SMU Football: Can Mustangs challenge for the AAC crown in 2020?

SMU football broke out in 2019 with an eight-game winning streak before falling back to earth. Can the Mustangs pose a serious threat in the 2020 AAC race?

For the first few months of the 2019 season, it felt like the clock had turned back a few decades and the Pony Express reigned supreme in Dallas once more. SMU rattled off eight straight wins to start the season, including a takedown of Metroplex rival TCU in the Battle for the Iron Skillet. If you squinted, you could imagine Ron Meyer patrolling the sidelines instead of Sonny Dykes.

The wheels eventually came off the runaway train, though, as the Mustangs lost two of their final four regular-season games to fall out of American Athletic Conference contention. SMU then collapsed against Florida Atlantic in the Boca Raton Bowl, losing by 24 points on the Owls’ home field.

Nevertheless, it was the first 10-win season at SMU since 1984. For a program still recovering decades after its death penalty, the Mustangs offered a ton of hope to their fan base for the first time in a long while. Now, for Dykes and his staff, the trick is maintaining those gains and consolidating their position as a perennial AAC contender.

Is this the year for SMU to challenge for the conference crown, especially now that there is no longer a division race to deal with in the American? Let’s dive in to look at the offense and defense at SMU before breaking down the 2020 Mustangs schedule and making some predictions on how the next campaign will play out.