Pony NATE-tion: Mason making sure Mustangs won’t quit
Improvement at Tulsa, inconsistent USF team gives SMU hope
Posted on 11/14/2014 by PonyFans.com
PonyFans.com is proud to welcome back, for his second season as a columnist, Nate, who is 14 years old, in eighth grade, might want to be a sports writer and knows more about football than a lot of people who already make their living covering sports. Nate will offer his thoughts and will preview each game throughout the season, looking at a key player, matchup or statistic that could prove relevant in each upcoming game … and explain why it will impact the outcome. Feel free to post comments and constructive criticism, ask him questions, and/or give suggestions for upcoming columns!

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SMU’s 35-28 loss to Tulsa was, by far, the Mustangs’ best game of the season. SMU looked really good for their standards on Saturday and finally, finally put up a fight after interim head coach Tom Mason talked about how he doesn’t like his team’s poor effort. Whether the Mustangs win remains to be seen, but Mason will make sure his team shows fight and heart over the remaining weeks as he fights to keep his head coaching job.

Nate said the performance Matt Davis turned in at Tulsa last week was the best by an SMU quarterback this season (photo by John Kleineberg).
As I said last week, Matt Davis is SMU’s No. 1 quarterback. Believe me yet? He put up easily the best quarterback performance of the year for SMU as he completed 21 of 32 passes for 212 yards and a touchdown, with 28 carries for 181 rushing yards and two touchdowns. He controlled the game. His legs were what kept SMU in the game. As Tulsa kept on putting pressure on him play after play, he would step up and scramble up and around the pocket to avoid defenders and finally beat the last defender to the edge for the first down. He was really fun to watch!

SMU opened the game with a deep shot to catch Tulsa off guard on the first play, a 64-yard bomb from Matt Davis to Der’Rikk Thompson, who stumbled into the end zone over a couple of defensive backs, and boy, oh boy, has this offense missed K.C. Nlemchi. He was so explosive out of the backfield, picking up first downs as he racked up 104 yards of total offense with 54 rushing and 50 receiving. Prescott Line played solid, sound football. Der’rikk Thompson, Darius Joseph and Stephen Nelson all had nice games catching the ball.

Though they all played fantastically, a team can’t give up 28 unanswered points and hope to win, and that is just what the Mustangs did. From the end of the first quarter to the end of the third quarter, this was the Dane Evans show. He dominated SMU with five touchdowns. The defense help up nicely early, as Shakiel Randolph (playing hurt) was making great plays and swats left and right for SMU.

Maybe more important, though, is that this team is growing up … but still has a ways to go. It showed when Jonathan Yenga, with his team down by a touchdown and the defense trying to get the ball back for the offense, made a great tackle for a loss and made an incomplete sign with his arms in celebration, and got flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct. It was subtle, and should have been a no-call, but the official threw the flag, and from there, it was church, ballgame over.

So although it was a loss, SMU comes off the high note of the season to take on the USF Bulls for Homecoming. This USF team comes in with a 3-6 record and needs to win out to earn a bowl berth. The Bulls are not a good team, but very beatable. But for an 0-8 team with nothing to lose, every game is considered a tough game. Last year, SMU won in the only meeting between the two schools in Tampa, 16-6. Both teams have had a struggle at quarterback, and USF’s version of the quarterback carousel this week will feature freshman Quinton Flowers, who has played very little this year. Flowers has completed two of five passes on the season for just six yards, and two of his incompletions have been intercepted. But he is an athletic player — his mobility has drawn comparisons to Davis — who has rushed for 5.1 yards per carry (36 yards on seven carries). Receivers Andre Davis and Marlon Mack are chasing milestones: Mack needs 172 more receiving yards to eclipse 1,000 for the season, and Davis needs 42 yards to eclipse 2,000 for his career.

Both teams are having rough years on the offensive side of the ball, but USF and SMU have both been improving. It is Homecoming, one of the last home games of the year and the Mustangs had their best showing of the year in Tulsa, but to be successful, they have to stop turning the ball over.

Nate’s Take: USF 31 SMU 24

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