SMU ready to throw again after losing season

[Harry]

Five things to watch with SMU this season:

BOUNCING BACK: June Jones has never had consecutive losing seasons as a head coach, and bounced back nicely from each of the three sub-.500 records in his 15 years. After a 1-11 debut at SMU in 2008, the Mustangs were 8-5 in 2009. He had six-win improvements after his losing seasons at Hawaii - from 3-9 in 2000 to 9-3, and then from 5-7 in 2005 to 11-3.

CLOSE, BUT ... : SMU had 50 drives inside the 20 last season, and scored touchdowns on only 27 of them. Add in 12 field goals and the Mustangs ranked 97th out of 123 FBS teams last year in red-zone scoring at 78 percent. They lost three games by four points or less.

LONE STAR REUNIONS: All four of SMU's nonconference games are against Texas teams, three of them old Southwest Conference rivals. The Mustangs open Aug. 31 at Big 12 champion Baylor's new campus stadium, then go to North Texas on Sept. 6. After an off week, they have home games against Texas A&M and TCU before the American Athletic Conference opener Oct. 4 at East Carolina.

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