SMU Faces UTEP Saturday in El Paso
Oct 6 | Football
SMU (0-4, 0-1 WAC) hopes for positive results this Saturday when the team travels to face a much-improved UTEP (2-3, 0-1) squad in El Paso. Both teams will be in search of their first Western Athletic Conference win this season. The Miners have been particularly effective at home (2-0) this season, a point of which SMU head coach Mike Cavan is well aware.
"UTEP plays very well in the Sun Bowl," said Cavan. "They have played a tough, tough schedule. They got beat by Kansas State in Kansas. That's enough said. They lost on the road to a very good Oregon team that has been in the top 25 and they lost on the road to a good veteran Hawaii team. At home UTEP has beaten New Mexico and New Mexico State. UTEP is a good, strong football team."
SMU leads the all-time series with UTEP 6-0. The Mustangs and Miners first squared off in 1932 and last met in 1997. SMU has recorded two shutouts against UTEP, and has won each game in the series by at least 12 points. The Mustangs defeated UTEP, 28-14, in 1997. The last time the teams met in El Paso, SMU blanked the Miners, 30-0.
In the last meeting between the two schools, SMU defeated UTEP, 28-14, at the Cotton Bowl on Nov. 8, 1997, to extend its winning streak to four games, the longest for the Mustangs since 1986. Kelsey Adams rushed for 104 yards on 17 carries for the Ponies, who amassed 219 yards in the ground. Adams also had two rushing touchdowns. SMU went ahead 21-0 in the second quarter when Donald Mitchell returned a blocked punt six yards for a touchdown. Chris Bordano led the Mustangs defensively, posting 18 tackles. SMU improved to 5-4 overall and 4-2 in the WAC Mountain Division with the win.
Cavan and players Josh McCown and Kevin Aldridge addressed the media at SMU's weekly press luncheon Wednesday. Here are their comments:
Head Coach Mike Cavan
"I thought that Josh McCown summed it up real well after the Kansas game. We got a little better. We got ahead in the ball game. That's a good step for us. Now let's get ahead and stay ahead."
"I've been thinking about this a lot because I've been asked if this is a must-win football game. If we want to be 7-4, this is a must-win for us. I'm never going to put a 'must-win' on our football team."
On SMU's youth: "We can't keep talking about being young. We need to grow up. This is the fifth ball game. We've got to step up, grow up, cut the light on and decide we want to win football games. The young guys have to understand that they have to go out and play for 60 minutes. So why do we play them? We have to. If we didn't we'd play four or five guys."
On UTEP: "UTEP is a good strong football team. They are an old football team with a lot of seniors. They run really good up front. They have a good defensive line.(Senior defensive end Brian) Young is a great player. He is one of the best in the conference. He has great mobility. Their secondary is like ours. They can give up some things in the secondary."
On the SMU offense: "Where we are offensively is we're expanding a little more each week. We're getting better each week and we'll continue to expand. In a ball game you need to be balanced. I think it all goes back to our offensive line. We lost two guys (seniors Jerry Chavira and Trey Bandy) and we have a true freshman starting on the offensive line. That doesn't happen in college football. We're not doing very well running the football and blocking."
On the conference standings: "I thought the conference was wide open when the season began. This doesn't surprise me. I thought everyone had a chance to win this thing, not just the teams that were getting mentioned. I said before the season that Hawaii had a chance. They have a new coach. They are an old team. I thought UTEP had a chance. They are an improved team. I'm not surprised."
Sophomore Quarterback Josh McCown
On UTEP's zone defense: "They've got more people back. They know they can stop the run with just four guys up front. Everyone else can defend the pass. I have to pass better and we've got to develop the running game."
On playing the entire football game against Kansas: "It helps the confidence and it helps with the experience to play the whole game. I felt better. I didn't have to look over my shoulder."
The first quarter of the Kansas game shows how we can play. Our defense stopped them and we went three and out. The defense got the ball again and we went down and scored. I told the offense that (the defense) gave us a second chance and we've got to capitalize. We went and scored. That's the way it should be.
Sophomore Linebacker Kevin Aldridge
On the defensive plans: "We're trying to make it more simple for everybody. We have more man coverage. We were dropping into too many zones and confusing each other."
On forcing turnovers: "We do fumble drills every day in practice. We've got an attitude to get the ball if it's on the ground.
"We know we're better than our ranking shows right now. We're getting better every week."
"When (the opponents) score, you get down emotionally. We're not sure what to do. We're dog tired and we don't know how to respond. There are a lot of young guys on the team and we're still learning. It's hard."
On offense/defense relationship: "We encourage each other. It wasn't like that at the beginning of the year. We blamed each other. Now we're all coming together."
