PirateIllustrated.com - SMU will provide stiff test

October 5, 2009

Mark Lindsay
PirateIllustrated.com Publisher

GREENVILLE, N.C. - With a 21-17 win over Marshall under their belt, Skip Holtz and staff turn their attention to week six and another road trip.

The Pirates were able to contain Darius Marshall in terms of major explosion plays with his longest being a 22 yard run on Saturday against a stingy ECU defense that continues to improve.

"From a defensive standpoint Saturday, I thought there were a million positives to build on," Holtz stated, "One of the big things we had talked about was to keep the ball in front of us and not to give up the big play. I thought our defense really did a really good job of that."

Holtz called the Marshall contest "a well played ballgame where both teams fought hard."

While Holtz is more pleased with the defense, his Pirate offense showed some positive signs on Saturday as well.

"Offensively, I was excited to see us put some drives together. Two of the big bright spots were what we did on third down, converting 50 percent to keep some drives alive, and to take the ball into the redzone and put three touchdowns on the board. That was the difference in the game. We were both in the redzone three times. They scored two touchdowns and kicked a field goal down there and we scored three touchdowns."

This week it's SMU where June Jones is slowly putting his stamp on the Mustang football program. Expect SMU to throw it all over the lot as is the M.O. of Conference USA West teams.

According to Holtz, it will be "a battle of wills to see who wills on both sides of the ball" when the black and blue division meets the wide open shootum' up West Division in Dallas this Saturday.

"SMU has a really good football team. They're 2-2 right now. I think Coach Jones has done a really good job of building this program. When you look at the number of players that are back from last year and the improvements, it's really remarkable the job Coach Jones has done."

SMU will play a 3-4 defense and will be dancing around blitzing, dropping, stunting, twisting and about anything else they can come up with.

On offense the Mustangs have only given up four sacks all year where quarterback B.L. Mitchell and company can score from anywhere on the field.

"That's what makes them dangerous," said Holtz, "It's totally different than anything we've seen all year and almost like putting Navy in the middle of your schedule," said Holtz denoting that there won't be much carryover in tactics from the Marshall game last week when ECU faces SMU.

"Offensively, they're throwing it all over the yard and putting up huge numbers. They're ranked second in the conference in passing offense. They're wide open and can score from anywhere. They have speed. If you were to compare their offense to one in our conference, they're most like Houston with the type of numbers SMU is putting up."

When asked if that means more checking off at the line, Holtz went in the opposite direction and said what you do is contain the edges to cover the blitz and stick with your play call.

Terrance Campbell is questionable for this week while Michael Bowman and J.R. Rogers move closer to their return to the practice field this week. Holtz says he will have to wait and see how they respond this week along with wide receiver Jamar Bryant who missed last week's game in Huntington due to a concussion.

John Gutekenst has joined the Pirates as a defensive coach filling in for Rock Roggeman who is on indefinate medical leave.

SMU is smaller up front than most but will be an athletic group to deal with this Saturday when 3-2 East Carolina takes their undefeated Conference USA record into Gerald Ford Stadium to take on the (2-2,1-0)Mustangs in an 8pm EDT kickoff.

PI subscribers can catch today's Skip Holtz Monday Press Conference in it's entirety on Pillage-N-Plunder

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