Anyone, young or old, with any knowledge of the history of football in Texas knew that Southern Methodist University was not going to be a pushover. The University of Louisville football team was going to have its hands full with a Texas team playing in its second Atlantic Coast Conference game.
Texas is unrivaled in its love for football, the sport dominating the vast southwestern landscape and the lives of the inhabitants from beginning to end. SMU only needed a conference in which to participate, desparate even, willing to accept greatly discounted conference payouts to make it happen. Needing to prove themselves.
Sure enough. SMU would seize control of the game from the opening kickoff, needing only eight plays to march 75 yards for the opening touchdown. Laying down a gauntlet to the 50, 254 fans on an unseasonably hot October day. UofL.would retaliate on the next series of downs, thanks to a 53-yard pass play from Tyler Shough to Ahmai Huggins-Bruce.
But the first blow from SMU was still ringing in Louisville’s ear. Could be one of those days, be ready for anything. That first drive had been much too easy, exposing the UofL weakness once again for opposing mobile quarterbacks.
SMU’s Kevin Jennings looking like one of those future NFL quarterbacks at an MVP, running and passing with ease. For the day, he would rack up 271 yards passing, completing 21 or 27 attempts, and rush for 120 yards on 10 carries. The only person capable of stopping him seemed to be himself. Louisville would manage to hang around for the first half, even rally to tie the score in third quarter. But SMU would not be denied, walking away from L&N Stadium with a 34-27 win.
One had to feel badly for Louisville Coach Jeff Brohm following the loss, wondering why the Cardinals have been stubbing their toes so badly in their second consecutive loss that could easily have gone the other way. Maybe it’s the law of averages catching up Brohm after so many narrow escapes during his inaugural season in 2023. Or possibly an over reliance on the portal, with so many transfers coming hither and yonder. Don’t seem to be many high level high school recruits coming this way. He was obviously frustrated after the game.
And on the continued inability to handle a scrambling opposing quarterback:
“I thought that there was a lot of miscommunication. It starts with coaching as far as running what is called and being able to not have so many adjustments that are made when they go to empty, when the motion guys in. We need to have a simpler plan to make sure our guys can play what the call is. So, there was some confusion there. The inability to tackle and wrap up well so the tackling was not good. It starts with us, so we have to fix some things.”
