SMU defensive coordinator Tom Mason visited with PonyFans.com to discuss the Mustangs’ performance through the first three games of the season and his expectations for Saturday’s game at TCU.

• In perhaps the least surprising statement of the year — or of his career — Mason said the key to the Texas A&M offense Saturday was Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Johnny Manziel.

“The difference in the game was Manziel,” Mason said. “What he did Saturday … he does that to everyone in the country. He did that to Alabama last week. A&M does a lot of things well and has a lot of good players, but he was the difference, like he is almost every week for them.”

Linebacker Jonathan Yenga is one of the young SMU players defensive coordinator Tom Mason has said has shown considerable improvement and will press for increased playing time (photo by SMU athletics).

Like all coaches, Mason evaluates his team each week. In a loss like the one the Mustangs endured Saturday, evaluation has to go beyond the final score, and even beyond statistics.

“You have to look for guys who are executing the calls, playing the fundamentals the right way,” Mason said. “There are games when you just get ‘out-athleted,’ and when that happens, there usually isn’t a lot you can do. That’s what happened Saturday. But you can look at individual performances and see who continued to compete, who continued to do things the right way. Whether you win or lose, you evaluate everyone every week, and you can see the guys who deserve to get more playing time or earn a starting spot.”

• One player who made his college debut in College Station was freshman defensive end Zelt Minor, whose brief injury caused a moment of concern for his defensive coordinator, Mason admitted. “He’s starting to get it — you can see him getting better every day,” Mason said. “He’s picking things up, but the talent is there — he’s just inconsistent, but you can see that he’s going to be a big-time football player. He made that one play where he flushed (Manziel) out and turned around to make the tackle … and he’s a freshman. There aren’t a lot of guys who make that play.”

Mason said he didn’t want to speculate about how quickly Minor might earn more playing time or a starting role, but said Minor’s improvement should benefit the entire line. “I don’t know” if or when Minor will earn a starting spot, Mason said, “but if he keeps doing what he’s doing, he’ll push Beau (Barnes) to be a better player. That’s what you want at every position. Competition always makes players better.”

• Another player who has given Mason reason for optimism in the first quarter of the 2013 season is sophomore linebacker Jonathan Yenga, who has earned increasing playing time at both inside linebacker (at the spot at which Kevin Pope is the starter) and at the WILL linebacker spot normally occupied by Robert Seals.

“He’s coming on — he’s really pushing for time at both spots,” Mason said of Yenga. “He was our second-leading tackler the other night. He can play the WILL spot for Seals, and he can play at Pope’s spot — I can move Pope over to (Randall) Joyner’s spot when he’s not in there.

“You never know when the light is going to come on for a young player, but it looks like it’s coming on (for Yenga). We didn’t always have the luxury of redshirting everyone — guys like Ja’Gared Davis and Taylor Reed played as sophomores, because they had to — but he’s about where he’s supposed to be as a sophomore. He’s making a lot of progress. He’s going to be a really good football player.”

• Mason said that he has seen reason for encouragement from the SMU secondary, despite the fact that the Mustangs have intercepted just one pass — safety Hayden Greenbauer’s pick of a Manziel throw Saturday — through three games.

“Consistent,” Mason said when asked about the defensive backfield. “We have a lot of things to improve, but we have done some things well. It can be tough evaluating, especially when the season has just started. We have the one interception and have given up some yards, but is that all (the defensive backs’) fault? Sometimes it is, but sometimes it has to do with the pass rush and the underneath coverage by the linebackers.

“Offenses are changing, and the game is changing. It seems like every week, there are 15 or 20 teams out there giving up 600 yards. Sometimes the defense didn’t play well, but sometimes you play a really good offense, and they’re going to get their yards. So I’d say we have done OK — not outstanding, but OK. We need to get our pass rush better, and our underneath coverage can get better, and when it does, you’ll see the takeaways increase.”

• When asked about Saturday’s game at TCU, Mason said that the injury to starting quarterback Casey Pachall is a mixed blessing for the SMU defense. Pachall is the more polished passer, but backup Trevone Boykin presents a different kind of threat because of his superior mobility.

“It seems like every week, we’re seeing a quarterback who can run,” Mason said. “A few weeks ago, the Montana State kid (DeNarius McGhee) ran well, and A&M has the best running quarterback in the country. I’d rather have a classic pocket quarterback back there who can’t move, so my guys can just tee off on him, but that’s not the case this week, either. The Pachall kid can run, too, so it’s not like that would have been easy, but Boykin … he can really run.”

• Mason also talked about the TCU running game, which features three main ball carriers: sophomore B.J. Catalon (5-9, 190), senior Waymon James (5-8, 203) and sophomore Aaron Green (5-11, 200), who transferred a year ago from Nebraska. Catalon leads the team in rushing with 28 carries for 169 yards (6.0 yards per carry) and three touchdowns; Boykin is second, with 35 carries for 149 yards (4.3), followed by James, who has rushed 24 times for 123 yards (5.1) and a pair of scores.

“(Catalon) has great quickness, great speed,” Mason said. “(James) is probably the strongest of the three, and (Green) plays quite a bit — he’s sort of a combination of the other two.

“It’s not so much what their specific talents are, but how they’re used in (TCU’s) schemes. We’re going to have to tackle whoever they put out there, so it doesn’t really matter which one it is. (TCU head coach) Gary (Patterson) does what he does — he coaches a downhill, aggressive running game. That’s what we’ll see Saturday.”

Mason acknowledged that the fact that TCU had last weekend off gives the Frogs something of an advantage, if only from the standpoint of getting players healthy, but he said he doesn’t expect TCU to unveil any major schematic changes against the Mustangs.

“I expect they’ll have a new wrinkle or two for us, but they’re going to do what they do. With a week off … they have a good staff, too, and they’re over there perfecting what they do. But I don’t think we’ll see anything entirely new — they still have a whole season ahead of them, and so do we.”