Shame Watch: Rice 56, SMU 27

Friday night's slate of games saw four teams take to the field to kick-off their 2008 campaigns. All four--Temple, Army, Rice, and SMU--hope fair better than 2007, in which they had a combined record of 11-37. (This included Army's win over Temple and Rice's last second win 43-42 win over SMU, as well as Army's win over Rhode Island, a I-AA team that finished 3-8. Rice had the only win over a winning team, 7-6 Southern Miss.) Temple however did finish 2007 on something of a role, winning 4 of their final 7, and they rolled over Army tonight, 35-7. It was the Black Knights' seventh straight defeat.

I was however more concerned about the SMU-Rice game. While SMU ented with a ten game losing streak, tied for the longest in the country, there was a new hope in Dallas. After finishing 1-11 last season, SMU put together the richest salary for a non-BCS conference team ($2 million, 21st highest overall) to lure passing guru June Jones from Hawai`i. Jones has become used to winning at Hawai`i, going 11-3 in 2006 and then an undefeated 2007 regular season before losing to Georgia in the Sugar Bowl. Would this winning carry over and return the Mustangs to the "Pony Express" days of 1980-85 when they were the winningest program in the country? (Without the playing of the players of course.)

SMU started promising. True freshman starting quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell started about as strongly as could be expected, throwing for 26- and 19-yard touchdown passes in the first quarter to take a quick 13-0 lead in his first quarter. However, the missed extra point on the second one proved to be the turning point as the Rice Owls rallied quickly thereafter, took a 14-13 lead on the final play of the first quarter and never looked back. Rice eventually won 56-27. Mitchell finished 25-43 for 244 yards and three TDs. He did however throw three interceptions, one of which was returned for 55 yards for a touchdown.

It is generally tough to find a silver lining in an 11 game losing streak, which at the moment is the longest active streak. However, next week SMU hosts Texas State, a I-AA team that finished 4-7 last season. While that may end the losing streak, the streak against I-A teams looks like it might continue when they play at Texas Tech the next week, but with June Jones at the helm, I have to think SMU's second winning season since the NCAA death penalty in 1987-88 shouldn't be too far away.