HONOLULU — Margus Hunt knew he had eight hours to fill on the flight over the Pacific Ocean, so he asked the SMU staff to put together film of Fresno State for him to study. He hit the Bulldogs like a tidal wave Monday night in the Hawaii Bowl.
The 6-8 defensive end raced around right tackle to blindside Derek Carr and force a fumble. Hunt smashed into running back Robbie Rouse on a delayed handoff and forced another fumble. On a threeman rush, he sacked Carr in the end zone for a safety.
It was an inspiring performance by the senior from Estonia, and it set the tone for the Mustangs’ 43-10 victory.
“That was a lot of fun,” Hunt said. “We knew from the get-go it was going to be a Monday night football game, the only game in the nation. We wanted to show our skills and make some plays. To me personally ... this is where it all started. It’s good to end on this note.”
The Mustangs (7-6) also returned two interceptions for touchdowns. Hayden Greenbauer picked off Carr and returned it 83 yards with 1:14 left, ending a miserable night forthe Bulldogs (9-4).
SMU had seven sacks, more than double the most Fresno State had given up in a game all year.
“We tried some slide protections to 92 [Hunt]. You know, they beat us,” Fresno State Coach Tim DeRuyter said. “We tried going empty to spread things out and get it out quick, we tried to max protect. Everything we tried didn’t work.”
SMU, which went 25 years without a bowl after its NCAA death penalty, has played in a school-record four consecutive bowls, winning three of them. Hunt was a mystery when that run started in 2009, a gold medalist in the shot put and discus in Beijing at the 2006 Junior World Championships who came to SMU for track and field and turned to football when it was his only hope of scholarship money.
SMU Coach June Jones has a knack for taking a chance on athletes from other sports, and he liked what he saw, from the82-inch wing span to the 4.7-second speed in the 40.
“It’s not hard for me to see a world-class athlete who can run like that, has strength like that, has an arm length like that,” Jones said. “The first scrimmage we had ... the only thing I didn’t know was if he was going to be tough enough. The first play we ran a trap and hit him real hard, and he wanted to fight. I said, ‘OK, we may have a player here.’ ”
Sports, Pages 19 on 12/26/2012