Game with Prairie View Could Be Test, Just not What You Think

Mustangs can't afford any kind of letdown, but there likely won't be one

It would be easy for some to think SMU might be overlooking Prairie View A&M on Saturday night at Gerald J. Ford Stadium. They know the difference in talent between the Panthers and Oklahoma, a ranked opponent the Mustangs took deep into the fourth quarter of a 28-11 loss.

"We went there to win," Ponies coach Rhett Lashlee said Wednesday. "We didn't get it done. We've got to learn from it so that doesn't happen again. We're going to have plenty of games this year that we're going to be in similar situations, and we've got to make sure the outcome is different."

The coaches flushed it, probably before they got back to work Sunday morning. That's the way coaches do things. Now they've got avoid any hangover, but that probably won't be judged in the final score. They are looking at how they arrive at whatever the final score turns out to be. Barring nearly everybody being disqualified before the game, that number shouldn't be that close.

"I do like the urgency, especially (Wednesday's practice)," Lashlee said. "Knowing we've got a game Saturday and we want to get that winning feeling back and we want to play well."

Urgency at midweek is one thing. Doing more than that is something altogether. It requires focus from the players.

"It's just the way we are intent, the way we approach practice, the way we approach meetings and lift," quarterback Preston Stone said. "After playing a big game like that, it can be easy to kind of fall into a lull. That that falls on the leadership on the team, making sure that we're trying to be as intentional as possible when we go into meetings and going out to the practice field."

A lot of people say there's a natural lull for athletes after a close loss like last week. That's not it. It's more accurate to say they take the next game lightly. They are headed to the ACC and there won't be many breaks in the schedule every year.

"We definitely need to see things click regardless of who we're playing," Lashlee said. "Prairie View, they've got a dynamic quarterback from right down the road. We can't let him get loose on us. Offensively, we just need to execute cleaner. It's not like we're sloppy. We had the one fumble, the last turnover, whatever, look, we had the one fumble. We've got to protect better, we've got to run it better. We're not busting a lot, we've just got to execute better if we want to be a really good offense and score against good defenses."

Kickoff for the game is 6 p.m. and will only be available on fuboTV.