SMU v UConn game thread

[SMU21TCU10]

How long is Wyatt out for?

[ALEX LIFESON]

How long is Wyatt out for?

Back next week.

[mrydel]

As will be Tedora

[leopold]

I think we are better right now than Houston, Tulsa, Tulane, and Cincinnati. Memphis and Navy are tossups, I don't care what the score was the last two years against those teams. Only UCF has an outright better team than we do and we catch them at home.

We have beaten two conference championship contenders and hung in there with the team that is top-10 worthy and may very well win the Big XII - even Baylor and now LSU couldn't do that. We catch a break and we have a shot to win our division.

We are looking better and better and we should - Morris is paid damned well to do this. Let him keep doing what he is doing - whatever it is it's working.

[AusTxPony]

SORRY to read so much moaning here, but this TEAM is so much better than we have seen since the 80s. The coaching is better, the culture is better, and the players are better. We are almost 100% scoring from the Red Zone, only missing one chance at the end of this game by running out the clock inside the 20. Is it a Conference Championship caliber, I don't know. We will learn a lot from Houston game. In the meantime, be happy and enjoy. No need to look ahead and presume we will be killed. This TEAM (coaches and players) has overcome a 10pt lead by UNT, and being tied in the 4th with UCONN. and poor play by our secondary. In the recent past, we would have gotten beat. Give 'em a break. BTW, Hicks % completions was in the 70s wasn't it?

[ojaipony]

Man, I don't know what game some of ya'll were watching but I thought this was one of Hicks' best games of his career. He took very good care of the football, didn't force throws/threw it away/took a sack, etc. Very solid win. Very happy with where we're at. Now we need Wyatt and Todora back and stomp Houston! (Was good to see Gentry finally playing to his potential, that's an awesome sign). X Jones is also back to form, looked great on some of those cuts, looks like his burst is back. All 3 backs looked great. Very balanced offensive performance. UConn QB is pretty damn good and they, surprisingly, picked on a young/injured secondary. Pony up!

[Pony81]

It wasn't one of Hick's games. Watch Coach Morris 's post game presser.... He is one agigitated and upset coach. He knows UCONN isn't that good yet we came out with no energy and got schooled in the secondary.

But to our credit we rallied when in years past we would have folded like a cheap suit.

So, great we won but our coaches saw a team that for 3 quarters didn't show much. Which must give them concern.

[SMU_Alum11]

Also if Hicks was doing so well he wouldn't have been swapping starts with DJ...

[PlanoStang]

Obvious you weren't at the Longview Tyler Lee game last night.

[stc9]

I have been very upfront about my concern over Hicks' accuracy; however, he played well tonight. I have already gone back and watched the game again. Part of that was trying to figure out how many he air mailed.

- In the first quarter (5:38) he over threw Poche on a skinny post. We ended up punting.
- Later in the first he over threw Quinn in the seem. To be fair, Quinn had his hands on it and couldn't bring it in.
- in the second he threw the deep corner to Sutton, but it looked like Sutton either broke off his route or was on another page. Might not have been his fault at all.
- In the 3rd quarter he missed Sutton on a slant, where he could have walked in. I think we ended up scoring on that drive so it didn't hurt us.
-In the 3rd He missed a fairly routine 5 yard out. It ended up being third and long - which we converted.

These were the worst throws from watching the game live. This isn't so bad. He didn't turn the ball over and kept us moving. From my back of the envelope count we had two "3 & outs" all night.

UCONN had a significant time of possession advantage in the third quarter. Our first possession of the 3rd, with Gillins playing, was a 3 & out. Our second possession was 5 plays and a punt.

[Charleston Pony]

Bottom line is that SMU won, covered the spread and the over so all in all, not too much to complain about...except the attendance I suppose

[JasonB]

- Hicks missed some throws. I've pointed it out over and over again in previous games. That said, watch college football and just about every QB in college misses some throws. We are averaging 45 points per game. He manages the game, gets the team lined up, makes adjustments, and doesn't get picked.
- Note the confusion out there when DJ went in the game and had to call timeout.
- Hicks wasn't the reason for the offensive inconsistency. We had a ton of negative plays with blown blocks and penalties. Evan brown got destroyed on the second play of the second half for a 7 yard loss. We had a second and one and got blown up in the middle for a 4 yard loss. Wilds had his guy run clean around him on one play. Clean as in Wilds was looking at him, knew he was supposed to block him and the guy just ran around him untouched. When we stopped with the negative plays, we scored.
- Interesting to watch the chess match with so many backup corners playing. First series, they picked on Sutton. Sutton was scared, so they pulled him and played Jeanlys. Second series, we went zone on that side so Jeanlys could cover the flat, and they went and ate up the right side of the defense on the TD drive. Jeanlys and Sutton played after Davis got beat long. Neither one of them are confident. Need our first team back.
- Didn't wake up physically until the 4th quarter. In the 3rd, Gentry had a play where he had pushed his OL fell down and he was just looking at the OL, and the QB ran right past him for a 5 yard gain. Really poor tackling in the secondary. Physically, we looked like a team that was worn out.
- I like the nickel look when we take out a DL and put in McQueen. I would really like a dime in some situations and let KJ play the extra safety with McQueen moving up for Rhone and just get a ton of speed out there.
- Negative rushing yards and 8 sacks. The defensive line was <insert word here>.

[sail420s]

I have to admit, I thought it was over when they tied us and I was calling to pull Hicks. We were dead. Typical way SMU ends games. But, you know what...Hicks AND the defense stepped up their game and led the team to a big win. What other SMU team in the past 25 years would have turned the late momentum like that? This team is different than what we're used to!

[LA_Mustang]

SORRY to read so much moaning here, but this TEAM is so much better than we have seen since the 80s. The coaching is better, the culture is better, and the players are better. We are almost 100% scoring from the Red Zone, only missing one chance at the end of this game by running out the clock inside the 20. Is it a Conference Championship caliber, I don't know. We will learn a lot from Houston game. In the meantime, be happy and enjoy. No need to look ahead and presume we will be killed. This TEAM (coaches and players) has overcome a 10pt lead by UNT, and being tied in the 4th with UCONN. and poor play by our secondary. In the recent past, we would have gotten beat. Give 'em a break. BTW, Hicks % completions was in the 70s wasn't it?

I'm curious how so? Our recruiting is miles better and Morris has established a great culture, but I fail to see how this team is coached better than years past. IMO, our talent has been so much better than the opponents in our four wins that the talent has overcome the coaching. This is a really talented group of players and Morris/staff deserve all the credit in the world for that but these wins have been all about talent rather than coaching.

Our offense, save two trick plays agaist TCU, has been very vanilla. Hicks locks in on one receiver and throws 5-10 yards down the field and about half the time he hits them and half the time he misses, often badly. We run the ball better because we have a great group of RBs and a bigger, quicker OL. As for Gillins, Morris basically has him running the wildcat every play he is in. Morris seems very afraid to let him throw, and the couple of times I saw practice he has a cannon for an arm. All this and we have three legit NFL receivers on the team in Sutton, Quinn and Proche.

Defense, again a lot more talent especially in the DL but the DBs look lost and unsure what to do without Wyatt back there. Special teams are still a head scratcher.

[mrydel]

This could end up being a good thing. If the lack of energy was due to over confidence, this game should bring them back to the reality that if they do not play 100%, they will not win against anyone remaining on the schedule. They need to find a minimum of 2 more wins. Watching Houston today, they are beatable if we put forward a good effort from the beginning. (And some decent secondary play)