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PonyFans.com is proud to welcome, as a new columnist, Nate, who is 13 years old, in seventh grade, might want to be a sports writer and knows more about football than a lot of people who already make their living covering sports. Nate will preview each game throughout the season, looking at a key player, matchup or statistic that could prove relevant in each upcoming game … and he'll go out on a limb and pick the score of each game. Feel free to post comments and constructive criticism, and to give suggestions for upcoming games!

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Center Taylor Lasecki said the offensive line must lead the way to a more effective running game in the red zone (photo by SMU athletics).

The Mustangs’ trek goes on as we now approach Game 9. This week they take on a pitifully bad 0-8 Connecticut team who has been blown out time and time again but also has hung tough in some games.

Garrett Gilbert — what a class act. Against the Bearcats, he had another day of filling up the stat sheet last week, only to see the game end in an SMU loss. It just keeps me up at night thinking if we had this year’s Gilbert last year when we had a better defense. It got very hard to watch when Cincy just put together clock-eating drive after clock-eating drive. The linebackers are fine, but the safety play has been poor since Hayden Greenbauer went down with a knee injury, and the defensive line has been inconsistent against the run.

Huge Penalty: Ugh, that holding call on Ben Gottschalk when Gilbert took it to the house — that was play of the game.

The kicking game struggled, including two missed field goals (one off the goalpost) by Chase Hover, who had connected on 13 of 14 field goals before the Cincinnati game. SMU could’ve used the 48-yarder from Hover early and really could’ve used the 34-yard miss at the end of the 1st half.

Offensive line improvements: Fellas, let’s face it: the offensive line was pathetic to start the year, but moving Gottschalk to guard and putting Chauncey Briggs in was ingenious.

SMU center Taylor Lasecki discussed the offensive line’s major improvements.

“We haven’t really had a lot of mental busts this year,” Lasecki said. “We had a few at the beginning of the year that were a result of everyone getting used to each other, but once we got the communication right, we have done a pretty good job. There are a lot of intricacies in our offense and our blocking scheme, but we really haven’t had a lot of mental errors.

“Chauncey (Briggs) has stepped in at left tackle and played really well. He's young — he's a redshirt freshman, he's where I was last year. Ben (Gottschalk) has moved in to guard, and has been great. He's probably better suited to play guard. He's built more like a guard, with a lower center of gravity, and he has played great. Chauncey is a tall, long guy with long arms, but he's really athletic. As he gets stronger and gets more playing time, he's going to be really good.”

The Huskies of Connecticut will roll into the Ford with an 0-8 record that includes the following losses: Towson by 15, Buffalo by 29, UCF by 45, Michigan by 3, Maryland by 9, USF by 3, Cincy by 26 and Louisville by 21.

Now we can remember what we now call “The Miracle on Mockingbird,” when SMU was in its second game back from their death penalty in 1989. Everybody thought it would be a couple of years until the Mustangs win again. SMU was down, 30-14, with 7:31 left to play and they ran off 17 points in a row to upset UConn with 41 scholarship players, 38 of whom had never played major college football, and an 89-man roster that included 73 freshmen.

UConn’s main struggles have been, well, everywhere. The Huskies only score 15 points a game (120th in the country), only average 212 passing yards a game (81st) and 74 yards per game on the ground (120th). The defense has struggled even more, giving up 34 points a game (105th). Their leader in receiving yards, Geremy Davis, has no touchdowns this year, and the quarterback time has been split between Chandler Whitmer and Tim Boyle … neither of whom has very impressive numbers.

We already know who and what this SMU offense is, led by Gilbert, who is going to break some records and already has broken a couple. They just have to get more, in my opinion, of Prescott Line. He hasn’t done anything to hurt the team and he has shown nothing but positives. I believe it’d be a win-win for the Mustangs because you put Zach Line’s solid young brother in there, and you get a redshirt freshman some experience.

Lasecki also discussed the run game and if the changes at the running back position change the way the offensive line blocks.

“Not at all,” he said. “A lot of times, I don't even know (which running back) is in the game, since we don't huddle much, anyway. Sometimes, I'll help pick a guy up off the ground and realize, 'oh — it's Colin (Lagasse). I don't even know who was in there.

“We can always get better. We can throw for 450 yards between the 20s, but we have to be better running when we get inside the 20, and that is on us (the offensive line). Everything is kind of condensed in the red zone, so our receivers can't stretch the field, stretch the defense, by running by everybody. We have to show we can run the ball and get it in the end zone.”

The keys for the Ponies are to get the defense off the field, offense does what it can do, and the Mustangs won’t have any issues with the Huskies. The Mustangs will have to win three out of the last four to get to bowl season, with three tough games still on the schedule (at USF, at Houston and at home against UCF). If the Mustangs hope to be bowl-bound this year, they have to beat UConn and I think that’s exactly what will happen — another team blows out the Huskies.

Nate’s take: SMU 45, UConn 20