I was skeptical of the posters and marketing materials around campus heralding SMU football’s “New Era” under Chad Morris.

We all saw last season (unless you’re a first year of course… you didn’t miss much) and I just could not believe that we could turn around from that. I won’t go on because there is no use in beating a dead Mustang, and there were no signs of any life from last season.

But to Chad Morris’ and the team’s credit, they looked fantastic in the first half against Baylor. Any fat mouth like myself who was having doubts was shut up within seconds after the Mustangs’ first kickoff return and amazing touchdown. Following that start, a lack of turnovers coupled with a proliferation of completed passes, first downs, and touchdowns had me thinking “wait, this is the SMU game right?”

Football really has turned into a new era. I cannot imagine the amount of work that went into improving the team’s strength, making Baylor looking like a group of amateurs who couldn’t tackle at points. Furthermore, the team did amazingly well with the entirely new offense. Not only did we have the excitement of actual touchdowns, but I get to spend the rest of the season attempting to figure out what all of the different signs the team uses to communicate means.

So while SMU football has had a tough few years and has been the butt of countless jokes, that could be a thing of the past. A few mistakes, such as running out of clock at the end of the first half, lead me to be a little cautious about counting my chickens before they hatch. But I for one am impressed with the team’s improvement over the summer.

I hope that the football team continues to do well and earns back the support of the student body. Likewise, I hope that students continue to actually leave the Boulevard to enter into the game, giving the football team some much-needed support.

Who knows, maybe we will be talking about Chad Morris the same way that we talk about Larry Brown in a few years. But that is getting ahead of myself; we shall see what happens this Saturday against North Texas