SMU Mustangs Smoke the North Texas Mean Green 65-35

SMU cruised to a comfortable win over the North Texas Mean Green on Saturday, marking their second win of the 2020 season. The Mustangs showed that they just have too much talent on offense as they posted 710 total yards. North Texas put up a valiant effort with 35 points and 517 yards of offense which against other teams may be enough for a win but not against this SMU Mustangs offense that put up video game numbers this week.

SMU jumped out to a fast 24-0 lead and never looked back. North Texas QB Austin Aune did well to recover from an early INT with 2 touchdown passes and 1 rushing touchdown later on in the game. North Texas RB Oscar Adaway III had a very respectable day with 104 yards on 20 carries. Ultimately, North Texas just fell into a big hole early and was unable to dig themselves out. Once North Texas got their offense clicking, they were already down 24 and SMU was scoring at will from start to finish.

SMU won with their explosive offense and opportunistic big plays.

Notable performances for SMU:

RB Ulysses Bentley IV: 19 CAR, 227 YDS, 3 TDS | 1 REC 21 YDS

QB Shane Buechele: 24/33, 344 YDS, 4 TDS | Buechele also added a rushing TD finishing with 5 TDs responsible for.

WR Reggie Roberson Jr.: 9 REC, 103 YDS, 2 TDS

WR Rashee Rice: 5 REC, 102 YDS (20.4 YDS / catch)

I believe freshman running back Ulysses Bentley IV stole the starting RB role this week with his performance. Over 20 total touches he totaled 248 YDS and 3 rushing touchdowns. Check out Ulysses Bentley IV’s full highlights below.

This dude is a redshirt freshman... through two games this season, Bentley has 276 rushing yards and 5 touchdowns on only 30 carries. He’ll be fun to watch for SMU fans for years to come.

In addition to Ulysses Bentley IV, SMU had a number of guys step up and have huge days contributing to the 65 points in their win. Danny Gray had a huge 62 yard touchdown, and TE Kylen Granson had a receiving touchdown as well. Shane Buechele did a great job of spreading the ball around all day.

If SMU’s offense plays like they did Saturday for the rest of the season, they could legitimately be looking at an undefeated season. However, this SMU team feels eerily similar to last season’s team in that some of the defensive struggles and deficiencies are overshadowed by explosive offense. When SMU plays the better teams on their schedule like Memphis and Cincinnati the defense will have a much harder time stopping those offenses putting more pressure on the offense to score almost every time they have the ball. It doesn’t look like SMU skipped a beat from last season though. Luckily for SMU all of their big games this season are at home as well.

Next week North Texas travels to Houston to take on the Cougars. SMU stays in Dallas for their first home game of the season against Stephen F. Austin.

#ClubTakeaway is still open by the way.