PonyFans.com is proud to welcome back, for his third season as a columnist, Nate, who is 15 years old, in ninth 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. He 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! (He can be followed on Twitter at @Pony_NATE_tion.)

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SMU is coming off of a gut-wrenching loss to James Madison in which the Mustangs took a big step back after seemingly taking a big step forward the week before, nearly upsetting TCU. These next couple weeks will prove what was a fluke: the TCU game or the James Madison game.

East Carolina head coach Ruffin McNeill guided his Pirates to a win over Virginia Tech last week (photo by ecupirates.com).

It’s hard to say that Saturday was a fluke considering SMU surrendered 729 yards of offense to a FCS opponent. But give JMU their due credit. The Dukes went on their first road game of the year and led most of the game against what seemed to be a rather formidable opponent in SMU. Quarterback Vad Lee was really impressive, torching SMU’s defense for more than 500 yards of offense. Lee really had the read option working, gaining what seemed to be seven or eight yards every time. A couple of positives from the game: freshman SMU running backs Braeden West and Xavier Jones. Their running ability in the open field is apparent, but they also have shown that they can be power backs, too, running hard into the end zone in goal line situations. Jones and West combined for 132 yards and three touchdowns Saturday, on just 25 carries.

Now SMU will host a pretty good East Carolina team that is a pretty good team, year in and year out. Let’s see how this young SMU team responds to the tough loss to JMU, and how leadership takes over, because, if the Mustangs want to be bowl-bound this year, they need to go (at least) 5-3 the rest of the year. That will be tough to accomplish with a reasonably sturdy remaining schedule. With conference play beginning and SMU needing a confidence boost, this is an important game. It definitely won’t be an easy one, as ECU has played well so far with their biggest win being against Virginia Tech (granted, VaTech was without its quarterback).

ECU is a solid team with a new quarterback this year after the loss of last year’s star, Shane Carden. New starter Blake Kemp has played really well so far, throwing for more than 1,100 yards and seven touchdowns in the Pirates’ first four games. Dual-threat quarterback James Summers also will play occasionally a strong performance against Virginia Tech. Summers is second on the team in rushing yards, so he has a chance to be a huge factor Saturday, as East Carolina surely noticed the success Lee had running through SMU’s defense last week. The Pirates are a team with a lot of playmakers, not centered on one guy. They’re very versatile. Which ECU team will show up won’t be known until Saturday, as the Pirates have been rather inconsistent thus far, getting blown out by Navy and Florida and nearly losing to Towson.

This game should be another shootout, with ECU’s defense being below average, giving up an average of 31 points a game so far. Core players like Matt Davis, Courtland Sutton and Xavier Jones have proven to be consistent players, so the SMU staff shouldn’t be worried about the offense one bit, considering the Mustangs have already surpassed in four games the total number of points SMU scored in the entire 2014 season.

Let’s see how defensive coordinator Van Malone and his defense respond this week. ECU has a pretty respectable offense, and a quarterback in Summers who very well could do to SMU what Lee did last week.

SMU won’t have an answer for East Carolina on the defensive side, but SMU will be able to keep up with the Pirates for a while. This will be another shootout at Ford Stadium and there will be a similar result to the game against James Madison. I’ve got East Carolina in this one in an offensive show.

Nate’s Take: ECU 48, SMU 38