DENTON, TEXAS – In their season opener against North Texas, SMU walked away with a 48-10 victory over the Eagles. This marks their fourth consecutive win over UNT.
A major takeaway from tonight’s game? Head Coach Rhett Lashlee wasn’t kidding when he said he wanted to “up the tempo.” Lashlee’s team, despite a three-and-out start, was explosive and ran the ball at a pace that UNT could not seem to keep up with. SMU finished with a total of 150 rushing yards and 426 passing yards. Despite the dominating performance by the Mustangs, Lashlee told reporters after the game that there were still improvements that needed to be made by next week.
“We understand how hard it is to win,” Lashlee said. “ Seth Littrell has a good football team and we played pretty well I think for Game 1, but it’s going to be hard to win every week and we don’t take it for granted when we win.”
Quarterback Tanner Mordecai threw for 432 yards and 4 touch downs tonight, breaking his own career record. Back-up quarter back Preston Stone got to see a few snaps of his own tonight, while Mordecai was recovering from taking a hit. After the game Mordecai addressed the situation with a chuckle. “I just got the wind knocked out of me,” Mordecai said. “My goal is to be on the field the whole time.”
Mordecai seemed to connect quite a bit with senior receiver Rashee Rice who also had a phenomenal first game with 166 yards, 8 receptions and 1 touchdown.
A major topic this week surround the Mustang’s defense was how well they would fare against the speedy UNT receiver group. It seems they fared pretty well with North Texas being able to move the ball quite a bit in the first half, but once SMU forced three major turnovers, the Eagles spiraled into a series of six crucial penalties that they could not bounce back from.
Among the three major turnovers enforced by the SMU defense, one was a forced fumble by defensive back Chris Adimora which was recovered by Nick Roberts. After the game, a beaming Roberts told reporters, “We’ve got a 24-hour rule, which means tomorrow morning we forget everything that happened and focus on what’s next.”
The blowout win over UNT gave SMU fans a hopeful glimpse into what the season will look like with Lashlee calling the shots.
SMU is set to play Lamar next Saturday September 10th. This will be the Mustangs first home game of the season.
