Safety Hayden Greenbauer said the tough non-conference schedule could go a long way toward sharpening up the defense during the remaining part of the schedule (photo by PonyFans.com).

Some notes as the Mustangs prepare for Saturday’s American Athletic Conference game at Memphis:

• QB Paxton Lynch has played in all five games for the Tigers, but there is speculation that the Mustangs might see two quarterbacks: either Lynch or Jacob Karam, who completed 8 of 17 passes last year for 85 yards against the Mustangs. At 6-0, 205, Karam is six inches shorter and 20 pounds lighter than Lynch, but the senior is more experienced than his redshirt freshman teammate. SMU safety Hayden Greenbauer said that when Lynch is on the field, the Tigers likely will start with a conservative approach. “He’s a really big guy, but he’s a freshman,” Greenbauer said. “They’ll probably run the ball a lot, do a lot of play-action (passes) and start with some screen passes, to get his confidence up. He’s really tall, and has a pretty big windup, so hopefully we can get to him with some pressure.”

• Defensive coordinator Tom Mason said that when studying film of the Memphis offense, he has been impressed with Tiger running back Brandon Hayes, the 5-8, 198-pound senior who leads the Memphis offense with 72 carries for 379 yards (5.3 yards per carry) and a pair of rushing touchdowns. “They’ll give us a lot of looks Saturday, but he’s a pretty good back,” said Mason, who said he also expects “a lot of trickery” from the Memphis offense. Mason said the Tigers will employ a tight end most of the time, which should present problems to the SMU defense “because we really don’t have one on campus. Somehow, we usually adjust to it pretty well.”

• Mason said he has been extremely impressed with the emergence of linebacker Jonathan Yenga, who has emerged since taking on a bigger role in the SMU defense over the last couple of games. “He has played as well as anyone on the defense the last couple of games,” Mason said of Yenga. “He’s becoming what we thought he would become when we recruited him. It has taken a couple of years to develop, but you can see the light coming on. Whatever he’s eating, I hope he keeps eating it.”

• Mason said he is “not happy with where we are defensively,” but said he has seen reasons for encouragement. “The stats that are the most important are rushing yards and points allowed,” Mason said. “We haven’t tackled well enough in some of these early games, but we’re getting there. We thought it could take a little while for this group to gel, and you can see that starting to happen now.”

• While the defense overall is still a work in progress, Mason said he has been encouraged by the performance of the defensive line. “I think they have played better than I anticipated they would at this point,” Mason said. “The nose tackles have been really good, and we have some young guys coming on. (CB) Ajee Montes has had a couple of really good games as our nickel guy.”

• Mason said he has been impressed by the way the team has bounced back emotionally after the Mustangs were edged in triple overtime two weeks ago by Rutgers. “They have been a lot more upbeat than you might think they would be,” he said. “I hate having a bye after a tough loss. I’d rather get in there and evaluate the film, get back out on the practice field and get back out there and play right away. Sometimes you have to make sure you don’t out-think yourself.”

• Greenbauer said that while nobody is satisfied with the Mustangs’ record of 1-4, the defense has offered reason for optimism. “If you look at our schedule, we have played some pretty good teams with strong offenses,” Greenbauer said. “We have come a long way already, and if we stay healthy and keep improving, we can be a pretty strong unit by the end of the year.”

• For the second time during his SMU career, and third time overall, WR Kyle Guinyard has seen his season cut short by a knee injury. After tearing his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in each knee — once in high school, and again after arriving at SMU — the junior from Ennis went down in practice at the end of last week, clutching his knee. “I thought it was my ACL again,” Guinyard said. “It hurt that bad.” Instead, Guinyard got relatively good news when he got back the results of an MRI this week: instead of a ligament tear, he suffered a torn meniscus, a crescent-shaped piece of cartilage that partly separates the joint to reduce or prevent bone-on-bone pressure. Guinyard said he will have surgery Friday, and was told his expected recovery time will be about two months. “It’s not good,” he said, “but eight weeks is a lot better than eight months.”