2008 Week 3

SMU pulled off a major upset tonight, knocking off heavy favorite Texas Tech. Here's Bob Smith with the full story.

After going 1-11 last season and opening this year with a loss to rival Rice, not many people had hope in SMU this year. This might just be the game to change their minds.

Coming into the game SMU thought they had a chance; if they could stop Harrell and Crabtree on offense, they knew they could suceed on offense behind the calm, collected Rhodes.

In the first quarter TTU won the toss and chose to recieve the ball. Michael Crabtree set what some thought would be the tone on the opening kickoff running 31 yards before someone could bring him down. In a surprisingly out of character drive for TTU, Harrell threw 3 incomplete passes in a row to give the ball back to SMU.

Getting the ball with about 60 yards of TT Turf to go would be intimidating to some players, but not Zach Rhodes and Demyron Martin, marching calmly down the field for a 4 1/2 minute drive down the field. Everytime it seemed TTU would get the ball back it would be either Rhodes slinging the ball down field or Martin running over a tackle to get to the chains. Then when everyone in the stadium expected a FG to make the score 3-0, Coach Roberts pulled a fast one and ran a fake FG with holder Logan Turner calmly running in untouched. After SMU's initial TD the rest of the quarter went uneventfully, ending the quarter 7-0 SMU.

The second quarter proved to be the time for TT to get a TD of their own after both teams held each other out of the end zone until 42 seconds were left in the half and TT was able to throw to a wide open James in the corner of the endzone, ending the half tied 7-7.

The third quarter was another defensive showcase from both teams, only SMU would score on a Field Goal midway through the quarter, leaving the score 10-7.

In the fourth the tiredness of both defenses showed a little as SMU was able to score on a nice 8 yard rush on what many thought would be the sealing TD of the game. But TTU still had some fight left in them and went to the end, Scoring a TD with only 27 seconds left on the clock, making the score 17-14 SMU. TTU tried for a Onside kick but the ball bounce carelessly to SMU's waiting hands team and all hopes of a comeback, and national championship dreams, were ended for the Texas Tech Red Raiders. Final Score: 17-14 SMU Mustangs.