Know the foe: SMU Mustangs

Friday night, the Cougars will take on the SMU Mustangs for the 5th time in program history. BYU leads the series 4-0.

The game will kick off at 5 p.m. MDT in Dallas at Gerald J. Ford Stadium, which seats 32,000, and will be televised on ESPN2.

The first matchup between the two teams is known as the 1980 Holiday "Miracle" Bowl in which Cougar quarterback Jim McMahon threw a game-tying Hail Mary touchdown pass to Clay Brown with no time on the clock. BYU won, 46-45, after rallying from a 45-25 deficit with four minutes left.

It marked the Cougars' first-ever bowl victory.

Their most recent meeting was also a bowl game and also came down to the wire. The 2022 New Mexico Bowl resulted in a heartbreaking 24-23 loss for the Mustangs.

With 14 seconds remaining, SMU scored and was now trailing by one point. The Mustangs ultimately opted to go for the win rather than the tie and were unsuccessful. Star Cornerback Jakob Robinson came away with the game saving tackle for the Cougars.

The loss fueled SMU to a great showing in the 2023 season, as it finished with an 11-3 record. They Mustangs have started off the 2024 campaign with two impressive wins over Nevada and Houston Christian.

After 10 years in the AAC and winning the conference last season, the SMU Mustangs joined the ACC just this past summer along with Stanford and Cal.

SMU is coached by 41-year-old Rhett Lashlee, who played college ball himself at Arkansas from 2002-2004. Lashlee was originally the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at SMU back in 2018.

Lashlee then had a stint at Miami in the same role, but then returned to SMU to be the head coach in November of 2021.

The Mustangs return their starting QB Preston Stone, who threw for over 3,000 yards last season. He comes into Friday night’s matchup with 332 yards and a 59% completion rate through 2 games.

SMU’s offense has been explosive to start the season, averaging 9.2 yards per pass attempt, 5.3 yards per rush attempt, and 501.5 total yards per game.

The Mustangs are led by senior running back Brashard Smith, who transferred from the University of Miami Hurricanes after spending his first three seasons there.

Within the first four minutes of the game last Saturday, Smith had already busted out a nearly 50-yard run down the sidelines.

On the flip side, outside of dual threat quarterback DJ Williams, the Cougars defended the run very well last Saturday against Southern Illinois.

SMU also returns its four leading tacklers from the 2023 season, most notably linebacker Kobe Wilson, who finished last year with 80 tackles.

As it stands, SMU is favored to win by 11.5 points according to ESPN Bet. Additionally, ESPN Analytics gives the Cougars a mere 21% chance to win the game.

This will be quite the test for the Cougars as SMU is currently in the midst of a nine-game winning streak at home. During this streak, the Mustangs are averaging 53.9 points per game. You know what they say … Everything’s bigger in Texas and SMU is really living up to that.

Expect to see a lot of Cougar blue in the stands Friday, as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the BYU Alumni Association have quite the growing population in the Lone Star State.