SMU football might just be a New Year’s Six threat, after all

SMU football pulled rabbits out of their hats to survive a triple-overtime thriller against Tulsa. The Mustangs are now 6-0 for the first time since 1982.

By all rights, Tulsa should be celebrating a statement win on the road against a ranked opponent. The Golden Hurricane took a 23-9 lead into the locker room at halftime against No. 24 SMU in Dallas, and they extended their lead to 21 points on a third-quarter touchdown. Bearing a number next to their name for the first time since 1986, the Mustangs looked to be wilting under the unfamiliar target.

But Xavier Jones punched in the first of his two touchdowns with 62 seconds remaining in regulation, taking a sweep to the left pylon on 4th-and-2 four yards from the Tulsa goal line. That touchdown tied things up at 30-30, capping a wild fourth quarter where the Mustangs scored three touchdowns to pull off a comeback at home.

Trading touchdowns in the first overtime period, it looked like SMU was doomed in the second overtime when Jones fumbled the football and gave Tulsa the chance to win the game on a field goal. But Jacob Rainey missed a 43-yard kick, and the game with to a third overtime. The Golden Hurricane missed a second straight kick, as Zack Long came into the game and failed to connect from 42 yards.

SMU needed just a field goal to win, but they weren’t about to win by such pedestrian means. Shane Buechele heaved the ball up to James Proche, who fell backward and caught the ball off defender Brandon Johnson.

At first the play was ruled incomplete after the two players fell out of bounds. But replay revealed that Proche got his foot down in the endzone before getting dragged out of play, and the overturned call sent the crowd at Gerald J. Ford Stadium into a frenzy.

Buechele finished the game with 280 passing yards and two touchdowns as he completed 23 of his 40 attempts against the Golden Hurricane. Jones finished the night with 121 yards and a pair of scores on the ground to pace an otherwise-nonexistent ground game. Tulsa did everything right for almost every play, but those few mistakes proved fatal in the end.

SMU will hold on to their position in the AP Top 25 this week after surviving Tulsa, and they are hearkening back to the glory days of the Pony Express with each successive win. This year’s squad became the first Mustangs team since 1982 to win six straight to start the season.

That legendary group featured a high-powered offense led by backfield stars Eric Dickerson and Craig James and option quarterback Lance McIlhenny, and also boasted one of the strongest defenses in the country. SMU ended the 1982 season 11-0-1 as the only unbeaten team in the country but finished second in the AP Top 25 and Coaches Poll behind one-loss Penn State.

This year’s SMU team can go unbeaten, and they will also have no shot at a national championship due to the barriers to entry standing in the way for Group of Five teams. But the 2019 Mustangs can still put together a season to remember and finally write a new chapter to move beyond the rise and fall of those 1980s teams that ultimately brought the death penalty to Dallas.