And we weren't playing a Pac 12 or Big 10 team. If we had been, I'm sure our team would have come out with a little more fire in their bellies. Instead, we were playing a G5 team that has had only 5 (barely) winning seasons in nearly 30 years, and whom we have totally dominated during that period.
It's no great challenge. Another year, another steamrolling of SMU. Over the past decade, the Frogs have gotten into the bad habit of sleep-walking through the first half of this game, and then getting halfway serious in the second half and crushing them.
We could lie to ourselves and say we like to toy with them for a bit to give them false hope, and then demolish them. But the truth is, our boys just aren't much into this matchup, so they come out complacent, lackadaisical, and slow-starting. The Ponies, OTOH, get totally geeked for this game. I mean they come out really amped. If they can beat TCU, it doesn't matter if they have a losing season -- they still beat TCU. It's their Super Bowl.
Coupled with our bad habit of playing down to inferior competition, we also have a good habit of rising up for P5 contests.
So you aren't Wisconsin? Good. You're about to be unpleasantly surprised to find that we aren't lowly Oregon State or Rutgers.