SMU/UNT Preview

[MeanGreen61]

SMU @ North Texas Game Info

Date: Saturday, September 9, 2006 @ 6 p.m.

Location: Fouts Field, (30,500), Denton, TX

Weather Forecast: Partly cloudy, 85 degrees F, 20% chance of rain, wind S 5-10.

No Television

Season records: SMU (0-1, 0-0 C-USA), North Texas (0-1, 0-0) Sun Belt

All-Time Series: SMU leads, 27-3-1

Injury/Personnel Report:

SMU: No serious injuries

UNT: LB Phillip Graves, strained MCL; out

SMU @ UNT Overview

SMU and UNT are coming off good thumpings on the road against Big 12 tough guys, No. 25 Texas Tech and No. 3 Texas, respectively. The good news for the Mustangs and The Mean Green: it's a long season and neither club will face a tougher team the rest of the way.

SMU's 35-3 loss at Tech was not what this not so prolific prognosticator expected.

But, it wasn't just Peruna kool-aid drinkers who were surprised by the score.

At a Fina station just outside Lubbock on Sunday morning, in the tiny berg of New Deal, a young, female attendant said this: "I'm surprised [sMU] got beat that bad."

Me too, sister.

Somehow, word had reached the plains of West Texas that SMU was going give Tech a game.

But, the Red Raiders are GOOD, folks. As the season progresses, holding them to 35 will look pretty good.

But, I digress.

This week's game with UNT is a dangerous one for SMU. UNT players, coaches, fans, students and alumni and are sky high. They know a UNT win would make their season and most definitely wreck SMU's. Signs have adorned the campus in Denton since August.

Some UNT faithful feel SMU kept them out of C-USA, and out of the SWC before that, when former SMU coach Hayden Fry was leading The Mean Green.

SMU won the last meeting with UNT, 28-14, in Dallas in 1992. The Ponies have played in Denton only once before, in 1990, when The Mean Green picked up one of their three series wins, 14-7.

Darrell Dickey, in his ninth year as head coach at UNT, has a 39-56 record.

Phil Bennett owns a mark of 11-36 into his fifth season at SMU.

Bennett and Dickey are long time friends.

UNT's offensive coordinator, Ramon Flanigan, is SMU's all-time total offense leader.

Check out the Great Plains Sports Conference USA football picks which are posted on Wednesday or Thursday each week!

SMU Offense vs. UNT Defense

Advantage: SMU

SMU managed 189 yards total offense and 10 first downs last week, twice failing to score points after taking over deep in Tech territory. Not good.

Bennett noted Tuesday that unforced errors, (penalties and fumbles), were the major problem.

The Ponies were also 3-13 on third down conversions.

Although QB Justin Willis didn't have big numbers, (9-16-69-0), Bennett said the redshirt freshman handled himself well under pressure and was not intimidated at all in his first collegiate action.

Willis broke off a nice 22-yard run on the Mustangs' first possession and wasn't sacked once. Bennett said Willis needs to stay in the pocket a bit longer, though, and get to his second reads. He said protection was there and Willis will get better at it.

DeMyron Martin was held to just 30 yards on twelve carries last week.

"We had him thinking too much," said Bennett, of the read-zone rushing plan. "I still think DeMyron is a heck of a player."

Johnnie Fitzgerald (5-25) found a little room, bouncing it outside on a couple of plays.

No deep balls were completed by the Mustangs. WR Bobby Chase led the team with three catches for 25 yards.

For UNT, sophomore linebacker Germaine Dawson stepped in at Texas for the injured Phillip Graves. Dawson led The Mean Green with three pass breakups. He also collected eight tackles, second on the team.

UNT defense started just one senior against the Longhorns, defensive lineman Sky Pruitt.

Linebacker is The Mean Green's most experienced position on defense. Former walk-on Derek Mendoza leads this corps with 17 career starts.

UNT Offense vs. SMU Defense

Advantage: SMU

SMU best be ready to deal with RB Jamario Thomas (5-11, 210), the nation's leading rusher in 2004, (189.9 avg.). He's healthy again after missing four games last season with a hamstring injury. Thomas was held to 38 yards on 14 carries last week – against the monster that is the UT defense. He's gonna have some big days.

UNT's senior WR Johnny Quinn has caught a pass in 37 consecutive games, the second longest active streak in Division I-A. He played against Texas with a cast on his broken left hand and made three catches.

The Mean Green's starting QB is not known as of Tuesday. Sophomore Matt Phillips saw action last week as did junior Woody Wilson (5-6-65), who came on at the end of the first quarter, eventually leading UNT on its only scoring drive of the day. Last season's starter, sophomore Daniel Meager, is now back in the mix, too, after injury.

Like SMU last week, UNT's third down conversion performance was poor– 2-12, with the majority of attempts coming in long-yardage situations.

For SMU, DT Adrian Haywood got good pressure on Tech's QB and DE Cory Muse picked up a sack. Otherwise, Tech's huge O-line was dominant. SMU's D-line and linebacking corps should have a more productive Saturday this week.

Safety Randall Goode led SMU with eight solo tackles. On the other side, Joe Sturdivant had a pick.

Special Teams

Advantage: SMU

SMU's kicking game was solid at Tech. New punter Thomas Morstead punted for a 43.3 yard average, with a long of 57. He also kicked a 38-yard FG and was just short on a 49-yarder into the wind.

True freshman Kellis Cunningham put kickoffs in the end zone.

Senior Blake Warren's 54-yard punt return to the Tech 26 in the third quarter was the second longest of his career. He's now 127 yards shy of Doak Walker's career school record of 750 yards.

UNT's punter Truman Spencer averaged 41.2 yards on 8 punts at Texas. Kicker Denis Hopovac missed a short field goal on his only attempt.

Intangibles:

Advantage: UNT

This is UNT's Super Bowl, Daytona 500, World Series and trip to the Dairy Queen rolled into one. Win and the campus will spontaneously combust.

With the talent advantage, there is pressure on the Mustangs not to lose this game. Regional respectability is on the line. SMU made huge strides in this area with last year's win over TCU and can ill afford a setback.

UNT could get up and, with a weird play or two, win this thing - especially if SMU's offensive jitters continue.

It's also homecoming for SMU's Willis, who starred for Denton Ryan High School. More pressure?

Final Prediction

The Mustangs will regroup and perform well in a tough game Saturday.

SMU's offensive line has something to prove. Look for holes this week for Martin and Fitzgerald. One of them will reach 100 yards.

Willis will get comfortable and have a big day passing. He'll also get loose for another long run - this one for 6.

The defense, led by Haywood and Muse, will record multiple sacks and keep Thomas under wraps.

Another pick for Sturdivant and corner Devin Lowery has a good day.

SMU, 24-9. (Hey, bet the girl in New Deal believes it.)

by Rick Atkinson -

CUSA-fans.com SMU Correspondent

[UNTLifer]

With the talent advantage, there is pressure on the Mustangs not to lose this game.

[NCMeanGreen]

AMAZING!!! ALL the advantages go to SMU...what a HUGE surprise there!!!

I am not sure that is entirely correct...any comments here????

[pollock]

It is a homer article.... what do you expect?

He throws down a bunch of stats in there, but none of them support picking an advantage one way or the other. Our teams performed almost identically last week, if you consider the difference between Tech and UT. The only statistical advantage I can see in their favor is that they had a better season last year than we did.

I think SMU has a little more at stake in this game than he would like to admit, but not as much as we do.

If we win, I'll be happy, but it won't be like winning the Rose Bowl as he seems to think.

Losing this game is unacceptable, however. If we lose, this season is a failure. Too much is riding on it in terms of local perception.

A few other comments:

Unless there's something wrong w/ Jamario that we don't know about, SMU will NOT contain him. That's just crazy talk.

It will not take "a weird play or two" for NT to win. This is a close matchup that could go either way.

I'd call the fact that they have a real starter at QB an advantage for them. If Woody takes the first snap and doesn't get pulled, that advantage is negated.

Edited September 6, 2006 by pollock

[Eagle1855]

agree with Pollock.

also, when we do win, please do not storm the field.

[Green Lantern]

agree with Pollock.

also, when we do win, please do not storm the field.

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Gotta agree here. It should be a pretty good game, but I fully expect a win here. We should not be over celebrating a win over SMU.

Am I the only NT fan that is more excited about the possibility of getting some revenge on Tulsa after last year's ass kicking/embarrassment?

[Stan R]

Am I the only NT fan that is more excited about the possibility of getting some revenge on Tulsa after last year's ass kicking/embarrassment?

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I'll let you know my answer to that after September 9th.

[pollock]

also, when we do win, please do not storm the field.

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I'd say that's more likely if we lose.

[mad dog]

SMU's offensive line has something to prove. Look for holes this week for Martin and Fitzgerald. One of them will reach 100 yards.

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Yeah... even though no one at Texas had a 100 yard game. Surely SMU's offensive line and running backs are better than UT's.

[edcollopy]

I was very happy that we held their running backs to a respectable yards per carry avg. Seems like a couple years ago we were giving up 7-10yds every handoff.

ON another note...anyone else get pissed off at #10 on our squad getting held when colt was running by him right before halftime. Ended up being a 20yrd gain instead of a loss...setting up their final touchdown. I rewound that bitch 10 times and was just livid...to go along w/ the late him on Brandon Jackson when he was on the ground in the second qtr.

[Eagle1855]

ON another note...anyone else get pissed off at #10 on our squad getting held when colt was running by him right before halftime.  Ended up being a 20yrd gain instead of a loss...setting up their final touchdown.  I rewound that bitch 10 times and was just livid...to go along w/ the late him on Brandon Jackson when he was on the ground in the second qtr.

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yeah, that was BS, but we got away with a few as well- like that no call on obvious pass interference... I dont remember the DB, I just remember thinking, "I cant believe they didnt call that..."

not making excuses, but it was the ref's first game of the season as well, and the game was well in-hand at that point. again, not saying its ok, but maybe that explains it. If not, there's always the conspiracy theory angle...

[NCMeanGreen]

ON another note...anyone else get pissed off at #10 on our squad getting held when colt was running by him right before halftime.  Ended up being a 20yrd gain instead of a loss...setting up their final touchdown.  I rewound that bitch 10 times and was just livid...

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I am pretty sure they called a penalty on that one, unless I am thinking of another time during the game. I know that one UT player got a holding/blocking in the back against Korey Washington at some point in the game...

[UNTflyer]

"This is UNT's Super Bowl, Daytona 500, World Series and trip to the Dairy Queen rolled into one. Win and the campus will spontaneously combust."

We get to go to Dairy Queen after?????

Edited September 6, 2006 by UNTflyer

[edcollopy]

that was a different play...the one I'm talking about is shown all the time on the highlights w/ colt's longest run of the day right before halftime...went from the 50 to about the 25.

[TIgreen01]

Ok...mostly good stuff here, but I'd rank it as following:

SMU Offense vs. UNT Defense

Advantage: UNT

UNT Offense vs. SMU Defense

Advantage: SMU

Special Teams

Advantage: SMU --> by a HUGE margin. Our FG kicking is SCARY right now.

Intangibles:

Advantage: UNT

This is UNT's Super Bowl, Daytona 500, World Series and trip to the Dairy Queen rolled into one. Win and the campus will spontaneously combust.

---WRONG. LOSE and the campus will spontaneously combust.

With the talent advantage, there is pressure on the Mustangs not to lose this game. Regional respectability is on the line. SMU made huge strides in this area with last year's win over TCU and can ill afford a setback.

Couldn't agree more with this. This game for them is similar to our visit to BU after our 52-14 walloping of them....this year's TCU game for them could be ugly, so they need to win over us to not completely spill the beans after gaining ground last year.

[medpilot21]

I watched the replay of TTech-SMU. SMU seemed to base everything on their QB Willis, who was impressive with the ball. After watching both of our first games I would say the following: (please remember these are just opinions)

Offensive scheme: advantage SMU. Sucks, but true. They have fast, big play receivers that find the gaps. Willis is a similar QB to Woody Wilson here, and will take off with the ball to avoid pressure. This QB will audible and run, and calls lots of shifts based on the defensive allignments. The SMU offense appears dependant on Willis. Against T.Tech he was their leading passer and rusher. NT uses the Pro-set or I formation more and is somewhat predictable. Strength is in the run, so the NT offensive line will tell the tale on saturday.

Defensive Scheme: Advantage North Texas. The move to the 3-4 helps counter what SMU does well. SMU will shift their offensive set after Willis reads the defense. NT has the speed at LB to match up very well in cases of audible and shifts. The best receiver SMU has is Bobby Chase (6-4, 4.5 speed/ had 3 catches for 25 yards versus TTech). NT DB's will have to play up on the SMU receivers. For the NT defense to be effective, DB's willhave to jam the SMU receivers and hold their ground. We should see more "bump and run" during this game. Willis has to have no one open after his first read...thenhe is prone to take off. the 3-4 helps NT there. Control Willis and we control the SMU offense. On defense SMU plays the gap-control front seven, and soft zones in the secondary. Texas Tech ate that up. (10 out of 13 third down conversions successful)

The strength of the SMU defense is in the front four. They have decent LB speed, but missed A LOT of tackles in the TTech game. LB's are fast, but small. Their secondary has issues, no way around that. Play action passes could be huge against the SMU defense.

Coaching: Advantage - EVEN. Each coach does some things unique. Phil Bennett believes in rolling with the flow of the game on offense, and "Gap-control" against the run on Defense. This makes the offense unpredictable and the defense difficult to run against. Coach Bennett will change up his attack based on what he sees right then. Darrell Dickey is more of a "game-planning" coach who more or less scripts what he wants from his offense. Dickey will only change up the offense if he sees a distinct mismatch. NT will run the ball as scripted, even with 9 defensive men in the box. The NT defense has more "man for man" speed on the field, and as a result plays less gap control and more "run to the ball" type D. This is a benefit against a flexible offense.

Wild Card: "QB by committee" - NT needs a QB to step up and take this team. After only one game, it appears that Woody Wilson may be that guy. Options at the point of breakdown are what seperates a stagnant offensive from one that moves the ball. IF the gameplan is working, then Jamario has his 200 yards rushing and the QB only has to manage the game with no mistakes. If things start to go bad, the QB will need to make plays on his own. Coach Dickey has time to get that guy ready, but we need a leader to step forward and direct this offense. I think we may have something in Woody Wilson...

My prediction: Jamario has a big first half, Quinn and Jackson have a big second half. North Texas 35 - SMU 21.

GMG!!!

[GO PONIES]

Yeah... even though no one at Texas had a 100 yard game.  Surely SMU's offensive line and running backs are better than UT's.

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UT was obviously depending on their running game last week. I mean gosh, it's not like they scored any points from receptions.

SMU Offense vs. UNT Defense

Advantage: UNT

Couldn't agree more with this.  This game for them is similar to our visit to BU after our 52-14 walloping of them....this year's TCU game for them could be ugly, so they need to win over us to not completely spill the beans after gaining ground last year.

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We don't play TCU this year. And I really don't think your DL will fare better than TECHs, which had no sacks. I'm pretty sure your DL will be pushed around like hot wheels.

[Eagle1855]

I'm pretty sure your DL will be pushed around like hot wheels.

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hooray for the simile! Your parents would be proud!

[GO PONIES]

hooray for the simile! Your parents would be proud!

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You couldn't have gone to NTSU. You spell things properly.

[Eagle1855]

good one!

now let's work on synonyms:

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Edited September 6, 2006 by Eagle1855

[mad dog]

UT was obviously depending on their running game last week. I mean gosh, it's not like they scored any points from receptions.

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Yeah... we defintely got torched in the secondary. 198 yards is just a truly mind boggling passing total.

And I guess your insinuation is that they relied on the pass. How about this stats nugget for you: UT ran the ball 44 times to 26 passing attempts. So, yeah, I'd say they depended upon their running game.

That surely wouldn't be as bad, say, as a team giving up 350+ yards through the air AND still managing to allow a running back 100 yards on the ground. Because THAT would be truly embarassing.

[TIgreen01]

UT was obviously depending on their running game last week. I mean gosh, it's not like they scored any points from receptions.

We don't play TCU this year. And I really don't think your DL will fare better than TECHs, which had no sacks. I'm pretty sure your DL will be pushed around like hot wheels.

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What the ...?! Seriously? I never even thought to look for that game on your schedule b/c it has always been there!?...or seems like it. Is this the first year that you haven't played them?

That said, with that game off your schedule, this IS your Baylor 2004. This game will be very important for your regional image. Hopefully we do what BU did to us....crush your hopes and dreams!

As far as our dline, I'm not too worried. If Tech managed to hold you to 3 total points without getting a single sack, clearly that wasn't a key stat in the game. I think all we'll have to do is force Willis out of the pocket---be it with DL, LBs, DBs....he's clearly not as effective throwing the ball when he's improvising. You also forget that most of us saw Willis play in HS and are very familiar with him. He definitely gets happy feet and tries to force the action...or so he did. Now, if we do what we did against UT and sit back and hope our 3 down linemen get to Willis while dropping everyone else back?....we could be in trouble.

Should be a good, ugly game.

[green_goblin]

You couldn't have gone to NTSU. You spell things properly.

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Wow, this idiot thinks we're still called NTSU.

[emmitt01]

good one!

now let's work on synonyms:

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I don't get it. How is Highland Park's most expensive high school stadium like a tool box?

[SCREAMING EAGLE-66]

You couldn't have gone to NTSU. You spell things properly.

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---You definitely went to SMU. You spell "University of North Texas" as NTSU. Either that or you haven't read a newpaper in over 25 years... of course that is assuming you can read!!!