Bulldogs knock out sluggish Mustangs
SMU hired him to replace Chad Morris on Dec. 11.
With most of the staff joining Morris at Arkansas, Dykes elected to coach the bowl game and installed graduate assistant G.J. Kinne as offensive coordinator for the bowl game.
It didn't have effect.
“Clearly we didn't put our best foot forward,” Dykes said. “We've got to give Louisiana Tech a lot of credit. They were ready to play, you could see they were a team that's been to bowl games and had a formula to get their team ready to play.”
Smith gave the Bulldogs a 7-0 lead on a 1-yard sneak with 7:43 remaining in the first quarter. Louisiana Tech had a short field to work with after Secdrick Cooper returned an interception 31 yards to the SMU 30.
Amik Robertson returned an interception 55 yards for a touchdown less than a minute later, pushing the lead to 14-0.
“At the end of the day we knew (their quarterback) was going to make mistakes,” Robertson said. “We just had to stay focussed dialed in and we the desired knew eventually plays would come.”
SMU held onto the ball on its fourth drive, but couldn't reach the end zone and settled for a field goal after stalling at the 8.
On the ensuing kickoff, Jaqwis Dancy had a 65-yard return, setting up a 6-yard touchdown pass from Smith to Veal for a 21-3 lead.
Louisiana Tech returned another interception for a touchdown early in the second quarter. This time, Darryl Lewis had a 23-yard return down the sideline for a 28-3 lead.
“Once things spiraled out of control we tried to tell each other to stack up good plays on top of each other,” SMU quarterback Ben Hicks said. “But that didn't really work.”
Smith added touchdown passes to Veal and Kam McKnight, helping Louisiana set a school record for first-half points in a bowl game.
Trey Quinn scored SMU's touchdown on a 9-yard pass late in the second quarter. Hicks completed 19 of 33 passes for 127 yards. those