Nevada - SMU

Hawaii Bowl December 24, 8:00pm Honolulu, HI

Nevada (8-4) ____________ WAC __________ 98.86 ____ ___________YPG = 521.3 (130%) → +37% ____________PPG = 40.6 (140%) → +37% _________dYPG = 398.8 (104%) → -3% __________dPPG = 27.2 (110%) → -23% ____ Wk Opponent oPts Score 1 Notre Dame 23.90 L, 0-35 3 Colorado St -255.31 L, 20-35 4 Missouri 116.64 L, 21-31 5 UNLV -83.31 W, 63-28 6 Louisiana Tech -137.56 W, 37-14 7 Utah St -163.79 W, 35-32 8 Idaho 19.61 W, 70-45 9 Hawaii -68.79 W, 31-21 10 San Jose St -289.14 W, 62-7 11 Fresno St 116.89 W, 52-14 12 New Mexico St -332.96 W, 63-20 13 Boise St 441.42 L, 33-44

SMU (7-5) ______________ CUSA __________ 22.67 ____ YPG = 382.2 (93%) PPG = 27.6 (103%) dYPG = 398.9 (107%) dPPG = 29.6 (133%) ____ Wk Opponent oPts Score 1 Stephen F. Austin -509.90 W, 31-23 2 UAB -71.06 W, 35-33 3 Washington St -302.11 L, 27-30 5 TCU 419.26 L, 14-39 6 East Carolina 177.10 W, 28-21 7 Navy 127.84 L, 35-38 8 Houston 213.71 L, 15-38 9 Tulsa -112.30 W, 27-13 10 Rice -295.50 W, 31-28 11 UTEP -225.83 W, 35-31 12 Marshall -30.18 L, 31-34 13 Tulane -246.99 W, 26-21

Neither of these two have really had stellar seasons, but they haven't been awful either. Nevada's running attack is one of the best, and you'd expect them to have won more with it, but their D is worse than average. Thankfully for them, SMU's D is even worse. Neither played a particularly rough schedule this year. Of course the Jones-back-to-Hawaii storyline might play in a bit, but you can expect the Wolfpack to try to pound it.

The Line: SMU +11.5

The Call: Nevada by 13

The Result: SMU 45-10

The key word there being "try". Rendering the Wolfpack running game ineffective allowed the Mustangs to run the show, and they did. Great return for Jones, and the SMU faithful can have some hope for their program now.