Mustangs go for four

The Mustangs (3-7, 3-4 WAC) head to the west Texas town of El Paso on a two-game winning streak. SMU meets the No. 24 UTEP Miners (7-2, 5-1 WAC) on Saturday to close out a season that will finish on a positive note.

Head Coach Phil Bennett saw a huge positive in the 38-20 win over the Nevada Wolf Pack last weekend.

“We won and we didn’t play to the ability we are capable of,” Bennett said. “Which in some ways is a good sign.”

SMU hopes to give a little bit more effort, with the same result Saturday.

Key Match-Up

SMU’s Wide Receivers vs. the UTEP Secondary

UTEP sits at No. 7 in pass efficiency defense that has a lot to do with its senior leader, Jahmal Fenner.

The cornerback, who is also the all-time UTEP leader in punt return yards, is a terror from sideline to sideline as he leads the Miners with four interceptions and is second in pass breakups with six. He also will get sent on the corner blitz from time to time with three sacks on the season.

His bookend on the other side is Adrian Ward who shares the team lead with four interceptions and leads the team with nine pass break-ups. The senior from Oakland, Calif. isn’t afraid to make a tackle either as his 45 stops on the season is good enough for fourth on the team.

The future of the UTEP secondary is true freshman safety Quintin Demps who is coming off his best game of the season, a 12-tackle, two-forced-fumble performance against Rice. The San Antonio native preserved the victory against the Owls by forcing a fumble at the 1-yard line in the second overtime, giving the Miners the win.

SMU hopes they can break through against one of the nation’s best pass defenses with a passing game that gets more comfortable by the week.

Last week, quarterbacks Jerad Romo and Tony Eckert combined for 230 yards through the air on 14-of-23 passing.

Wide receiver Bobby Chase had seven catches for 119 yards while Reynaldo Pellerin had three catches for 43 yards. They are joined by the team’s leading receiver on the season, Chris Foster, who has 30 catches for 376 yards and three touchdowns and Jay’Mond Cleveland, who has 23 catches for 325 yards.

This quartet of receivers have thrived this season in the spread offense, and will be joined this week by senior Matt Rushbrook who is back after a concussion that cost him the last two games.

If SMU can get a couple of big plays from their receiving corps, it will allow the run game to control the clock and keep the ball out of the hands of the potent Miner offense.

X-Factors

UTEP’s Howard Jackson

Look at the Miners all-time offensive leaders. You will see the name Howard Jackson literally everywhere. Jackson is the All-Purpose yardage leader in UTEP history and the 28th-ranked player in NCAA history in the same category.

His name is also in the top five in Miner history in punt return, kick return and rush yardage. He sits in the top three in total, rushing and return touchdowns as well.

In a word, Jackson is explosive. He may stand at only 5-feet 9-inches and weigh 160 pounds, but he runs the 40 in an astounding 4.26 seconds.

Every time the Freeport, Tex. native touches the ball, he is a threat to take it the distance, and that is what the Mustangs must prevent. If the Mustangs can prevent Jackson from moving further up the record charts, the Mustangs may end the season on a three-game winning streak.

SMU’s Alvin Nnabuife

Two fumble returns for touchdowns sounds like a pretty good game until checking the NCAA record books. Turns out it happened only twice before in the history of Division I football.

Throw in nine tackles in what was his second start ever as linebacker, and the magnitude of what Nnabuife accomplished becomes even more apparent.

The game was a capstone of a very impressive season for the junior from Missouri City, Tex. The former starting safety led the team with 70 tackles, and also had an interception return for a touchdown.

“Alvin has been a huge lift,” Bennett said. “And he reads the play as well as anyone we have had here.”

Nnabuife’s play-making abilities will be on display, as UTEP’s passing attack will leave him matched with a tight end frequently. If Nnabuife can make another game-changing play, it could provide the Mustangs with enough momentum to steal the victory.

Inside the Miners

A Second Chance

Mike Price was on top of the world, taking the head coaching job at the University of Alabama in the spring of 2002. To Price, the fact they were going to pay him a mind-boggling $10 million for doing a job he dreamed about seemed even more crazy.

It was an honor deserving of a man who built the Washington State program in middle-of-nowhere Pullman, Wash. into a perennial Rose Bowl contender.

Then, it all came crashing down as reports of a wild night involving alcohol and strippers led to his dismissal by the Crimson Tide without a single cent in his pocket since Price had not signed his contract.

Price disappeared from the national scene, spending six months in Coeur d’Alene, Ida. waiting for a school to look past one night of bad decisions and at a career marked by integrity.

UTEP called in the spring of 2004 and the rest is history.

With the same players who had two wins for three seasons in a row, the Miners sit at 7-2 and have not been in the top 25 since 1988. This is not a typo. The Miners have more wins in Price’s first season than former Coach Gary Nord could coax out of these same players in the last three seasons combined.

This current success may just be the beginning because of Price’s reputation as an offensive mastermind. UTEP already has former UCLA starting running back, Tyler Ebel, sitting out his transfer season and some of the West’s best quarterbacking prospects have the Miners listed as one of their favorite schools. They hope to be the next in a long line of Price quarterbacks to reach the NFL, a list that includes Drew Bledsoe, Ryan Leaf, Jason Gesser and possibly current quarterback Miner Jordan Palmer.

Coach Bennett summed up Price the best when he simply stated, “he is a good man, and he is good for college football.”

Inside the Mustangs

Colts among Mustangs

The SMU coaching staff has quietly reminded anyone who would listen that they had the youngest team in the nation and that the players just needed time to get used to the speed and talent level of major college football. The coaches have the evidence to back it up, as there are 85 underclassman on the 112-player SMU roster.

That means 76 percent of the team is a sophomore or younger and SMU also only starts two seniors, Foy Munlin and Alan Adami, meaning 20 starters will return next season.

For much of the season this youth was an excuse, now it is beginning to look very exciting according to Coach Bennett.

“I am really proud of these guys,” Bennett said. “We are basically a JV team [in terms of experience] that has a chance to win four games.”

The man has a point, as the Mustangs look noticeably more comfortable on the field. Mustang fans should rejoice at the fact that SMU’s most solid unit, the defensive secondary, returns all of its starters plus Nnabuife, who they loaned to the linebacking crew.

Even the losses of Adami and Munlin will not hurt a ton, as the team has done a good job of rotating young players like Desmond Jones and Cedric Dorsey into those spots.

With the last couple of wins, the SMU inexperience has gone from a liability to having Mustang fans looking forward to the future.

Load Up The Moving Trucks

UTEP is joining the Mustangs in Conference USA next season. SMU is happy to bring the Miners along, as they hold an 8-3 series advantage, despite the Miner’s 21-19 win last year in Dallas.

SMU hopes to break its 11-game road losing streak and continue its current two-game winning streak when the game kicks off at 4:05 CST, Saturday from the Sun Bowl in El Paso.