Kevin Sherrington, The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS -- The billionaire's bus pulled up to Beaver Stadium a little before halftime Saturday, late to a party that never really got started.
Not by SMU's football team, anyway.
Bill Armstrong's private jet carrying the likes of Bryson DeChambeau, Craig James, Lance McIlhenny, a dozen or so pals, at least one sportswriter and the hopes and dreams of the Mustang faithful in the College Football Playoff opener against Penn State was forced to circle the stadium for an hour before it was diverted a half-hour east to Williamsport, Pa.
By the time the party bus picked them up and made its way back through game-day traffic, the Mustangs were down three touchdowns en route to a 38-10 finish.
The good news is the cold and refreshments numbed them to the rock-'n-rolling party's sad, sudden end.
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"We made the most of a bad situation," Armstrong texted Sunday. "A very disappointing game but it was a fabulous season for SMU. We are just getting warmed up.
"Now it's go 'horns and go Irish!!!"
Texas moves on as the Lone Star State's lone CFP hope in the quarterfinals against Arizona State after the fifth-seeded Longhorns' 38-24 win over 12th-seeded Clemson in Austin.
Because of Cade Klubnik's second-half heroics, Clemson was able to make a game out of what looked like a budding blowout. The lopsided nature of the first four games came to an average score of 36-17.
For the record, not to mention Lane Kiffin, still angry at the committee for leaving Ole Miss out and letting SMU and Indiana in, the first-round results weren't all that much different from the semis in the four-team playoffs. This is how it goes in playoff football. A close game is an anomaly. Never mind the three-point difference in each of the last three Super Bowls. The average point differential in the '90s Super Bowls? Fifteen points.
Just because the Bills failed to win a title in four straight shots didn't make them any less deserving of an opportunity to be buffaloed.
Chances are the scores will tighten up some in the quarterfinals, which is why 14 points seems a lot to give to the Sun Devils. Ditto the 10.5 to Boise State for its Fiesta Bowl bid against Penn State. Otherwise I like Ohio State to avenge its loss to Oregon with a win in the Rose Bowl and Notre Dame to pull off an upset against a Georgia team apparently without Carson Beck.
If you're looking for a trend, Steve Sarkisian reminds that his Longhorns are the only school from last year's semis to make the playoffs this year.
The memory of coming so close to a title shot has helped.
"We don't forget, you know," he said. "That's the first thing. To get as close as we were and not to have that opportunity to get in that game, I think, really fueled us, quite frankly, in the offseason, in winter conditioning, in spring ball, in those summer workouts, when we're running in DKR at four o'clock in the afternoon and it's 115 degrees.
"We got a couple more games to go to get there, but it sure serves as a great motivation."
Quinn Ewers conceded Saturday that coming within a single throw of making the title game last year motivates everyone, particularly the Longhorns who were in New Orleans.
"But, you know," he said, "you can't live in that dream."
Not when you must live with the cold reality that you might miss Cam Williams, your first-round talent at right tackle, in the Peach Bowl. Williams, center Jake Majors and running back Quintrevion Wisner were all injured in a single series Saturday. Wisner returned and Majors could have. But Williams needed an MRI exam on his right knee after getting rolled up on a bad play.
Fortunately, Texas has the services of Trevor Goosby, who filled in at right tackle just as he did on the left side during the SEC title game after Kelvin Banks Jr., the Longhorns' other first-round tackle, was rendered unavailable.
Texas' defense will have its hands full with Cam Skattebo, who ran for 1,558 yards and 19 touchdowns and caught 37 passes for another 506 yards and three more TDs. Sam Leavitt, the Big 12's Offensive Freshman of the Year, benefited greatly from Skattebo's wrecking-ball runs.
On paper, Texas should beat the Sun Devils on talent alone. They also hold an edge in the fact that they've played in and won big games over the last two seasons.
Makes a difference in a hostile environment, where one mistake - let alone three or four, as in Kevin Jennings' case - can produce a disastrous domino effect.
Jennings, just a sophomore, guaranteed he will learn from the experience. For his part, Armstrong hopes Dallas can rally around SMU to create "a win/win combination for a great school and great city."
Until then, at least they made some memories on the bus.
"This is almost better than if we had gotten to the stadium on time," James told Mike Craven of "Dave Campbell's Texas Football."
"I'll remember this bus ride for the rest of my life."
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