Suddenly, Utah's game with SMU Saturday in the Cotton Bowl (6 p.m. KJZZ) appears a lot tougher than it did just a couple of weeks ago.
At the start of the season, it looked like one of those "sure" victories for the Utes, seeing how the Mustangs were picked for seventh place in the WAC Mountain Division after a 1-10 season, which included a 10-game losing streak.But now SMU is hot, coming off upset victories over Tulsa and Arkansas, the latter on the road by a 23-10 score. It's the first time since 1985 that the Mustangs have started the season 2-0. Not long after that, the football program received the first-ever "death penalty" from the NCAA for repeated violations and was shut down in 1987 and 1988.
Meanwhile, the Utes are 1-1, after losing in a big upset to Utah State and hanging on to beat Stanford last week.
The Mustangs are led by two players, quarterback Ramon Flanigan and linebacker Craig Swann. Ute coach Ron McBride calls them "special players," who are "great leaders" for the offense and the defense. "The other players feed off those two," he said.
Flanigan, who was named WAC offensive player of the week, is one of those quarterbacks who can hurt you with the run or the pass. He has gained 141 yards on the ground (and lost 56 on sacks) and passed for 289 yards and four touchdowns, completing 16 of 29 passes in two games.
Swann is just 5-11, 225 pounds, but has earned the nickname "The Hitman from Quitman" (he's from Quitman, Texas). Swann leads the team with 21 tackles and was the WAC Mountain Division defensive player of the week for his play against Tulsa.
In recent years, the Mustangs have been a run-and-shoot team, but this year they seem to be running the ball more (witness just 29 passes in two games).
Donte Womack and Bryan Harmon are the top two running backs with 122 and 92 yards, respectively, this season. The Utes feel they have a good chance to win if they can shut down the SMU running attack like they did last week in holding Stanford to just 60 net yards.
GAME NOTES: The SMU athletic director is Jim Copeland, who served in the same job at Utah in the late 1980s before moving to the University of Virginia . . . Just three days ago, the university changed hotels, moving its entire contingent from the Radisson near downtown to the Holiday Inn Select in north Dallas because the Radisson wouldn't allow the large Utah group a half-day's stay on Saturday like most hotels . . . This is the first-ever meeting between Utah and SMU in football.