Mustangs Wholesome, Prepared For The Begin Of ACC Play

The SMU soccer group is again at Ford Stadium for the primary time in a month as ACC play begins towards Syracuse on Saturday.

After a 2-2 begin to the season, the Mustangs are prepared to show the web page to the convention season the place all the things begins recent.

“If you’re 4-0, it’s a new season. If you’re 0-4, it’s a new season,” SMU head coach Rhett Lashlee mentioned. “We have an opportunity on Saturday to get a win at home, and if we can get that win we’ll be 1-0 and tied for the lead in the conference just like that. So we’ve got to do the things this week to prepare and earn the right to win on Saturday, so that’s what we’re working on.”

SMU entered the open week coming off a tricky loss at TCU. It was the second time the Mustangs led sooner or later within the fourth quarter, however did not get the win. 

That does not deter the group shifting ahead. If something, it has refocused the Mustangs on their objective — together with an everyday season 17-game convention profitable streak.

“I think the morale’s great. We’ve lost two games with fourth-quarter leads,” Lashlee mentioned. “We have high expectations for ourselves, we have higher expectations than people outside the building do. Last year we were 3-1, the year before we were 2-2 at the same point, both years we played in the conference championship game.”

In these losses had been simply little issues that turned the tide of the video games. Part of the work carried out in the course of the bye was to wash these up, so they do not come again to get the Mustangs once more throughout ACC play.

“I think that’s the main emphasis right there, being consistent throughout everything,” quarterback Kevin Jennings mentioned. “There’s plays where I look good and plays where I look bad, so just having way more better plays than bad plays, being more consistent and just bringing my team along with me. I think as long as we play our hardest and go out there and execute our best plays, nobody will be able to stop us.”

Syracuse comes into the sport following two very completely different outcomes. The Orange went to Clemson and returned with a 34-21 victory. But they misplaced their beginning quarterback for the season. 

Last week, Syracuse misplaced 38-3 towards Duke. But backup quarterback Rickie Collins now has a begin underneath his belt and the final week can have been spent cleansing issues up.

“It’s still the same team, even if they have a different quarterback, that went on the road and was beating Clemson by 20 midway through the fourth quarter,” Lashlee mentioned. “They’re a dangerous team, they’ve won 13 games in less than a year and a half, so we’ve got to attack and be aggressive, but that’s kind of what we have to do regardless. It’s a challenge.”

The Mustangs will not take them calmly. 

“Football is football though, anybody has the talent to come out and beat a team,” offensive lineman PJ Williams mentioned. “Syracuse is a great team. I’m not going to bash them or talk down on them because they went out and beat Clemson. They had a couple upsets, they beat Miami last year, so they’re coming from a good culture.”

There has additionally been work put in by the Mustangs to take their subsequent step. The protection is aware of there have been some letdowns, nevertheless it additionally is aware of the potential is there. 

So, they only saved going to work.

“Every week, every day we get better,” linebacker Alexander Kilgore mentioned. “Coach (Scott) Symons comes in here on Monday and presents us a challenge for Tuesday morning, or for the walkthrough later in the day on Monday, and we always accept it, hold our chest high, chin up and we go out and day by day, brick by brick (get better).”

Coach Lashlee famous that all the things remains to be in entrance of the Mustangs. If they do what they’ve carried out the previous two seasons and go undefeated in convention play and attain the convention championship recreation, they are going to give themselves an opportunity to be again within the College Football Playoff image.

But that each one begins with one recreation, Saturday.

“That’s the good part, those games, you’ve got to learn from mistakes, you’ve got to learn from failure.” Lashlee mentioned. “Failure’s not wrong, mistakes aren’t wrong, it’s when you don’t learn from them that they’re a problem. If we learn from them, those will help us as we now control things moving forward. We just need to get a hard-fought win somehow, someway this Saturday at home and get to 1-0 in our conference. That will help our confidence grow.”