DALLAS -- Hours before SMU’s home opener against North Texas on Sept. 13, players walked into the home locker room at Ford Stadium and were treated to a shock.
The first home game of the season is typically a whiteout. The home rematch with UNT was no exception. Still, the Mustangs usually wear blue at home. None of the players got any whiff of a plan to debut anything new – by design.
The now famous "Dallas" edition SMU jerseys were waiting in their locker.
Defensive tackle Demerick Gary saw the "City of Dallas" logo on the side of the helmet, which matched a tattoo on his calf. It was emotional for many players to get to wear “Dallas” – a Metroplex that four dozen SMU players call home – on the front of their jerseys. The only other team with jerseys like that are the big boys in Arlington.
“I think everybody was excited,” Gary said. “Everybody loved it. People were texting me like, 'Where can I get that jersey?'”
When they ran out of the tunnel, the uniforms went viral to almost universal acclaim.
Dallas mayor Eric Johnson was at the game to do the pregame coin toss, at the invitation of SMU coach Sonny Dykes and his staff. He took to social media after the game to applaud his experience, and the new threads.
SMU gifted Johnson one of their traditional jerseys before the season. After seeing the Dallas jerseys in action, he asked if he could get one of those too. His social media in the month since has featured SMU prominently, especially that jersey.
Maybe it’s no coincidence, SMU came out of the gate by scoring the first 21 points against North Texas, a program that crushed these same Mustangs last season. The final score was 49-27, but the game wasn’t that close. In that moment, SMU reintroduced themselves to the sport, and entered the running for the best alternate jersey in the sport this season.
The attention for the jerseys is nice, but it's only the first step in what is becoming a game-changing campaign at SMU.
The goal is simple: Turn SMU back into the college football team of Dallas, which the Mustangs, ranked No. 19 at 6-0, will have another chance of doing at home against Temple (5-1) at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday on ESPN2.