That's One - cusa-fans.com

[mr. pony]

Ron Meyer

That’s One
SMU Wins League Opener; Still Looking For Offense To Blast-Off
By Rick Atkinson for cusa-fans.com
http://cusa-fans.com/

DALLAS – Former SMU head coach Ron Meyer (1976-81) was on hand for the Mustangs’ 28-17 win over UTEP on Saturday. And he was clearly impressed at halftime.

“SMU is so explosive and their defense is playing up to par,” Meyer said, with SMU up, 21-10. “It’s just great to be in this environment. The college campus, the stadium filled with enthusiastic fans, the [pre-game] Victory Walk. And The Boulevard is unbelievable.”

“SMU is back.”

Then UTEP nearly made that mean “back there” in the second half, as the 19-point-dog Miners trailed just 21-17 with under three minutes left.

But in the end, linebacker Ja’Gared Davis’ strip and fumble recovery in the end zone iced it for SMU (1-1, 1-0) – and Meyer’s assessment lives.

Davis’ heroics were preceded by a huge special teams play by SMU: a Matt Stone 31-yard punt downed on the Miners’ 1-yard-line.

Davis praised the punting team after Tuesday’s practice. “We were all pumped and eager about that. … Everybody was tired, but we said we had to make a play. Coach [Tom Mason] called a blitz and I beat the tackle and the back off the line.”

Stone, a 6-1/195 junior from New Orleans who saw limited action last year, called the play “a punter’s fantasy.”

“It all starts with the snap and the blocking,” he said. “I couldn’t get it done without those guys.”

Stone, who plays golf, described tricky non-booming punt attempts as “a sand wedge to the end zone.”

New Starter

Senior quarterback J.J. McDermott, in his first start for SMU, completed 18-of-31 passes for 244 yards with one interception and no touchdowns.SMU’s three offensive scores came from running back Zach Line, with two, and back-up quarterback Kyle Padron.)

“I feel alright,” McDermott shrugged about his performance. “We got off to a good start there in the first half, just kind of got bogged down in the second half, had some missed opportunities. We could have done a lot better.”

“We’ll just try to improve,” he said. “… Last week, wasn’t very good, really. I was kind of disappointed with it.”

For a second week in a row, SMU’s offense was shut-out in the second half.

“I don’t think it’s any one thing,” McDermott said. “I mean, it’s really us just beating ourselves, to be honest. In the second half, we had a couple of plays that should have gone for big yardage, and we just didn’t make them. No other way to put it than that.”

Said SMU assistant head coach Dan Morrison, “It’s really hard sometimes to pin that down. Last year, if you looked at our composite scores … our biggest explosion was the third quarter. … So you just never know, from year to year. And it’s too early in the season to see if there’s a trend.”

“It’s not indicative of what we’ve done in the past. The kids will come real focused and try to do well to that very aspect – try to take that second half and really push it through, to go from 21 [points] to 42, instead of being stuck on that 21.”

Sideline Signaling

Besides starting a new quarterback, SMU head coach June Jones used signals to send in plays against UTEP, a change from having the quarterback trot to the sideline after each play.

“It’s a little easier on me,” McDermott said. “I don’t have to run over there. I like that part. But I’m pretty indifferent. Just whatever we want to go with is fine with me.”

Said Morrison, “We’ve always had signals. We’ve had them for 13 years. … The kids, they know it anyway, so it’s just a matter of them kind of operating with it. They’ve just never done that too much.”

“It seems to be working fine. I check with [the quarterbacks] at halftime, I check with them after games. There hasn’t been any miscommunication at all yet. … I think the quarterbacks like it. I guess we’ll see how it evolves.”

Why now?

“I think [Coach Jones] just wanted to try it to see what it did for the quarterbacks. To this point, I think it’s worked well, because there aren’t any communication issues to this point.”

Morrison said the system also helps keep all quarterbacks involved, especially younger ones like red-shirt freshman Stephen Kaiser, who signaled simultaneously with Padron.

Going back four games to last year’s Conference USA title game loss to Central Florida, SMU’s Run-and-Shoot offense has averaged 14 points per game.

How much does this offense need to “blow it up” one game, score lots of points? Does it wear on the players?

“I don’t know if it’s wearing on them,” Morrison said. “They’re aware of it. We’re trying to rectify it. I think the players want to start pushing us forward a little bit. They know the capabilities of the offense. You never know when that’s going to happen. But it’ll start to happen.”

Turnovers

Though SMU’s offense has turned the ball over five times in two games, Davis says it hasn’t dragged down the defense. Just the opposite.

“We look at it as, ‘We have them where we want them,’” he said. “Our job is to come in and stop their momentum. Get the ball back to our offense to give them another chance to go down and score.”

Next up for SMU is Northwestern State, of Natchitoches, La., which just mixed it up with No. 3 LSU at Baton Rouge, losing 49-3. Before that, the Demons nipped Delta State, a top Division II team, 24-23, at home.

Could Northwestern State be more dangerous after experiencing LSU at Death Valley?

“You never know because you don’t know those kids,” Morrison said. I’ve seen some people come off that thing and they’re beat up and banged around. It’s a tough thing to follow through, with all that adrenalin and the great excitement in that kind of venue.”

“And I’ve seen other teams come out of that thing more confident, they feel better about themselves. They did some things real well against a … high-powered program.”

Either way, it won’t change the Mustangs’ preparation.

“We could be playing LSU this week and we’d be concentrating on just us being better,” Morrison said.

Prediction: McDermott connects deep: SMU, 34-16; Last week, picked SMU by 1 over No. 8 Texas A&M. Aggies won, 46-14. Record 0-1.

Notes
*SMU is 13-4 in its last 17 C-USA games.
*Northwestern State head coach Brad Peveto played safety and special teams for SMU from 1983-86.
*SMU’s Cole Beasley had a career-high 10 catches for 99 yards vs. UTEP. Zach Line rushed for over 100 yards for the fifth time in his last six games.
*Ron Meyer took SMU from 3-8, his first year in ‘76, to a 10-1 Southwest Conference championship in five seasons. He was Southwest Conference Coach of the Year in 1981. Meyer was later head coach of the NFL’ s New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts, earning AFC Coach of the Year honors twice.

Quotable Ron Meyer
On where SMU fits in conference realignment: “I’d kind of like to see [SMU] as an independent because they could they could bring in Notre Dame, Penn State, Alabama. They all want to come to Dallas. The second deal would be to be in The Big 12. Let’s take ‘em on! We’ll kick the hell out of ‘em!”

On June Jones: “I’ve known June forever. I’m an avid, avid supporter and fan of June and his entire coaching staff. He’s done a great job.”

[rooster]

Interesting article and cool pictures.

[GiddyUp]

some good quotes and insight, better than DMN, that's for sure...

[Pony ^]

good read! Stone did a great job putting the ball inside the 20

[redpony]

Great pics- many thanks to photog who took them and posted them.

GO PONIES!!!

[redpony]

Question- who are the guys with coach Meyer?

GO PONIES!!!

[mr. pony]

Question- who are the guys with coach Meyer?

GO PONIES!!!

The only one I know is Mike Ford, to Meyer's immediate left. I think the others are players too.

[Dukster]

The hand signals are really confusing. Jones tells KP the play and he sends it in. Trouble is the other 2 qbs continue giving the signals and both KP and Mc have walked away. Think thats confusing the opposition? Uh, which qb is live?