SMU hopes to wake up from what has started out as a nightmare season Saturday afternoon at Gerald J. Ford Stadium. At 0-5 and 0-1 in the conference, the Mustangs play host to conference foe San Jose State.
After a 42-10 loss to Hawaii in Hawaii, SMU is ranked 112th in he nation. The offense has produced an average of fewer than 11 points per game. The Mustang offense will hope to find some sort of form on Saturday.
“As a team, I told the offensive guys that you have to keep plugging and you have to keep staying the course,” freshman quarterback Tate Wallis said.
Wallis has had a turbulent start to his college football quarterback experience. He produced his most modest stats of the season against Hawaii, completing only six of 21 pass attempts for 46 yards and two interceptions.
Fellow redshirt freshman quarterback Richard Bartel would have had the opportunity to take over the offense against Hawaii. Bartel, however, was suspended from the game for violating team rules.
Neither head coach Phil Bennett nor the SMU athletics department is allowed to specify the violations.
San Jose State (3-2, 1-0) throttled its last opponent, UTEP, 54-28. Kick returner and wide receiver Charles Pauley was named WAC Special Teams Player of the Week for the second straight week. Pauley and safety Gerald Jones are among the nation’s leaders kick returning and interceptions, respectively.
It seems that SMU’s schedule won’t be getting any easier with the hosting of San Jose State. Wallis, who spoke with the Dallas Morning News, admits to facing some difficulty in his first season under center.
“It’s definitely been difficult,” Wallis said. “I’m going to keep coming out here and keep competing and keep working to get better. But I haven’t done very many good things.”
Wallis also took much of the responsibility for the offensive output.
“It’s not their fault at all that I’m making bad reads right now, and that’s what it is. The offense is not too difficult,” Wallis said. “I have simply locked in at times on receivers that I should not have locked in on and thrown some poor balls. That’s something I have to get out of.”
Bennett was quick to distribute any blame for the poor start among the entire team.
“All of our problems on offense aren’t just Tate Wallis,” Bennett said. “There’s been a lot of facets contributing – dropped balls, missed routes, bad protection. We’ve got to do a better job coaching on both sides of the ball to put our players in a position to win.”
SMU will need all aspects of a good week to come together and equate to a victory. An 0-6 start could devastate an upstart program with two young quarterbacks. The Mustangs have one thing to look forward to: their best football is still ahead of them.
