Out of the Poll and Out of Excuses: SMU Has to Answer Friday Night Against a 6-2 Virginia Tech Team That Owns the Clock

-
RF Sports Radio branded title card with SMU Mustang logo: Friday, Virginia Tech at SMU, 6 p.m. CT on ESPN

By Brooke Calloway, RF Sports Radio SMU voice

Pony Up, people. The sting from Syracuse is still there, and Sunday made it official: SMU is out of the AP Top 25. The good news is you do not have to wait long to answer. Virginia Tech comes to the Hilltop on a Friday night, and this one says a lot about what November looks like.

The facts

Virginia Tech (6-2) visits SMU (6-2) on Friday, Nov. 6, at 6 p.m. Central at Gerald J. Ford Stadium on ESPN, per SMU Athletics. The AP's preview lists SMU as a 6.5-point opening favorite.

After the 30-27 loss at Syracuse, SMU dropped out of the AP poll released Sunday and received 27 points, per Poll Behavior's tracking of the AP Top 25. The Mustangs were No. 19 a week ago.

The AP preview shows why this matchup is tricky. SMU averages 467.3 yards per game, 14th in FBS, and 320.4 passing yards, seventh. Its defense allows opponents to convert just 27 percent on third down, third-best in the country. But SMU is 119th with a minus-5 turnover margin, 112th in red zone defense, allowing scores on 90 percent of trips, and 112th in penalty yards at 69.3 per game.

Virginia Tech is 12th nationally against the run at 93.4 yards per game and 22nd in time of possession at 32:14, per the AP. Quarterback Ethan Grunkemeyer has thrown for 2,140 yards with 17 touchdowns and two interceptions. The Hokies last beat Clemson 20-16 on Oct. 24.

Kevin Jennings has 2,433 passing yards, 21 touchdowns and five interceptions. Kendrick Raphael has 697 rushing yards and nine touchdowns, and Yamir Knight has 523 receiving yards, per the AP. After Friday, SMU hosts No. 14 Wake Forest on Nov. 14.

RF Sports Radio's take (opinion)

My take: the stat that scares me is not anything Virginia Tech does. It is SMU's red zone defense. Ninety percent. A defense that is elite on third down and leaky inside the 20 is a defense that bends until it breaks, and we watched that happen in the final minutes at Syracuse.

The Hokies are built to exploit it. They hold the ball, they stop the run, and they do not throw it to the other team. If SMU cannot get off the field, Jennings spends the night on the bench watching the clock run.

So here is the formula. Win the turnover battle for once, stay out of the penalty column, and make Grunkemeyer beat you from long distance. Do that, and SMU is right back in the ACC conversation with Wake Forest coming to town.

What to watch next

Watch the injury notes this week and the Wake Forest game on Nov. 14. For our Syracuse recap, read our Nov. 1 Syracuse-SMU recap, and follow the Mustangs on our SMU Football page.

Radio question: is Friday a bounce-back game for SMU, or is Virginia Tech's ball-control style exactly the wrong matchup right now?

Sources: SMU Athletics - Game center: Virginia Tech at SMU, Nov. 6; theScore (AP) - Virginia Tech visits SMU in ACC matchup; AP News - The AP Top 25; Poll Behavior - SMU 2026 AP poll ranking history.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NBA: 2013-14 Western Conference Preview

-
Image
by Ace Feltman 2013-14 NBA Western Conference Preview. Photo credit NBA I love Holidays. I think they bring out buried feelings of joy and happiness in people that don’t often get to see the light of day anymore. Folks are happier, kids are giddier, and teens are pressing their folks for gifts, even on Mother’s and Father’s Day. But my favorite holiday of them all is Halloween. And it has absolutely nothing to do with costumes and or candy but rather the date on the calendar it represents. October 31st signifies the start of the basketball regular season! Either your team has one game under it's belt, or is preparing for game one or is glorifying a local television broadcast with fun Halloween graphics heading into and out of commercials. The 2013-2014 NBA season kicks off two days in advance of trick-or-treating with national broadcasts coming on October 29th put October in the rearview and gear up for the season ahead. My annual basketball previews
Read more

Penn State should forfeit the rest of the season; Morally right thing to do

-
Image
The Penn State Board of Trustees last night decided to fire both Coach Joe Paterno and President Graham Spanier as the first steps to righting an unbelievable wrong. Board vice chair Joe Surma stated,  "The University is much larger than its athletic teams." The press conference to announce the firing of Paterno continually referenced how Penn State will make decisions from a moral perspective. After all, Penn State is supposed to be the morally right institution graduating over 80% of its student athletes. If you truly want to do what is morally right then you forfeit the rest of the season and bowl season.  For the last decade the athletic department and school officials knowingly allowed a pedophile to use its facilities as his own devil's playground. For an entire decade Penn State put its football program ahead of the 40 to 100 innocent children that were abused by Jerry Sandusky, who had an office on campus. To knowingly put sexual abuse over college football tra...
Read more