Section B · Page 14
The University Daily Kansan
Friday, October 1, 1999
Southern Methodist strives for first win of season
Mustangs still suffering from NCAA sanctions
By Michael Rigg sports@kansan.com Kansan writerswriter
A glance through the history section of the Southern Methodist football media guide reads like a Who's Who of college football.
At some point in their careers, Doak Walker, Eric Dickerson, Forrest Gregg, Don Meredith and Don King all played for the Mustangs.
Along with the individual success, Southern Methodist has had an illustrious team history as well. The Mustangs have won four of the 10 bowl games they have appeared in and won the 1935 national championship.
While the majority of the century has had some bright spots for Southern Methodist, the program took a turn for
the worse in 1987. After the NCAA uncovered serious infractions committed by the football program, the NCAA slapped the "death penalty" on the Mustang football program. The school's punishment was it could not field a football team in the 1987 and 1988 seasons. The Mustangs have had limited success since.
Because of these violations, Southern Methodist has had only three winning seasons and four seasons in which they only won a single game.
Despite a wintess season so far, the 1999 Mustangs, 0-3, hope to take a blast to the past when they play Kansas at 1 p.m. tomorrow at Memorial Stadium — their first trip to Lawrence in 44 years. Southern Methodist has never lost to Kansas in Lawrence. In fact, the Jayhawks' lone win against Southern Methodist occurred in 1952 in Dallas.
The Mustangs are a youthful bunch, as 26 of Southern Methodist's players are playing their first seasons of college football. Mustangs coach Mike Cavan said this lack of experience could cause problems for his team tomorrow.
"I wish I could put my team in a time capsule and make them have experience this weekend," Cavan said. "We just have to keep putting the young players in the game and have them develop that way."
Among these young players are sophmore Josh McCown and freshman Kelan Luker, who both split time at quarterback for the Mustangs. McCown, who is the younger brother of Texas A&M quarterback Randy McCown, has started all three games this season, but Luker took the majority of the snaps against Hawaii. Cavan said
this two-quarterback system would remain in place against the Jayhawks tomorrow.
"Luker is not quite ready to play right now, but we need to get him some experience in case we lose Josh," Cavan said. "Generally, you roll quarterbacks because one has not taken over command from the other."
Offensive lineman Austin Adami said that it made no difference which quarterback was in the huddle.
"The quarterback decision shouldn't affect the team as a whole, and the quarterbacks that we have are both capable of getting the job done." Adami said.
Along with the vital quarterback position, youth is a common theme for the Mustangs at several other key positions. Southern Methodist starts two freshmen at each cornerback position, and freshmen wide receivers Cody Carwell and Cris Cunningham both receive substantial playing time for the Mustangs.
While Southern Methodist's youth ha
"I wish I could put my team in a time capsule and make them have experience this weekend. We just have to keep putting the young players in the game and have them develop that way."
Mike Cavan SMU coach
its upsides, Cavan said his team's inexperience had led to many mistakes this season, such as last week's three-turnover, 10-penalty performance against Hawaii. With the disappointment of the Hawaii loss, coupled with Kansas' disappointing season, Cavan made one promise for tomorrow's game.
"Saturday, we will see two teams that are going to battle for a win, Cayan said.
Special teams run hot,cold for the Tigers
- Edited by Brad Hallier
The Associated Press
Sometimes it's for good plays. Last week,
against No. 6 Nebraska, it was for bad ones.
COLUMBIA, Mo. — Whether it's for long, accurate field goals or errand, havoc-wreaking deep snaps, Missouri's special teams seem to be spending an awful lot of time in the spotlight.
Two snaps flew over Missouri punter Jared Gilpin's head, leading to nine Nebraska points and resulting in a 40-10 Cornhusker victory.
In its first game of the season, Missouri (2-1) had two punts blocked by Alabama-Birmingham. Both were returned for touchdowns. The Tigers also blocked one of their own and returned it for a touchdown.
Last season, the Tigers missed six extra point attempts, only made four field goals and fumbled a crucial fourth-quarter punt in a 17-14 loss to Texas A&M. They also blocked three punts and returned a blocked field goal for a touchdown in their 34-31 Insight.com bowl win.
"I have to look at the glass as half full," said coach Larry Smith. "If you chart the number of points our special teams have created or scored, it'll be more than they've given up. We made a lot of special teams mistakes because they're glaring and jump out at you."
Most noticeable were the wild hikes by sophomore long snapper Ben Davidson. He agreed with the assessment of coaches and fellow players — nerves led to the mistakes.
"I did my practice snaps on the sidelines just like always," Davidson said after the game. "They were perfect. I got a bit emotional and tried to throw too hard, I guess."
The flip side of special teams foibles is Missouri sophomore kicker Brad Hammerich, who has enjoyed success. Last season, Hammerich only attempted one field goal — a last-second 56-yarder against Texas A&M that fell short of the end zone. This year Hammerich has made all four field goal attempts, including kicks of 47 and 48 yards.
Hammerich credits his success to being given the opportunity, recovering from an injury and learning how to handle pressure.
"You want to keep your cool out there," Hammerich said. "It's a real stressful position actually. Everybody looks at you because you're the center of attention for that play."
Smith said he still had confidence in Davidson, enough to put him back in the action tomorrow when Missouri played at Memphis (1-3).
After Davidson's first snap against Nebraska, Smith greeted him on the sideline with a smile. His reason for it became clear when he talked about how a player learned to keep his cool
"The best form of composure is through experience," Smith said. "Experience will build confidence. Confidence builds composure. But how people react around a player who has had a bad play is important. That can lead one way or the other. So you can coach it somewhat."
Kyle Ramsey/KANSAN
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