J.J. McDermott: He’s a very good quarterback. He’s been running that offense for two years, and I’ve been running it for a week, but it’s pretty similar to stuff I ran at my old school, New Mexico State.

Transfer J.J. McDermott emulated record-setting Houston quarterback Case Keenum this week in practice while running the Mustangs' scout team offense (photo by SMU athletics).

McDermott: He makes very good decisions, and he’s really accurate with the ball. He gets rid of it really quick, and any time you’ve got a quick release like that, it doesn’t give the D-backs too much time to react and makes it really tough on them, and on the whole defense.

PonyFans.com: As the quarterback of the scout team, you get to imitate different quarterbacks in different offenses each week. How hard is it for you to run a different style of offense each week, rather than running your own system every day?

McDermott: It’s not the easiest thing in the world, but it’s not too bad. The coaches make it pretty easy by preparing me as much as they can, but you’re definitely not going to run each team’s offense to the same extent that the team you’re playing is. You’ve just got to give the defense the best look you can, and hope you can emulate it to the best of your ability.

PonyFans.com: Do the coaches try to get you to imitate the other quarterback’s mechanics and throwing style each week, or is it just a matter of you running the plays, where you are and where the ball ends up?

McDermott: It’s pretty much just schemes and plays — they don’t mess with your mechanics too much. If they did that, that probably would be for the worse, and could screw up the way you throw the ball and create some bad habits.

PonyFans.com: When you look at film to study the guy you’re going to impersonate in practice, do you even look at the receivers, or are you focused solely on the quarterback and what he does?

McDermott: You look at everybody, but mostly, it’s just looking at the big picture. There are coaches in the meeting room with you, but mostly you’re trying to figure out where to go with the ball and different route combinations, and how the line’s blocking and where the line’s going — basically just big-picture stuff.

PonyFans.com: So for the purpose of SMU’s defense Saturday, what’s the key to slowing down the Houston offense?

McDermott: They spread it around a lot. They’ve got a couple of (receivers) who can really go, but as far as keying on one guy, if you try to do that, they’re going to burn you. We’ve just got to try and execute our scheme the best we can, and hope for the best — try and get some turnovers and a couple of stops, and see if our offense can keep pace with them.

PonyFans.com: When you looked at Houston’s film, what was your impression of the Cougars’ offensive line?

McDermott: They protect (Keenum) pretty well. They went in and beat the No. 5 team in the country at the time (Oklahoma State), and any time you throw for that many yards, you’ve got to attribute a lot of it to the offensive line keeping (the defense) off their quarterback.

PonyFans.com: The Cougars run the ball more than a lot of people seem to think, but how much do they throw to their running backs coming out of the backfield?

McDermott: Pretty often — they’ll screen you as much as they can and try and get the running back out a lot. They’ve always got him out on a swing (route) or some sort of check-down, and if you hit him in stride, he’s going to make some plays for you.