SMU DC Scott Symons: Loss to Oklahoma 'Frustrating'

Mustangs didn't have lot of folks picking upset, but they had a shot late

Nobody really thought SMU had much of a shot on the road against No. 18 Oklahoma, a team that could be the best team they play all season. Mustangs' defensive coordinator Scott Symons wanted to win the game, though.

On a positive note, the Ponies' coaches were trying to win the game. "The big thing that we talked about as a staff was getting it to a game in the fourth quarter and halftime was 14-3, is kind of what we told him, 'Hey, we're right there,'" defensive coordinator Scott Symons told the media Tuesday. "Then you get into the fourth, and it's 14-11 and we're one stop away from being able to change the dynamic and trajectory of that game. Frustrated that we came up short.

"There was stuff, too, that we emphasized as a staff that the No. 1 concept we knew that we're going to get on third-and-medium that we discussed all week, was in their tips, was in their quiz the night before and we didn't execute on it three times. And so that was frustrating. That was kind of the big coaching point to the guys was, when we talk about situational football how important that is because we limited them to four explosive plays."

The Sooners could never really break one of those. Symons' defense held OU's offense below what the Mustangs put up. It just wasn't good enough to win.

""We have really high expectations for our group and I want to make that clear," Symons said. "Are we proud of how tough we played, how hard we played? Absolutely. But there's also no moral victories in this and we lost the game that we felt like we could have had, and we were one stop away. I felt like, despite some of the circumstances in the game, it still was 14-11 in the fourth quarter. We get to stop right there, the way our offense had been eaten up clock in particular, I know they hadn't put necessarily all the time touchdowns on the board, but they did a great job, I felt like, keeping us off the field at times. But that's what we expect."

All of that's good to hear, but they've got to keep up the pace. SMU will host Prairie View on Saturday in Gerald J. Ford Stadium, kicking off at 6 p.m. on ESPN+. You can hear the game in the Metroplex on The Ticket 1310 AM / 96.7 FM.