Fried Rice (Photo by John Schreiber, The Daily Campus)
The Mustang football team set records and made great strides in key aspects of the game Saturday afternoon as SMU toppled the Rice Owls, 27-7.
Redshirt freshman DeMyron Martin had his third 100-yard rushing game of the season before the Homecoming crowd. Martin’s 26 runs for 175 yards were backed up by returning running back Cedrick Dorsey, who contributed 46 yards on 10 runs. Dorsey had been sitting out with an injury, but has now seen action in two consecutive games.
Martin said having Dorsey back on the field took some pressure off of him, and he was glad to have him back.
“I’d rather have me and my running back crew,” Martin said. “I’ll do it all [the rushing responsibilities of the running back] if I have to, but I’d rather do it with my crew.”
The Mustangs’ running game was very efficient. The offensive line has improved and was able to open up holes for the running backs, which also gave the receivers the ability to catch more passes. Quarterback Jerad Romo only had to throw the ball 17 times, but he connected on nine of the passes and had no interceptions. SMU had 391 yards of total offense, compared to Rice’s 230.
“Both sides dominated the line of scrimmage,” said head coach Phil Bennett.
He added that in previous games against Rice, the Owls were able control the line.
“Rice has beaten us like we stole something,” Bennett said.
To combat the issue, they had special “Rice sessions” over the summer. They developed a new strategy against the team, and it worked.
Junior safety Joe Sturdivant had a game-high 10 stops, two pass break-ups, an interception, a fumble recovery and a tackle-for-loss.
Sturdivant said the defense was more successful in this game against Rice because of the changes the coaching staff made to their defensive game plan.
“I took the new defensive scheme to heart. It was a good scheme against what they were doing,” he said.
Sturdivant added that one aspect of the changes was a “they do this, then we do this attitude,” that he said involved, “more reaction and less reading.”
For his efforts, Sturdivant was award the Conference USA Defensive Player of the Week award. He won the same honors after the game against UAB. He is the only player in C-USA to have won this award twice this season.
Kicker Chris McMurtray set a new school record for consecutive completed field goals by making good on his eleventh straight attempt. The senior from Garland didn’t just break the school record, he did so in style -Ã the 48-yard kick was also a new career-long for McMurtray.
Veteran trainer Cash Birdwell was recognized for his 33 years of service to SMU at the beginning of the game. A native of Houston and an athletics trainer since high school, Birdwell has written magazine articles and a book about training. He was a 1994 recipient of the “M” Award and is a member of two trainer halls of fame. He was presented with a jersey with the number 33 (for the number of years he has served SMU) on the field, and a flag was raised on the roof of the stadium with his initials on it. During the game, a series of video tributes were played on the scoreboard monitor. Congratulations and thanks came from Duke basketball Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski, Texas Tech basketball Coach Bobby Knight, SMU football great Eric Dickerson and Dallas Cowboys head coach Bill Parcels, among others.
The Mustangs have now tied their win total from last year at three games, and with two games left, they have a chance at improving their record.
With this win, the Mustangs take back the Mayor’s Cup. The trophy was created in 1996 during the tenure of Houston Mayor Lee Brown and Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk. This is the first year that the Mustang football team was won both the Iron Skillet (after the win over TCU) and the Mayor’s Cup.
SMU has a bye week due to the rescheduling of the Houston game to Nov. 19.
The team will then return home a week later to close the season against the University of Texas-El Paso Miners.
Fried Rice (Photo by John Schreiber, The Daily Campus)
Fried Rice (Photo by Christina Parrish, The Daily Campus )
