How Good? cusa-fans.com

[mr. pony]

How Good?
SMU Whips Memphis, 42-0; Looks For Better Gauge At TCU
By Rick Atkinson for cusa-fans.com
http://cusa-fans.com/



DALLAS – A hot Run-and-Shoot offense and a Doomsday Defense? Not a bad combination if you can get it -- and if it’s for real. The 3-1 SMU Mustangs will find that out this week against bitter rival and 20th-ranked TCU in Fort Worth.

After soundly thumping two relatively hollow melons by a combined score of 87-7, the Mustangs get a shot at real BCS-Bowl fruit on Saturday. And the nearly century-old rivalry? Well, that just adds a personal touch – at least for the fans.

“I never realized that there was that big of a rivalry,” said SMU head coach June Jones after Tuesday’s practice, “but after playing against them the last couple of years I’ve noticed that both teams kind of turn it up a little bit.”

“So I anticipate that would happen again.”

This year’s Battle For The Iron Skillet could also have conference realignment implications for the two schools, especially SMU, which has been doing horsey-handstands for weeks, trying to get an AQ league’s attention.

Are the stakes higher now, Coach?

“For us, it’s just the next game,” Jones said. “You play as hard as you can play and hopefully we’ll … show that we can compete at that level.”

Memphis Mash-Down

SMU quarterback J.J. McDermott had a career day at Memphis, throwing for 357 yards and three touchdowns. Conference USA’s leading rusher Zach Line tallied 136 yards on 20 carries.

Darius Johnson had 10 catches for 116 yards and two touchdowns. Redshirt freshman Der’rikk Thompson made his first collegiate catches count, grabbing six for 104 yards, including a 44-yard score in the second quarter.

SMU will be without its leading receiver at TCU, senior Cole Beasley, who suffered a knee injury in the first half at Memphis.

The Mustangs’ defense has allowed just 265 total yards and no points in the last two weeks. Both Memphis and Northwestern State were held to seven first downs. SMU hasn’t allowed an offensive score in nine quarters. (A lone touchdown was scored by NSU after a fumble recovery.)

SMU’s leading tackler, linebacker Taylor Reed, logged a season-high 10 tackles at Memphis.

“It was great to see a shutout,” he said. “We haven’t had one since 1998. But, definitely, we’ve got to get better.”

The closest SMU came last week to losing the shutout was when McDermott fumbled in his own end zone in the third quarter. That Memphis opportunity was thwarted by right guard Kelly Turner, who alertly scooped up the ball and rumbled to the four-yard-line, preserving the Tigers’ scoreboard goose-egg.

“I actually thought he was going to go farther than he did,” joked Reed. “I was pretty let down. I thought for sure he was going to hurdle the defender and get him some nice yardage.”

“It was great. We were happy. He made a play. He didn’t just fall on it. … That was a great play by you, Kelly Turner. Thank you.”

Turner said he was “just trying to get [the ball] out of there,” not really thinking about the shutout.

“I was looking for the end zone,” Turner kidded. “I thought [the tackler] was going to come at my body, so I lowered my shoulder. But he just took me out with my legs.”

“It was kind of my first experience ever, picking up the ball in a game, so I was pretty scared trying not to fumble it.”

Turner recalled that he was a senior at Highland Park High in 2005, the last time SMU beat TCU. That game was at Ford Stadium one week after the Frogs had stunned No. 7 Oklahoma in Norman.

“It means a lot,” Turner said of the rivalry. “I’ve been here five years and haven’t beaten TCU one time. … It means a bunch to us to get that Skillet back.”



Riding High

The Frogs and Mustangs are both riding three-game win streaks after dropping road openers to Big 12 foes. The Frogs have won 22 straight at home, the third-longest streak in the nation, behind Oklahoma (37) and Boise State (32).

TCU quarterback Casey Pachall threw for 214 yards and three touchdowns in last week’s 55-13 rout of Portland State, while Waymon James rushed for a career-high 136 yards. James also tacked on an 82-yard kickoff return for a touchdown.

Leading receiver Josh Boyce averages 100 yards per game.

On defense, Frogs end Stansly Maponga (6-2/265) could give the Mustangs fits. The team sack leader, he forced a fumble in each of TCU’s first three games.

June Jones compares him to former TCU elite pass rushers Wayne Daniels and Jerry Hughes.

The third quarter of Saturday’s 91st meeting between SMU and TCU could be critical. That’s when the Frogs have outscored opponents, 45-19, this year, while SMU has been bested, 17-7.

And turnovers continue to plague the Mustangs, who gave it away four more times at Memphis, pushing their turnover ratio to a Conference USA cellar-dwelling minus-8.

The Frogs hold a 44-39-7 series edge and have won 10 of the last 11 contests.

Reed rates this year’s Skillet battle “definitely challenging.”

“They come out with a lot of different personnel,” he said. “But everything happens for a reason. We’ve just got to believe in ourselves. We’ve got to play hard, play physical -- from start to finish.”

“The past two years we’ve played them, our games have been tight early and they just punched on the gas. We kind of let go in those games. This year, we know we’ve got to stay on it all four quarters.”

“We definitely want to do this for the seniors,” Reed said. … “It would be great to give them a win on their way out.”

Prediction: SMU puts it together late with a deep ball, 34- 30; Last week, picked SMU over Memphis, 31-13.

Notes
*TCU head coach Gary Patterson ’s record against SMU: 8-1; June Jones versus TCU: 0-5.
*This is SMU’s first 3-1 start since 1992.
*Saturday’s shut-out win over Memphis was SMU’s first since beating Hawaii, 28-0, in 1998 in Honolulu.
*The Battle For The Iron Skillet, an old SMU-TCU tradition, was rekindled in 1993.
*SMU senior defensive end Taylor Thompson leads C-USA in sacks with 3.5.

Quotable Taylor Reed

On back-up linebacker Kevin Pope, a high school running back who had a career-high seven tackles against Memphis: “He just has natural instincts. It was good to see him out there hitting fellas hard in my position.”

[ALEX LIFESON]

Thanks Rick!

[ponyboy]

Those photos are greatness.

[RE Tycoon]

*SMU senior defensive end Taylor Thompson leads C-USA in sacks with 3.5.

Kind of a shocking stat. Nothing against Taylor, but it feels like he has had a quiet year. Also, if 3.5 sacks leads the league in sacks through four games with a lot of CUSA teams playing weak teams, tells you what kind of year it is for D players this season in CUSA.

[ponyboy]

As others have said, Taylor is seeing double teams every week.