2012 SMU Football: What To Expect From The Mustangs

The 2012 college football season will be a big one for the SMU Mustangs. They'll be playing their last season in Conference-USA before making the jump to the Big East next year and returning head coach June Jones will have a lot to prove as the school prepares to once again enter the big time.

Bill Connelly at SB Nation has provided a complete breakdown on what to expect from the Mustangs in the fall. The team will be breaking in a new starting quarterback and leaning heavily on their strong defense as they try to take the C-USA title with them on the way out.

Connelly discusses, among other things, that the offensive line in the coming season will be a big question mark, as will the eventual starting quarterback. But if the line can hold up, the offense may have the ability to succeed.

If the line is at least semi-competent, SMU probably has the skill position players to move the ball pretty well. They come in all shapes and sizes. You've got 185-pound sophomore running back Jared Williams and 280-pound sophomore running back Rishad Wimbley, each of whom carried more of a load when Zach Line was injured and helped to prevent total offensive collapse. You've got 5-foot-10 senior receiver Darius Johnson, who averaged 14.2 yards per catch (and 7.7 adjusted yards per target) last year, and incoming 6-foot-3 freshman Gehrig Dieter, a three-star early-enrollee. The receiving corps has thinned out a bit -- two of the top three targets (Beasley, Terrance Wilkerson) are gone -- but with Johnson back, they've got a headliner, and they have plenty of former three-star recruits to fill in the ranks.

The entire article is well worth checking out, so please take a moment to read the in-depth piece.