At first glance, the recently released 2006 SMU football schedule looks to be pretty brutal, with four of the Mustangs’ first six games on the road. It would be easy for an outsider to assume the Ponies would get off to another horrendous start like in years past. In both the 2004 and 2005 seasons, Coach Bennett’s team opened up with a less than thrilling 1-4 record, and started 0-5 in 2003, the year the Mustangs finished 0-12.

But, times have changed since that winless season, and the 2006 schedule will actually bode well for the team and possibly vault the team to a bowl berth.

SMU opens up with what will be the team’s toughest game of the year, a trip to Lubbock to face the always-competitive Red Raiders from Texas Tech. The Ponies have had some success keeping this game competitive after halftime in the past, but both of those games were at home. SMU has been blown out in its previous trips to Lubbock. Keeping up with the Red Raiders, even in a loss, will be a great sign as the team begins its season.

The rest of the team’s non-conference schedule is pretty weak, with games against North Texas, Sam Houston and Arkansas State.

It should be very conceivable that after SMU’s four non-conference games, the team will be 3-1. The Mustangs ought to be able to handle all of the teams except for Texas Tech and possibly give the team from Lubbock a run for their money.

The Conference USA schedule for SMU has some very intriguing match-ups, including some that will garner the Mustangs a bit of national exposure.

The team’s first conference game is at Tulane, in what will be the first game of any kind played in the Superdome in almost two years and following the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

There is a great chance that this game may be picked up by a national TV network because of its importance to the people of New Orleans and the entire Gulf Coast. SMU played host to the Tulane football team last fall and then laid an egg when the Green Wave came into Dallas and beat up on the Mustangs 31-10.

Hopefully, the Ponies don’t “take it easy” on Tulane this time around and beat a team that they are clearly better than. The most anticipated game to hit the Hilltop in years will come on Halloween 2006. It will be a Tuesday night game in Dallas – the Mustangs will take on the UAB Blazers in a rematch of last year’s thriller in Birmingham that featured successful Hail-Mary from Jared Romo to Bobby Chase on the last play of the game. The game will be aired nationally on ESPN2.

When I first found out that SMU was switching to C-USA, I got very excited knowing the conference had a television contract with ESPN. I was rather disappointed last year when SMU was left out of the party and was not picked up for an ESPN game. But, coming off one of the school’s best years in a while, the network scheduled what should be the best Halloween party this campus has ever seen. I think some form of trick-or-treating on the Boulevard needs to happen. I expect students to be on the Boulevard the second they get out of class, costumes and all, and for the party to continue even after the game is over. This will be a great chance not only for SMU to show off its program to a national audience, but also the whole game day experience that comes with an SMU home game.

If the crowd at the UAB game is half as rowdy as it was this year against TCU, then I think it will be a great success. If our crowd is as lame as it can be, most students leaving at halftime to go do “homework,” then this may be the first, last and only game that ESPN picks up at SMU.

With 10 of the team’s 12 games in the state of Texas and four of its final five games at home, I expect Bennett’s team to improve on the team’s 5-6 record from 2005.

With many questions marks and big shoes to fill at many positions, I still feel comfortable in making my first prediction for the team’s record in 2006.

I believe the team will go 3-1 in non-conference play, losing only to Tech, and then finish 5-3 in conference play for an overall record of 8-4. This would surely earn the team its first bowl berth in years and possibly a spot in the Conference USA Championship Game.

Brian Capstick is a graduate student working towards his masters in accounting. He can be reached at [email protected].