Romo story in DMN

[PonyPride]

Improving SMU has a leader under center

By CALVIN WATKINS / The Dallas Morning News

UNIVERSITY PARK – Jerad Romo is doing what's necessary to become a leader.

Over the summer, the SMU quarterback gathered the offensive players for seven-on-seven tournaments.

He inspired teammates to chant his name after one of the biggest wins in school history.

He told his coaches he needed to address the team before a road game against Texas A&M. And he even threw a last-second touchdown pass to beat UAB at home.

Romo, a 6-2 senior from Tehachapi, Calif., is 2-3 as a starter heading into today's Conference USA game against East Carolina at Ford Stadium.

"Jerad has always been a leader," coach Phil Bennett said. "Jerad takes this personal. It's important to him. SMU is important to him."

Romo, a junior college transfer, said he was reluctant to speak out last season because he was the backup to Tony Eckert.

"More respect is given to starters and seniors because you're on the field proving yourself," senior linebacker D.D. Lee said. "But Jerad has this vibe about him, and you feed off his energy."

While Eckert was in summer school, Romo organized the seven-on-seven tournaments and developed a bond with the team.

When fall camp began, Eckert won the starting job and Romo remained patient.

Eckert struggled during the season-opening loss to Baylor, and Bennett started Romo in the second game of the year against TCU.

He delivered. He completed 11 of 21 passes for 101 yards and one touchdown pass in a 21-10 win over the then-No. 22 Horned Frogs.
When Romo strolled into the locker room following the upset victory, his teammates chanted, "Romo, Romo, Romo."

"It caught me off guard," Romo said of the locker room scene. "It told me the team thought I played well. When you play quarterback it automatically puts a leadership role on you."

The next week, SMU visited College Station, a difficult place to play for any team. Six minutes before kickoff, Bennett was about to speak to the team before Romo asked to talk.

"All summer we talked about not getting wide-eyed for a game like this," Romo said. "In warmups, I could see it in people's eyes. The environment was overwhelming. I wanted to remind everybody what we talked about in the summer."

The Mustangs played well in the first quarter against the Aggies, trailing 7-6. But the game got out of hand and SMU lost, 66-8, and continued the losing.

The Mustangs lost a home game to Tulane, 31-10, and an overtime loss to Marshall, 16-13.

Romo and several players held meetings to find ways to end the losing streak.

"We were all kind of fed up with it all," receiver Chris Foster said. "I couldn't tell you the number of meetings we had."

But SMU's situation has improved. Last week, Romo completed an 80-yard drive in 23 seconds with no timeouts to beat UAB, 28-27, and end a 14-game road losing streak.

Romo threw a 31-yard touchdown pass to Bobby Chase as time expired for one of the school's biggest finishes, and it appears the win might spark SMU the rest of the season.

"After we beat TCU, we let everything get out of hand," Romo said. "Right now, I like where we are. We trust each other and that's going to help us."

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[hunters]

Romo is a people person, he gets along with everyone. I know because I have had class with him last season and this year. I cannot see why the team would not rally around him after the UAB game. I hope SMU does it real big against ecu.

[sage4man]

Wow, that is a great article! I am excited about todays game. Go Mustangs!