(Photo: Seatgeek)
Campus Clash
(18) Pittsburgh Panthers at (20) SMU Mustangs
Pittsburgh: College football has been full of surprises this year. The ACC was supposed to be the Florida State Seminoles’ conference to lose and many thought they’d enter the year with a chip on their shoulder after going undefeated last season, making the conference title game, winning it and still missing the playoffs. Fast forward to now, they’ve been a disappointment and three teams have stood out to me this year in the conference. The first is the Miami Hurricanes and they have a legit Heisman candidate in Cam Ward, the Clemson Tigers have regrouped nicely after losing in week one to the Georgia Bulldogs and the Pittsburgh Panthers. Just as I’ve said with the Indiana Hoosiers, they’ve been a great story and Head Coach Pat Narduzzi is one of the front runners for Coach of the Year. Let’s look back at their last game against Syracuse. They scored 41 points and cruised to a victory. Eli Holstein wasn’t dominant, but he completed 11 of his 15 pass attempts for 108 yards and two touchdown passes, but the most important stat is no interceptions. What impressed me was their defense in that win as they intercepted Kyle McCord five times. On the season, the Pittsburgh Panthers average 40 points per game. This is an offense that can run and gun it and score quickly. Their offense is ranked 6th in the conference. What a year it’s been for this group. This Saturday night, they will make their way to Texas to take on the Mustangs of SMU.
SMU: Making that transition from one conference to another can be challenging for some teams. They’ve accepted the challenge and have played very well this year. This past weekend, they had a showdown with the Duke Blue Devils and needed overtime to escape with a one-point victory. When I think of the ACC, physical, hard-hitting, blue-collar football comes to mind. They’ve added that track meet style of offense that I always find myself describing. Mustangs are fast and the same can be said about the football team too. On the year, these SMU Mustangs average a little over 39 points per game which is ranked 15th in the ACC and the defense gives up about 21 points per game. I can say they are extremely lucky to have won that game against Duke on Saturday. What concerned me was the play of Quarterback, Kevin Jennings who completed 13 of his 24 pass attempts for 258 yards with one touchdown and three interceptions along with losing two fumbles. Turnovers are a momentum killer and the team that fails to take care of the football will more than likely lose the game. Head Coach Rhett Lashlee made a Quarterback switch in their fourth game and decided to bench the original starter, Preston Stone. Here they are now at 7-1 and this Saturday, they will welcome the Pittsburgh Panthers to town.
Pittsburgh X-Factor: Rasheem Biles– This Pitt defense has a group of dogs and he’s one of them. I like how Rasheem is always playing downhill and is always finding his way to the football. He was a key contributor in the Panthers win over Cuse last week and I expect him to have the same impact on Saturday night in Texas. He picked off McCord and took it to the house for a pick-six. Raheem is disruptive and always looks to be that menace to an offense. I’m talking about the one guy that does multiple things on the field.
SMU X-Factor: Brashard Smith– He’s a key playmaker to this Mustangs offensive attack. Brashard is an all-purpose back who can impact the football game as both a runner and a receiver. You can look up and altogether, he will have 170 total yards. He can finish a game with 125 yards or even more on the ground rushing and catch four to five passes for over 60 yards. Brashard is a smooth runner that can wiggle his way through traffic and turn the jets on in the next tiers of the defense.
Final Analysis: Come Saturday, the calendar will be switched to November and that’s what I refer to as “Statement November” which allows teams to bolster their playoff chances and the road to a playoff spot will appear for many teams. This is an important game for the playoff picture. Pittsburgh has been a pleasant surprise sitting at 7-0 and SMU is 7-1. Who will be the starting Quarterback for the Mustangs? I remember seeing Kevin Jennings getting hurt last weekend against Duke. Will Rhett turn back to Preston Stone? This is an SMU offense that wants to run the football and they can, but it’ll be a challenge against a Pitt team that’s been stout all year in defending the run. I see this as an electric atmosphere on Saturday night. I see the Panthers offense stepping up in a big way here and I expect Holstein to be better than he was last week against Syracuse. I’m picking Pitt to win this football game.
Prediction: Pittsburgh 40, SMU 21
