By C. Patterson
Now that the Mustangs were able to shake off week one’s loss to Baylor by unleashing a 52-0 Daniel-san flying crane kick to Stephen F. Austin last week, they can take on a much tougher foe with a bit more confidence. The Aggie’s will be stepping into Gerald Ford Stadium fresh off of a heartbreaking loss to the Florida Gators that saw a solid performance from their QB Johnny Manziel with him going 23/30 and 173 passing yards. The new SEC arrivals pretty much outmatch the Mustangs in every aspect of the game. Luckily for SMU, games aren’t won on paper.
Should the Ponys show up firing on all cylinders and not just accept their fate of being a lesser team Mockingbird Ave. may just have one heck of a celebration on their hands come Saturday night. Junior QB Garrett Gilbert must ignore the naysayers and continue to perform and inspire production from rushing phenom Zach Line and wide out Keenan Holman, who took home 88-yards and a touchdown off five receptions against SF Austin.
Defensively the Mustangs shutout the Lumberjacks, but this week they will face a much more agile and capable offense in Texas A&M. The Aggies are going to look to exploit the defense that Baylor surgically picked apart. The elder statesmen of the Mustangs defense DBs Kenneth Acker and Ryan Smith must patrol the airways and force the Aggie’s to beat them on the ground where they had little success against the Gators. In fact A&M’s leading rusher was their quarterback, Manziel. Protect the skies and derailing their ground game should come with relative ease.
Can the Mustangs beat the Aggies? Only if they believe they can. June Jones brick-by-brick rebuilding of this program can continue as scheduled or it can have an entire section knocked out of it by a team that may just finish next to last in their new conference. A&M has no doubt on whether or not they are better athletes than SMU, whether or not they have a stronger and purer pedigree, or whether or not the logo that sits on both sides of their maroon helmets strikes fear in the hearts of their would-be opponents. That is of certainty and is of no question. The question is whether or not has anyone told the Mustangs.