Author: Daniel Durany
The 2009 season was a magical season for Southern Methodist University. The Mustangs went 8-5 and won the Aloha Bowl game against Nevada on Christmas Eve of 45-10. It was the first time for the Mustangs to play in a bowl game since 1984 when they defeated the Notre Dame Fighting Irish 27-20. Since the 1984 Aloha Bowl game, the Mustangs were 6-5 during the 1985 & 1986 season. Then, they were hit with the death penalty by National Collegiate Athletic Association for breaking rules and weren’t allowed to play two seasons (1987 & 1988) of college football.
Before the Mustangs magical season in 2009, their record in the previous twenty seasons had been 59-164-3 while going through five different losing streaks of at least 10 games and achieving only one winning season. What made 2009 season excited for the Mustangs was the success in the Run-&-Shoot Offense by head coach June Jones. The offense averaged 29.2 points per game and 391.8 yards per game while protecting football at a turnover ratio of + 2. During the second half of last season, the Mustangs finished on a high note with a 5-1 record and huge contributor to those wins was Quarterback Kyle Padron from Southlake, TX who replaced injured QB Bo Levi Mitchell. Even though Padron played only seven games last year, he still threw for nearly 2,000 yards with 10 touchdowns. He set a school-record with 460 passing yards against Nevada including over 300 yards passing only in the first half during the Aloha Bowl game.
What Padron will miss this year compared to last year was a supporting cast off running back Shawnbrey McNeal and wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders. When opposing teams didn’t respect the running game of the Mustangs, McNeal took on the responsibility with 1,188 rushing yards at clip of five yards per carry last season and scoring 12 rushing touchdowns. His 1,188 rushing yards ranks him 7th all-time in school history behind only running backs Eric Dickerson, Keylon Kincade, and Reggie Dupard.
When the Mustangs decided to spread opposing team’s defense, they would rely on wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders to make the clutch plays. Sanders had five games of over 100 yards receiving and was ranked 8th in receptions for NCAA Division I with 98 receptions last year. He is the Mustangs career leader with 285 receptions, 34 touchdown receptions, and 3,791 receiving yards. SMU’s key returning starters should be wide receivers Aldrick Robinson, Cole Beasley, and Terrance Wilkerson whom each had over 40 receptions from last year and quarterback Kyle Padron to spread the ball to the receivers.
If the Mustangs are going to have any chance in repeating last year’s successful season, their defense is going to have to improve and take some load off of the offense. Opposing teams scored an average of nearly 28 points per game and giving up to close 400 yards per game with 166.7 yards of those coming from the running game. However, yardage given up might not be as significant factor on the Mustangs success compared to noteworthy factors such as being able to prevent teams on continuing drives through 3rd down conversions and number of turnovers being forced. Opposing teams converted 42.3% of 3rd down conversions for first downs. On the other hand, the Mustangs forced 28 turnovers on defense and returning starter for his junior year is defensive end Taylor Thompson who led the team with 5.5 sacks as a sophomore.
This year’s motivation for the Mustangs is to prove to the nation that last year’s success wasn’t an aberration. Key games for SMU will be September 5th at Texas Tech, September 24 vs. TCU, back-to-back games on October 16th and 23rd against Navy and Houston, and last regular season game on November 26th against Conference USA champion, East Carolina.
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