When the chips were down and SMU needed a big play, quarterback Garrett Gilbert turned to sophomore Darius Joseph and he delivered. With 12 seconds left in the game, Joseph brought down the game-winning touchdown catch and his 12th reception of the night.

“[Joseph] did a great job of reading the coverage and making a second break,” Gilbert said. “He widened off the ball looking for it, I came to [him] quick and he read it. We both saw the same thing and he made a great catch.”

Head coach, June Jones, said in the post game press conference that Joseph tends to be open when he makes his second break.

In the past, Gilbert would have ran before Joseph had the chance to make his cut, but on Saturday, Gilbert waited a little longer and found the wide out often.

While Jones was happy about Joseph’s performance, he thought the young receiver had plenty of missed opportunities to do more.

“He had a couple of other chances to make some more plays and his numbers would even be bigger,” Jones said. “I was glad to see him in there because he’s worked really hard. I was glad to see him make that play. He did what he was supposed to do.”

Joseph finished the night with 12 catches for 113 yards and a touchdown. His longest catch went for 27 yards.

“[Joseph] is a great athlete and has great hands,” Gilbert said. “Out of our four starters, he has the least experience, but we knew he would be able to do some good things for us. It’s good to see him out there having success and doing good things for us.”

In two games this year, Joseph has tallied 26 catches for 216 yards and one touchdown.

The emergence of Joseph as an offensive weapon next to Jeremy Johnson creates a strong receiving duo that should provide more points for SMU this season.