Admitted stat geek, and after pouring over the media handout, I found these points to be interesting.
- Tulane leads CUSA in 7 of 9 defensive categories, including total defense, rushing defense, pass defense, scoring defense, opponent first down, opponent third down conversions, and sacks.
- In the last 3 meetings, the road team has won. SMU is 5-11 all time against the Green Wave.
- Matt Forte rushed for 342 yards on 38 carries in 2007.
- The last time SMU held an opponent to negative rushing yards was in 2006, when they held Tulane to -33 yards.
Other than that, I can't help but notice how young this team truly is.
- 71 out of 110 players are freshmen or sophomores.
- 12 freshmen played in against Rice in week 1. 11 played for Iowa State, 10 played for Air Force, Central Michigan, and Florida.
Look at the two deep roster.
QB - fr, rs-fr.
RB - sr, sr
LT - rs-fr, sr
LG - sr, rs-fr
C- jr, rs-fr
RG - rs-fr, rs-fr
RT - sr, sr
WR - jr, fr, so, fr, so, fr, rs-fr, jr
LDE - so, so
T - sr, so
N - sr, fr
RDE - so, jr
SLB - so, sr
MLB - so, jr
WLB - so, rs-fr
LC - so, so
RC - jr, jr
SS - jr, so
FS - so, fr
NB - rs-fr, fr
Just by looking at that, you can see the odds are stacked against this team. However, these players will learn more and get better (hopefully), provided they stay in school.
As I said in the Tech Game thread, trust in June. Changes aren't going to take place immediately. In a few years, this thing should be taking shape and get turned around.