Southern Miss 28, GGSM{SMU} 12

It looks like it will be a long off-season on the SMU campus.

After giving up an early touchdown, the Mustangs held it close, trailing only 7-6 at halftime, but Southern Miss broke it open with three touchdowns at the end of the third quarter and the first play of the fourth quarter.

SMU QB Bo Levi Mitchell was 26-49 for 253 yards, giving him 2865 yards for the season, 21st in the nation. Not too shabby for a true freshman. Of course he threw two more interceptions to bring his nation leading total to 23. And only 13 QBs were sacked more often than his 26. On the bright side, his numbers on the season are not too dissimilar from Minnesota's Adam Weber's freshman season last year. His Gophers were also 1-11, but then this season he led them to a 7-1 (before losing their last 4, but I'll ignore that for now).

June Jones didn't beat a Division I-A team this year in his first season at SMU. Quite a fall from his 12-1 Hawai`i team last season, but considering that he was building on an SMU team that also finished 1-11. Hm, although now that I look more closely, Jones's passing attack only increased the Mustang's from 252.1 passing yards per game to 272.9. However, the more dramatic chase was in the lack of the running game. In 2007, the Mustangs rushed for 170.4 yards per game, led by QB Justin Willis, who carried 180 times for 699 yards and three touchdowns. In 2008, the entire team rushed only 217 teams for 497 yards and three touchdowns. Their 41.4 yards per game were last of the 120 teams in the country and less than half of the 117th team.

There was one bright spot for the Mustangs in this last game of the season. Senior Jessie Henderson returned four kickoffs for a total of 64 yards. This gave him 2,945 career kickoff return yards which established a new NCAA record.

And one more bright spot, an SMU freshman defensive back got his first career interception. I mention it because of his name: Chris Banjo.

Oh, on a nonshameful side note, Southern Miss's punter/kicker has a wonderful name for a kicker: Britt Barefoot.

The 2008 season ends with the SMU losing 21 straight to non-Division I-A teams and 10 straight games overall. But there's something about them that prevents me from trying to pile on. Or at least makes me feel bad about it. Here's to a excellent spring practice, SMU!

UTEP 36, GGSM{SMU} 10

Another not-so-fun night for SMU. The Mustangs did get a 40-yard return of the opening kickoff and 19 yards on their first drive, SMU punted giving UTEP the ball on the 15. Not so bad. But then UTEP's QB Trevor Vittatoe threw an 85-yard touchdown pass to Kris Adams on their first play. The Miners didn't look back. Vittatoe finished 21-31 for 410 yards and three touchdowns, all three of those went to Adams. They should have thrown to him more often as he only caught 5 passes for 145 yards. These were the only three touchdowns UTEP had, but Jose Martinez did kick five field goals.

SMU's passing game was not firing on all cylinders. Bo Levi Mitchell was only 9 of 24 for 85 yards and threw two interceptions. His replacement, Logan Turner actually did worse in this respects going 4 of 12 for 42 yards, also with two interceptions, but he did throw a 27-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter. SMU also fumbled twice for a total of six turnovers. Mitchell's 23 interceptions this season are the most in the nation.

SMU has one last chance to get June Jones his first win over a I-A team this season in two weeks when Southern Miss comes to town.

Middle Tennessee State 21, OSM{Western Kentucky} 10

All in all, it seems from the box score, this was a pretty even game. MTSU had 18 first downs, WKU had 17. Each team committed two turnovers. Each team attempted 30 passes, MTSU completed 19, WKU 18, but WKU had 213 yards to MTSU's 212. MTSU did run the ball 8 more times than the Hilltoppers, but they only averaged 2.5 yards per carry compared to WKU's 2.1. Is it possible that the field position game won by the MTSU punter David DeFatta 6 times for 46.7 yards per punt compared to WKU's Jeremy Moore's 34.6 yards per punt on 5 punts? I don't know.

Western Kentucky now has two weeks off before they travel to Miami to face Shame Mask favorite Florida International. FIU however is 4-5 so far this season.

Memphis 31, GGSM{SMU} 26

Another tough loss for SMU. True freshman QB Bo Levi Mitchell had a career high 5 yards rushing, but that one rush carried quite a price. He injured his shoulder on their second quarter field goal drive, knocking him out of the game. He finished 5-7 for 83, including a 53-yard touchdown to Emmanuel Sanders. Backup QB Logan Turner, also a freshman, played well, completing 19-31 for 228 yards and two touchdowns.

Although the Mustangs never led in the game, they trailed by only one at halftime 14-13, and at the end of the third quarter 21-20. However, Memphis was able to score a quick touchdown and then run down the clock on a key 10-play, 77-yard field goal drive to get some insurance points in the fourth quarter. Logan Turneer did rally SMU on a quick touchdown drive with 44 seconds left, but they were unable to recover the onside kick and were forced to watch Memphis run out the clock.

SMU tries to end their 19-game I-A losing streak next week at UTEP.

Troy 17, OSM{Western Kentucky} 7

Not much fun for Western Kentucky on their trip to Troy. Troy got a 58-yard TD pass 40 seconds into the game, but Western Kentucky stood strong and never let the game get out of hand, though.

The most interesting thing to me was that in a game in which the team threw for only 95 yards, four different Hilltoppers completed at least one pass. Starting QB David Wolke was only 3-8 and injured his back in the first quarter. Backup Brandon Smith was 10-22, but the highlight was his 20 yard TD run for WKU's only score. Running back Dexter Taylor threw twice, completing one of them for two yards, and even the punter Jeremy Moore got into the act, completing a 5-yard pass on 4th and 7.

Up next for the Hilltoppers, Middle Tennessee State comes up to Bowling Green.

OSM{North Texas} 51, Western Kentucky 40

It was a wild game at Western Kentucky, but the be-Shame-Masked North Texas managed to finally get rid of that dreaded mask with their first win of the season.

WKU drew first blood with a 5-yard TD run from QB David Wolke two minutes into the game. Wolke would lead the Hilltoppers with 178 yards on the ground and 2 TDs. I would throw for 190 yards and 2 TDs, but he did throw 3 INTs.

It took North Texas two minutes to respond with a 38 yard TD run from QB Giovanni Vizza. Vizza unfortunately totalled only 34 yards on his seven carries, but he did through four TD passes against only one interception.

But, WKU struck back 28 seconds later with a 62-yard TD pass. North Texas however scored two touchdowns in the span of a 1:42 to take a 21-14 lead with six minutes left in the first quarter.

However, in the third quarter, WKU scored three touchdowns, including two in the span of only 18 seconds, to take a 34-31 lead into the wild fourth quarter.

North Texas began the fourth with an 18-yard TD pass, but the PAT was blocked, and so their lead was only 37-34. Five minutes later, WKU's David Wolke scored his second rushing TD, but their PAT was also blocked, and North Texas managed to return it for a defensive two-point conversion so that WKU's lead was only 40-39. With two minutes remaining, North Texas scored a 27-yard TD pass to go up 45-40, and then in one final display of craziness, North Texas returned an interception 97 yards for a touchdown on the game's final play.

This ends North Texas's 9 game losing streak, which was tied for the longest in the nation.

Western Kentucky, the newest I-A team, is still technically "reclassifying" and is only 2-7 this season with both wins over I-AA schools. This was their eleventh straight loss to a I-A opponent. They play at Troy next week.