FORT WORTH, Texas — SMU hasn’t enjoyed many stampedes since the days of Eric Dickerson and the Pony Express.
The Mustangs relished one Saturday.
SMU stormed the field after a fourth-down pass from No. 20 TCU fell incomplete in overtime, clinching a 40-33 upset of the Horned Frogs, just the second win over a ranked team for SMU since it was banished from football by the NCAA’s so-called death penalty in the 1980s.
It looked like the Mustangs would cruise to their biggest win in four years under coach June Jones, one of college football’s most noted turnaround artists. But SMU coughed up a 16-point lead in the fourth quarter before J.J. McDermott started overtime with a 19-yard scoring pass to Jeremy Johnson, McDermott’s fourth TD pass of the game.
SMU won it when TCU quarterback Casey Pachall couldn’t get his team in the end zone after throwing three fourth-quarter touchdown passes. His toss on fourth-and-2 was tipped and bounced off the chest of TCU’s Brandon Carter and ended TCU’s school-record 22-game home winning streak.
“What a win. It’s been a long, long time coming,” McDermott said. “We were up. They stormed back. I’m ecstatic, so proud of our guys.”
TCU pulled a similar rally in the opener against Baylor, scoring 25 points in the fourth quarter to take a 48-47 lead before letting the Bears drive to the winning field goal. That loss ended TCU’s 25-game regular-season winning streak, and now the Horned Frogs’ streak of 46 straight weeks in the Associated Press Top 25 is in jeopardy.
Both of SMU’s post-death penalty wins over ranked teams have come against TCU. The other was in 2005.
No. 4 Boise State 30, Nevada 10
BOISE, Idaho — Doug Martin ran for two touchdowns and Boise State’s suffocating defense dominated throughout the game and prevented the Wolf Pack from crossing midfield until midway through the third quarter.
Martin rushed for 126 yards on 21 carries, and his 43-yard touchdown run early in the third quarter put the Broncos up 27-0.
New Mexico State 42, New Mexico 28
ALBUQUERQUE — It was the first time in more than 40 years that New Mexico State has won three straight in the series. The margin of victory for the Aggies was their largest since 1968.
