SMU Can't Afford to Let UC Davis Make Saturday Interesting

SMU waited nearly two extra hours to kick off Monday night, survived four turnovers and escaped Tallahassee after midnight with a three-point win.

By Saturday afternoon, none of it should matter.

No. 17 SMU will play its second game in less than five days when UC Davis visits Ford Stadium. Monday's opener at Florida State didn't kick off until 8:15 p.m. CST after a power outage delayed the game by nearly two hours.

The Mustangs escaped with a 27-24 win, returned to Dallas and immediately started preparing for another opponent.

That's a difficult turnaround. It's also irrelevant to the standard SMU has created for itself.

UC Davis shouldn't be a problem Saturday.

The Aggies deserve respect. They're 2-0, ranked No. 6 in the FCS and reached the quarterfinals of the FCS playoffs last season.

Rhett Lashlee knows what is coming.

"They just win," Lashlee said this week. "We got our work cut out for us."

READ MORE: SMU's Yannick Smith Scouts Debut vs. Florida State

He's right.

SMU should win anyway — and it shouldn't require another fourth-quarter escape.

Monday showed both sides of what the Mustangs can be this season. Kevin Jennings threw for a career-high 430 yards and three touchdowns. SMU finished with 585 yards, converted eight of 14 third downs and moved the ball well enough to control the game.

Four turnovers kept that from happening.

Instead, SMU needed Nick Reed to drill a 20-yard field goal with 21 seconds remaining to leave Tallahassee unbeaten.

That's survivable against Florida State. It can't become a habit.

SMU has reached the point where beating UC Davis isn't enough to tell us much. The Mustangs are ranked inside the Top 20. They have legitimate ACC aspirations. Louisville is waiting next weekend.

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Saturday should look like the gap between those expectations and an FCS opponent.

That means no early turnovers giving UC Davis life. No spending three quarters waiting for the offense to wake up. No allowing Monday's bizarre circumstances to linger into Saturday afternoon.

It means taking control and staying there.

UC Davis is talented enough to punish SMU if the Mustangs invite it into the game. That's exactly why they shouldn't.

Monday was messy. The power went out, kickoff got pushed deep into the night and SMU gave the ball away four times. The Mustangs found a way through all of it and left Tallahassee with the win they needed.

There was plenty to admire about that.

There would be even more to like Saturday if SMU never needs to prove it can survive another one.

The Mustangs have spent enough time dealing with chaos this week.

Against UC Davis, they should be the reason the game feels inevitable.