Frogs defeat SMU in defensive contest
The Frogs defeat their arch rivals on Saturday, in a game featuring conservative play calling, lots of punts and strong defense.
By Danny Gillham
Sports Editor

The battle for the Iron Skillet on Saturday featured two coaches whose philosophy leaned towards the defensive side of the ball.

And it showed on the field.

The game was highlighted by conservative running attacks, with neither team seeming to want to risk making a mistake. Of the 130 offensive plays, only 50 were pass attempts. The Frogs won the game 17-6.

Despite the look of a risk-free offense, senior wide receiver LaTarence Dunbar said the team was trying to run the ball to open up the big plays downfield.

“We approached the game to score a lot of points, and show people that we have an offense,” Dunbar said. “We dropped a couple of passes, and a couple of missed blocks. If we would have got them, we would have scored a lot more points.”

Head Coach Gary Patterson said the defensive struggle did not come as a surprise to him.

“They play good defense,” Patterson said. “I’ve been saying this all along, and I didn’t know why anybody else thought it was going to be any different from that. That group of kids for three years has played hard.”

The Frogs (2-1, 0-1 Conference USA) began opening up the offense in the second half by taking vertical shots downfield. Wide receiver Kevin Brown even got into the act, taking a lateral an attempting a deep pass to senior Adrian Madise.

The big shot downfield came in the fourth quarter, when senior quarterback Sean Stilley found a wide open Dunbar down the middle for a 64-yard touchdown pass.

Patterson said he told Stilley spreading the ball in the last 30 minutes.

“I talked to him at halftime about taking some shots vertically,” Patterson said. “As a defensive coach you start watching people, and I felt like their whole secondary was starting to sit down on us.”

Stilley said the play was one that Dunbar has been wanting to run all season.

“The (past) three games, he’s said something when we came to the sidelines,” Stilley said. “He actually didn’t do it (Saturday), but in the last few games he has.”

The Frogs will now face North Texas on Saturday at Amon Carter Stadium. Last season the Frogs defeated the Mean Green 19-5 in Denton.

Patterson said he doesn’t expect Mean Green’s defensive intensity to be a drop off from SMU.