The Independent Voice of Southern Methodist University Since 1915

The Daily Campus

The Daily Campus

The Independent Voice of Southern Methodist University Since 1915

The Daily Campus

The Independent Voice of Southern Methodist University Since 1915

The Daily Campus

SMU Juniors Jaisan Avery and Kayla Spears paint together during Curlchella hosted by SMU Fro, Dallas Texas, Wednesday April 17, 2024 (©2024/Mikaila Neverson/SMU).
SMU Fro's Curlchella recap
Mikaila Neverson, News Editor • April 23, 2024
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‘There is no earthly way of knowing, which of these QBs are throwing’

Not only did SMU get embarrassed in Denton at the hands of UNT, but for the second straight week, Head Coach and Offensive ‘guru’ June Jones seemed completely lost strategically.

We are at the beginning of life after Garrett Gilbert and so far, it is pretty darn ugly.

Jones doesn’t seem to know what to do offensively and what’s worse, he doesn’t seem to have a quarterback.

Coming out of training camp, it seemed as if Neal Burcham had matured from the jumpy ineffective freshman we saw at the end of last season when Gilbert was injured.

Burcham was in a heated battle for the starting job with transfer Matt Davis and Kolney Cassel. Somewhere around the second week of camp, Burcham established himself as the starter and consistently demonstrated that he was superior to the other arms on the roster.

The problem is, he did all this in practice. So far in live action, he has been awful. You know it, I know it and June knows it.

Against Baylor, Burcham threw for 59 yards on 15 of 26 passing. He only played one half in Denton and finished the day with 99 yards and two interceptions on 12 of 22 passing.

We expected to see another quarterback in the second half and we did. However, what we actually got was weird and worse than what we got from Burcham.

June decided to implement a bizarre rotating quarterback strategy with Davis and Cassel. Davis only attempted a couple throws and ultimately Cassel saw the bulk of the snaps.

Even still, it was weird to see Davis throw an incomplete pass, run off the field so Cassel could throw an incompletion and then run back on to hand it off.

Ultimately the pair finished with 167 yards and one touchdown on 12 of 23 passes. Keep in mind that the bulk of that yardage came in garbage time and the touchdown was the result of a Hail Mary with four seconds left in the blowout.

I don’t know who SMU’s quarterback will be and I don’t think anyone can say for sure.

What I do know is that June doesn’t seem to have any answers, and that’s not good.

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