After a monumental start to the season, the SMU football team traveled to Southern Mississippi in hopes of advancing to a record of 6-1. Nevertheless that is not how the cookie crumbled, coming back to Dallas with a loss in Conference-USA play and slipping to the no. 3 spot in C-USA West standings while Southern Miss. finds themselves at no. 1 in C-USA East standings. Leaving the Mustangs with the challenge to refocus to reach their season goals.

“Last weeks loss is a huge bummer but our goals are still attainable. If we win the rest of our games we’re guaranteed to go to the conference title game,” senior Blake McJunkin said.

The 10th ranked SMU offense faced a defense that many are calling Southern Miss’s best performance in three years, which proved to be enough to be ranked for the first time since 2004.

The final score in Hattiesburg, Miss., 27-3, was not what fans and players alike were expecting going into Saturday’s game. Southern Miss also went into the game with a 5-1 record after losing to Marshall in week two of season play.

The Mustangs toughest road to the championship has just started as they must face the no. 1 and no. 2, Tulsa and Houston. Both teams stand in front of them to make it back to the Conference-USA championship game this year. SMU must defeat both teams in order to appear once again at the championship game. Tulsa is 4-3 on the season and 3-0 in conference play, while Houston is 7-0 on the season and also 3-0 in conference play.

SMU and Tulsa will meet this coming weekend, Oct. 29 in Tulsa, Okla.

“The attitude going into Tulsa is that we’re focused on this week only and that this is the best team we’ll play all year,” McJunkin said. “It’s going take a great effort to beat them at their place.”