If I told you about this group of performers on SMU’s campus featuring scholastic Texans, free-thinking Californians, an Eastern European and a Republic of Congo prince, you’d think I was referring to a meeting of students with an eye on careers in international politics. Fortunately, it’s just a bunch of scholarship football players.

The Run-and-Shoot this, passing yards that, offensive football spreading out all over the place, yada yada yada... Everyone seems to produce offense in this 7-on-7 era of football, but the real football fan has realized over the past couple seasons, if you’re looking for return on your cost-of-admission investment, observe and appreciate the athleticism required from a defensive unit to win games.

The SMU defense has found contributors from around the world — literally (photo by Travis Johnston).

Each week, as upcoming opponent coaching staffs gather to watch SMU’s defense on tape, if it isn’t smokeless tobacco extraction or a plea to rewind the previous play, I’m willing to bet the mouths sit there, slightly open, with a subtle head shake — and that’s just when opposing coaches focus on the Mustangs’ defensive line.

You’ve got a world-class athlete (Margus Hunt) accelerating through a curve at a world-class athlete’s pace to become an American football player faster than denim jackets sell out in Estonia, a highly athletic and intelligent end-turned-nose tackle (Marquis Frazier) playing effectively all four downs, and a “manimal” (Taylor Thompson) holding down the other end with a high motor and array of tactical moves that NFL scouts already deem worthy.

If observing all the moving parts makes your head spin, just focus on Thompson and his ability to walk offensive tackles backward, one resistant step at a time. He may not get credited with a sack, but sure makes it hard for quarterbacks to step and throw with accuracy when their feet are planting off the ankle of a wilting tackle.

In preparation leading up, coaches are having to spend certain segments of their valuable practice time going over the edited blocking assignments because the Mustangs’ three-man front is perplexing offensive line coaches — not because they haven’t seen it before, but because with just three defensive linemen, SMU’s run defense allows the linebackers to come from a multitude of angles, on different downs and distances, and on virtually any play. A defensive coaching staff that forces the opposing offensive coaches to chart blitzes until the only information they can deduce is that you will blitz with any player from any part of the field on any down should get credited with a pregame headstart.

With three of the top 10 C-USA athletes playing on the line in front of them, the SMU linebackers run around and do more than any collective group I’ll see with my own eyes this fall outside of TCU. I’ve never seen Pete Fleps take an improper step, never seen Taylor Reed rolling backward after being punished by an offensive lineman, never seen Ja’Gared Davis uninterested in rattling a quarterback’s pocket confidence, and I have never seen Youri Yenga fail to make a play because his arms were short and feet were heavy, nor fail to draw a penalty because he can’t remain calm at all times.

By focusing on the starting seven, I’d be making a huge mistake in to overlook Aaron Davis, Kevin Grenier, Jordan Favreau, Szymon Czerniak, Cameron Rogers and other contributors who keep offensive coordinators curious where they’ll find a glaring weakness they can attack.