Tom Mason: SMU defense cranked it up

[PonyPride]

SMU defensive coordinator Tom Mason said after Saturday's 28-17 win by the Mustangs over UTEP that the adjustments the Mustangs' defense made at halftime were less about scheme changes and more about delivering the hits that eluded his defenders in the first half in order to rattle some of the Miners' skill-position players.

"I just told them to turn it loose, that we had to start getting those sacks," Mason said. "We almost had so many sacks in the first half it was crazy. We had to get some hits on that guy (backup quarterback Jay Hall, who took UTEP starter Nick Lamaison left with what Miners head coach Mike Price said was a separation of the AC joint in Lamaison's throwing shoulder), because he was killing us."

Lamaison is more of a traditional in-the-pocket passer, but when he left the game, the Miners turned to Hall, a fleet-footed passer from Dallas who did convince Mason to make one significant scheme change at halftime.

"We went to a look sometimes where we had Taylor Reed kind of mirror the quarterback, and it worked," Mason said. "T-Reed ended up getting one of our sacks."

The SMU defense had six sacks, all of which came in the second half.

Mason said that part of the difficulty in defending Hall was the lack of information about the redshirt freshman from Dallas who got his first playing time for UTEP when he went into the lineup.

"We didn't have a lot of information about that kid," Mason said, "but I thought he looked pretty good. He moved around pretty well and he threw OK. He looked pretty calm in there, but our main thing with him was that we wanted to change up our coverage looks to try to confuse him, and I think we did that pretty well."

Mason admitted he was caught a little bit off guard by the fact that the Miners chose not to use one formation of which he expected to see a lot. After Lamaison carried the Miner offense in UTEP's season-opening overtime victory over Stony Brook, Mason said he thought Price would try to make sure to get his team's rushing attack on track.

"I was surprised ... we thought all week that they were going to come in and try to establish the run with a two-tight end package," Mason said. "But they never went to that."

The Miners ended up with just 30 rushing yards on 26 carries — for an average of 1.15 yards per rushing attempt; by contrast, the Mustangs ran the ball just once more, but piled up 147 rushing yards on their 27 carries for an average of 5.44 per carry.

Mason hailed the performances of several players, including linebacker Ja'Gared Davis, who had an interception and sealed the win when he blasted Hall in the end zone and recovered the ball for his third career touchdown, and junior defensive end Margus Hunt, who blocked a field goal and also tipped the pass that Davis ended up picking off. Mason said he was "very impressed" by Hunt, and called it "by far the best game since he has been here."

[BUS]

Bottom line is it worked.
During the game I saw some confusing things but guess it is early in the season and Mason is working on formations and assignments to see if things will work later.
One things I do know... when we rush more than two guys, we can get pressure 4 is awesome.
I agree, Get after the QB.
Go Mas and Go Mustangs

[Hey June]

Good stuff, Pride.
I didn't realize they were using T-Reed as a "spy." Very effective.

[ponyte]

Glad to get this infomration. Great job by the D in the second half and now we know why.

[ponyscott]

Mason...dial it up again sir!

[95mustang]

I'm very anxious to see how the D improves this week. I think causing a few turnovers last week is key. Smell blood - now go for the kill!

Hope to see a complete effort defensively for all four quarters!

[GiddyUp]

good to see we shut down the run. I hope our pass coverage improves.