Liberty at SMU Game Preview

Know your opponent: Liberty is far from a household name but being the non-conference FBS punching bag has given the Flames a bit more visibility in recent years. Liberty has defeated only a total of four FBS teams but their defense is a unit that is cause for Mustang concern this week. Liberty has scored 33 cumulative points off turnovers this season but something tells me they won’t be up to challenge SMU’s speed of play.

Know yourself: The Mustangs had a lot to improve upon in the week between Baylor and Liberty but the one person fans really want to see play well this week is quarterback Ben Hicks. Hicks showed a lot of potential against Baylor with poised leadership and some smart decisions. Unfortunately, all anyone will ever see is those three turnovers. Hopefully, Hicks will be calm and collected this week so that he can throw more passes to the nation’s leader in yards per catch. Who’s that you might be wondering? It’s Courtland Sutton. On offense, SMU will look to get more targets involved in the passing game and hopefully (fingers crossed) Xavier Jones will be back in for the Mustangs. On defense, all anyone can hope for is that they replicate their performance against Baylor because that was a fantastic first half of football from Van Malone’s squad.

Matchup to Watch: This week, expect to see Justin Lawler working extra hard to put pressure on Liberty quarterback Stephon Masha. Masha has three turnovers already this season and with added defensive pressure he’s bound to make more mistakes. I’m predicting that Lawler will have another big game with at least two sacks and plenty of quarterback hits/hurries. The Flames don’t throw all that much but when Masha does throw, hopefully Darrion Millines or one of the other interception magnets is on the other end.

Matchup to Worry about: And here comes the reason Masha doesn’t throw the ball a whole lot. Liberty’s running game has been pretty consistent this season. Their three running backs, Todd Macon, Carrington Mosley and Frankie Hickson have all rushed for more than 100 yards in two games and their three back strategy seems to be working for them. However, based on how SMU’s defense performed against Baylor, I don’t see the Liberty triplets really blowing the game open for the Flames.

Prediction: There’s an approximate 5 percent chance SMU disappoints us all and blows this home opener against Liberty. If SMU was to lose this game it would be more disheartening than the game against JMU last year and considering the team is actually starting to get some support from the student body, they can’t afford to put a home loss in the books. Not to mention SMU"s bowl eligibility will tank if they lose. I’m predicting a solid 38-13 win for SMU over Liberty.

PS. Don’t forget to wear white!