think I mentioned in one of my practice reports that when they did some of the drills, some of the guys have great footwork, and others have great speed. He is the guy who has great speed, footwork, and balance. Absolutely a class above.

The challenge they have is that with the injury and delayed rehab, his body isn't quite where it needs to be to absorb a lot of hits. So, you have to limit the number of touches he has right now.

An important takeaway here is that Kerley, Camar, and Bailey are three big time playmakers on this team. And each were only on the field for about 10 plays in a 48-10 blowout win. I anticipate limited use of all three of those players until the UCF game.

[JasonB]

Also wanted to add a couple of things here.

- One of the criticisms of TM has been that when he threw deep last year in games and in practice (and even in the spring), he would overthrow receivers trying to make the perfect throw. Very notable that in this game, he threw the ball where players could make a play. Especially notable on the jump ball he threw to Rice on the "free play" when UNT was offsides. That would not have happened last year, it is very evident he put a ton of work on that in the summer.

- I pointed out in practice that Osborne, JT, and Bryant all looked like they had taken a step forward. That certainly showed up in the game, and with grades on PFF. Very positive to see that translate.
- Condon was the guy that struggled, and I really didn't anticipate that after watching practice. Got off balanced a couple of times and was slow to react on one edge rush play. Really haven't seen him do that in practice, so I am pretty confident in his ability to clean it up and improve. Lamar won't be a big test, but I think the focus will be on him having a clean game.
- Hickman got a really poor grade in pass protection. The good news is that he wasn't getting beat physically, he just made some poor mental decisions where he ended up doubling a player (usually with JT), while the other tackle ran free. Again, I think he will clean this up because he looked a lot better in practice, and our DTs are really good.
- Knox didn't exactly look clean out there. What I will say is that the first couple of practices I saw, he was trying to go overly fast all the time, and had a bit of "happy feet", where he would round off routes because he was running too fast into the routes. Just didn't look smooth. He cleaned it up and looked much better the last two times I was at practice, but looked tike Knox 1.0 last night. That is something I would expect to smooth out as we get into conference play.
- LB also showed itself as much improved. Slade had his best all around game since he has been at SMU, IMHO. He is settling in and will have a really good season. Phillips looked fantastic, and seems to be taking really well to the inside position after being pushed outside much of last season. Reid looked good as well, although he read some bad angles twice during the game that I saw, and it might be something to keep our eye on.

Overall, in my prediction of how SMU would do this season, the week areas of the FB team compared to Houston, Cincy, and UCF were that we were average at RB, 4th at TE, 4th at CB, and 4th at S. After seeing TJ, Camar, Haskin, Armani, Hall, Westfall, Adimora, and Roberts all show up and perform better than expected in that first game... SMU has be considered a true contender at this point, don't we?

[Charleston Pony]

It was one game. Let's see how the guys look next week and the week after that on the road against a P5 opponent but hopefully there is enough talent and that talent is well enough coached to compete for a conference championship this year!

"unfinished business" is what brought some of our guys back.

[redpony]

Jason- many thanks for the overview. Those of us in the 'hinterlands' look forward to your info and analysis.

[jpe747]

Thank you JasonB.
I loved this game! Just a few quick observations from me.
I expected NTU to be a tougher opponent with one game already in their pocket. I was also surprised how strong SMU appeared to be and perhaps that is why NTU looked weaker than I expected.
Receivers - After the spring scrimmage I was concerned about our young and untested receivers. However, both our wide receivers and tight ends looked exceptional for a first game.
QB – Can’t say enough about Mordecai for reasons discussed by JasonB above. I would love to see more of Stone - I'm a Stone fan, but for Mordecai, the sky seems to be the limit. How can you take him out in a game unless it is a runaway?
RBs TJ looked completely back and very strong. And considering all the other SMU running backs, SMU’s running game seems to be one of our strongest positions and perhaps the best since the Pony Express (I say having my fingers crossed).
The O Line was generally good. It will be interesting to see them block against a stronger D Line.
Our D Line and LBs looked stronger than I expected against a good running game.
D Backs were not tested like they will be later. But they played well against NTU.
The Kicking game was limited but excellent for the night.
All SMU needs to do now is go undefeated (smiley face).

[Charleston Pony]

I did not record the game so have not watched again closely but I will say I was disappointed we did not see more pressure on Aune. I understand one of UNT's strengths was it's OL and hopefully they go on to have a good season and prove that to be the case...but I'm concerned about how our D will fare against tougher competition. For all the concern expressed about our secondary, everyone knows that a strong pass rush can help make a secondary look good. I'm really looking for a strong showing from the front 7 against Lamar

[mrydel]

I personally believe that the reason for limited QB pressure was because we focused on the NTSU running game and forced Aune to throw. Aune has not been impressive passing and NTSU has an above average running game. When we get into games with quality passing attacks I do believe our pass rush will dramatically improve.