Can SMU stop North Texas ground game?

Harry · September 9, 2017

Moving on to the upcoming clash with North Texas, the Mustangs will try to build on a solid week one and improve to 2-0 against their cross-town rivals. Last year, SMU defeated the Mean Green at Apogee Stadium, 34-21. Notably from that game, Courtland Sutton had 162 yards and three touchdowns, tearing apart the UNT secondary.

But this year, Head Coach Seth Littrell is looking to build on a successful first year just as Chad Morris has been building on the solid foundation that has been laid at SMU. The Mean Green laid waste to FCS opponent Lamar (side note: former SMU quarterback Darrel Colbert Jr. was Lamar’s signal caller) Saturday, 59-14, an eerily similar score to the 58-14 drubbing SMU put on SFA.

The UNT offense looked very sharp, especially on the ground. Jeffrey Wilson ran for 176 yards and three touchdowns, Nic Smith and 101 yards, and Evan Johnson came up two yards short of giving UNT three players who rushed for at least 100 yards each. Quarterback Mason Fine completed more than 70 percent of his passes for three touchdowns. Fine is supported by a couple nice outside threats in Michael Lawrence and Jalen Guyton. One key for SMU will be the Mustangs’ front seven controlling the line of scrimmage and containing UNT’s explosive running backs. That likely will be the area where the game is won and lost: in the trenches. SMU needs huge games out of Justin Lawler, Dimarya Mixon, Kyran Mitchell and the rest of the front-line defenders. Van Malone will need to put pressure on Fine to force errant throws to the ball-hawking SMU secondary, a secondary that will capitalize on any mistake.

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