June Jones will have his Mustangs running today when SMU travels to Pullman to face the porous defense belonging to the Washington State Cougars.
Every week there is a game on the card that just sticks out like a sore thumb above the rest. It just looks too easy, it looks like the bookies totally missed one, and it looks like a license to print money.
For me this week, that game is Southern Methodist -6 heading into Washington State to play the Cougars.
The Cougars are in complete shambles. Last week, a Hawaii Warriors team that had a great deal of difficulty winning at home against Division II Central Arkansas had no difficulty at all moving the ball on the Cougars, putting up 626 yards of total offense including an astounding 489 yards through the air.
This week the Cougars face an offense that is much better than the Warriors’, led by ex-Warriors coach June Jones and young quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell who enters the game with a 111.76 passer rating with 555 yards passing and four touchdowns in the first two weeks of the season. It is difficult to see Southern Methodist having any difficulty at all moving the ball on the Cougars. But what about stopping them on defense?
Well for starters, Washington State lost their best offensive player this week in WR Jeshua Anderson. Anderson decided that he wanted to focus on track and field full time. What does that tell you about how hopeless the Cougs are? Coach Paul Wulff has even essentialy thrown in the towel just two short weeks into the season, and will be benching Kevin Lopina in favor of Marshall Lobbestael in order to look to the future. The Cougars will score some points, but with SMU likely in cruise control to get to 40, it's hard to see this unit keeping up.
Morale is incredibly low in Washington State. The Hawaii loss was extremely dejecting for players and fans alike, and losing Jeshua Anderson really puts the nail in the coffin. Hard to see the fans being particularly amped up for this one, and a few quick scores by SMU will quiet down what little energy they have left.
SMU is not getting nearly enough respect here with this spread, which should easily be at around two touchdowns. Lay the points on the road for the Mustangs to crush the Cougars.
The Pick: Southern Methodist -6 (-110)