DALLAS — SMU may be considering joining a frequent flyer program given the distance its football team travels for road games against Stanford and Duke. The Mustangs will travel about 6,000 miles round trip for road trips to the California-based Cardinals and North Carolina-based Blue Devils.
Fortunately, the Mustangs have a week off before their game against Stanford, which should help them ease some of the jet lag and adjust to the two-hour time difference, but for SMU and the rest of the conference, this will be business as usual in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
But when the game begins, the Mustangs will face a Cardinals team that has a 3-9 record in 2023. One of those wins is a double-overtime victory over a Deion Sanders-led Colorado team, but neither of those wins came at home.
The big question will be how much Stanford's second-year coach Troy Taylor has improved his team. As we continue to profile SMU's opponents for next season, here's what SMU fans can expect from the matchup on Oct. 19.
The return of Ashton Daniels and Eric Ayomanor should help Taylor's plan for improvement. The two were key players in Stanford's win over Colorado last season. Daniels passed for 396 yards that day, while Ayomanor caught 294 of them. Tyger Beachmeyer, who was second in receiving yards last year with 409, also returns.
Stanford's offensive line hasn't been as strong as it once was, but all five starters return for the 2024 season, which should improve the team's rushing attack, which averaged 118 yards per game. Daniels led Stanford's rushing attack last year (288 yards, three touchdowns), but Cedric Irvin, cousin of NFL Hall of Famer Michael Irvin, led all non-quarterback returners with 26 carries for 113 yards and one touchdown.
For Taylor, the biggest challenge in improving the Cardinal isn't on the offensive side of things, but rather on the defensive side: Of the 130 FBS college teams, only one team, the North Texas Mean Green, had a worse defense than Stanford in 2023.
Opponents averaged 462 yards and 37 points against the Cardinal, and were 82nd in team sacks with 23. Their red zone defense was one of their betters, allowing opponents to score on 44 of 54 red zone trips, ranking in the top 50 nationally (Louisville was first with 23 points on 34 attempts).
Stanford's defense returns its four best players in linebackers Gaythan Bernadel (76 tackles, four tackles for loss) and Tristan Sinclair (68 tackles, five TFLs), cornerback Collin Wright (60 tackles, five TFLs) and defensive tackle Anthony Franklin (three sacks), plus linebacker transfer Ja'Chiah Galbon, who recorded 77 tackles last year at Northern Iowa.
For the second straight game, SMU will face a team that played Notre Dame the week before, and once again, the Mustangs could benefit from a Stanford team dealing with the consequences of playing against a tough opponent.
The season opener between Stanford and TCU is the more interesting game for the Mustangs. Notre Dame is a better team than TCU, but the Cardinals and Horned Frogs game gives SMU a chance to get a better idea of how they will fare against Stanford.
SMU has a week off before traveling to California after a tough back-to-back against Florida State and Louisville. But the matchup with the Cardinals will be the start of a tough back-to-back that will depend more on the conditions on the field than who the Mustangs face. But SMU should feel confident in their chances of winning in California against a team that went 3-9 last season and was winless at home.
date: October 19
time: to be decided
tv set: to be decided
position: Stanford Stadium, Stanford, California.
series: Stanford leads the series 1-0
Last meeting: SMU and Stanford had met only once before, in the Rose Bowl in 1936, when Stanford won 7-0. The Mustangs had been shut out in eight of the previous 12 meetings, but a one-yard touchdown run by Stanford's Bill Pohlman was the lone score in the game, preventing Stanford from losing three straight Rose Bowl games.
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