For as long as I’ve read the Sunday sports page, I can recall starting at the top of page two, with the breakdown of the previous day’s biggest individual performers. I was always curious to know what sort of impact those individual performances had on the game, whether it meant a worse team was competitive in a game because of one player, a good team found a particular mismatch and exposed it for four quarters, and on and on.

On the flight home from Houston Sunday morning, I was very proud to see Aldrick Robinson, Cole Beasley and Kyle Padron hovering near the top, and as I would have surmised as a 10-year-old, Rice was never in the game — the late scoring made the game only seem closer than it was.

Hampton says that teams with the game plans, execution — and the best coaching — usually come out ahead, as June Jones and the Ponies did Saturday at Rice (photo by Tyler Williams).

Say what you want about the Owls’ late surge and the on-side recovery, when the game-defining moments occurred, SMU was on the good end.

It can be elementary flag football, a backwoods Kentucky basketball game or throwing bones on the porch — the person or team most committed to winning, with the better effort, execution and game plan … usually does.

Think of how often you see the team with the lesser athletes pull the upset or near-upset. Check the sidelines and you’ll find the better coach may be on the losing team. As fans, we rest in peace hoping “good things are coming.”

Or what about the high school with seven FBS (Div. I-A) recruits and a 3-7 record? As observers, it’s either, “they got no coachin’!” or “selfish kids — they only care about their college futures.”

Whatever the case, maybe it’s because SMU has been without the right combination for so long, but this current state is really enjoyable. The execution, especially when matched against conference foes, is only going to improve. After Saturday in Houston, that could be somewhat scary for some defensive coordinators in the next couple months. That execution, on top of the leadership from the top down, could be really scary for programs on the schedule for the next few years.