#50 SMU

Dallas, TX

Gerald J. Ford Stadium

September 11, 2021

SMU 35 - North Texas 12 (ESPN Recap)

Demitrus and I arrived to Dallas and parked one block from stadium at a CVS parking lot for free. Walked to the commons of SMU’s campus and really regretted not getting to spend more time hopping around their set ups. Strong tailgate presence at SMU rated a solid B+ and definitively better than TCU. We only had 45 mins before having to enter for kickoff, but soaked in the layout, got some food, and took our seats. SMU has a beautiful campus which had a Tufts vibe to it.

With Shane Buechele graduated and most of the receiving core also gone, it was unclear to me whether the highlight for the evening was Peruna the Pony, the endzone hill, or UNT thinking they were ever in the game.

Pre-game, took SMU TTU 48.0 which was a lock all game long after they threw up a bagel in Q1 and were winning 7-6 at the half. At halftime, went harder on UNT 2H TTU 10.5 and SMU -10 (effective -11.0 for game). Sweeper 3-0 but not without some funky sweat in the final 5 minutes for the UNT TT which involved bad play calling by both teams (SMU’s QB1 fumbled on their own 45 trying to run out clock with 4 mins left).

Halftime was fully dedicated to the 20th anniversary of 9/11 which was sobering and nice.

Peruna was a star, but look at these videos of the organized chaos of kids on the hill (metal grates and cement edges)! They didn’t even know a football game was going on. They just went out for the night with mom and dad to sled the grass on cardboard and did 250 runs apiece.

Demitrus then showed me Deep Ellum part of town which I wish I could have enjoyed more, but was exhausted and had a 5:45am wakeup Sunday to get back to DFW for flight to JAC. My parking luck for the day ran out and got hit with a ticket on my rental car, but overall was a win for the day.

Run Peruna!

Stellar North Texas defense...

MVP hill sledding