The SMU foootball team hosts its second home game of the season Saturday night at 7:00 p.m. against San Jose State at Gerald J. Ford Stadium. The game will be SMU's first conference battle of the 2004 season.

Tickets still remain and can be purchase online at smumustangs.com.

Setting the Scene

? SMU starters Charles Akinyemi, Reggie Carrington, Rico Harris, Jamey Harper, Darrin Johnson, D.D. Lee and Alvin Nnabuife have all missed games or large portions of games with injuries.

? Statistically speaking, SMU has the nation?s youngest team in 2004. The Mustangs have 85 underclassmen - 57 freshmen and 28 sophomores - on their 112-man roster. In addition 46 of the players on the 67-man travel squad are underclassmen.

? SMU is tackling one of the nation?s toughest schedules, facing six teams that advanced to postseason play in 2003 - Texas Tech, TCU, Oklahoma State, Boise State, Fresno State and Tulsa. CollegeFootballNews.com ranked SMU?s non-conference slate as the fifth toughest in the nation in 2004.

? Several Mustangs have made preseason award watch lists. Allan Adami has made the Outland Trophy and Bronco Nagurski Trophy Watch Lists, Foy Munlin has made the Doak Walker Award Watch List and Ryan Mentzel made the Ray Guy Award Watch List.

? Excluding yearly games against traditional rival TCU, SMU has faced Big 12 teams in each of its last seven non-conference games dating back to the 2002 campaign. SMU faced Texas Tech & Oklahoma State in 2004 after facing Tech, OSU and Baylor in ?03 and Tech & OSU in ?02.

About SJSU

? The Spartans are coming off a 47-28 win at home over Morgan State. SJSU was beaten 43-3 in the season opener by Stanford and is coming off a 3-8 season in 2003.

The Series

? Saturday?s game marks the fifth meeting of the two schools, with San Jose holding a 3-1 series edge. San Jose has won two straight in the set and is 2-0 all-time against the Ponies in Dallas.

? The series started inauspiciously, as what would have been the series opener in 1999 was cancelled when a transformer exploded near Spartan Stadium and power was interrupted.

The Coaches

? SMU?s Phil Bennett, who was named the 15th head coach in school history on Dec. 5, 2001, is in his third season as a head coach. The Marshall, Texas, native is a 1978 graduate of Texas A&M and is in his 25th year of college coaching. His career record stands at 3-24.

? San Jose State is led by fourth-year head coach Dr. Fitz Hill who is 13-25 in his career- all spent at SJSU.