SMU at North Texas - 9/3/22 College Football Picks and Prediction

The SMU Mustangs will play the North Texas Mean Green in a non-conference game on Saturday night at Apogee Stadium in Denton, Texas.

The SMU Mustangs were 8-4 last season and made it to the Fenway Bowl against Virginia, but the game was cancelled. SMU started the 2021 season playing very well, but lost four of their last five games in the season. SMU had one of the best offenses in the AAC last season and returns most of that unit. SMU will throw the ball more than they run it, but the run game will still do what it needs to do to support the pass. On defense, the Mustangs did not have a good season last year and will need to improve against the pass. I am not convinced that the SMU defense will be much better than last season, but the offense may cover for them once again.

The North Texas Mean Green are 1-0 this season after defeating UTEP by a score of 31-13 in Week 0. North Texas fell behind 7-0 early in the first quarter, but then outscored UTEP 31-6 to finish the game. North Texas was actually outgained in this game by one yard, but UTEP turned the ball over on downs four times and missed a field goal. Austin Aune threw for 236 yards, three touchdowns, and 0 interceptions for North Texas. Ayo Adeyi rushed for 80 yards, while Roderic Burns caught three passes for 72 yards for the Mean Green. North Texas got the win, but it was not as pretty as the final scores makes it look.