SMU avoids winless season with win over UConn, forgets how to do victory formation

The Mustangs struggled to get into a victory formation, which they apparently had not practiced. First, they tried one with ten men. This drew a flag from the refs, who realized it wasn’t actually a penalty to have a formation with ten men in it. (GIFs and Vines via CBS Sports Network.)

Next, their victory formation actually *was* an illegal formation:

Eventually, they just decided to take the snap out of a regular set-up so as to avoid another screwup.

While this happened, the announcers noticed that the players were wildly scrambling to fill up the Gatorade cooler with cups so they could properly celebrate with interim head coach Tom Mason. Eventually, they got it:

It was an incredibly unappealing game: the 0-11 Mustangs and 2-9 Huskies met on a 38-degree rainy day in Storrs. UConn turned the ball over four times. SMU fumbled twice -- one returned for a touchdown, and one where quarterback Matt Davis ran into running back Prescott Line. There was a blocked punt, there was a blocked field goal and there was a fake field goal that was actually a punt:

SMU entered the day with the worst scoring offense in the country (9.6 points per game) and a tie for the worst scoring defense in the country (44.3 points per game, tied with Georgia State.) They hold on to the former, but by holding the Huskies to under 45 points, they slide past inactive Georgia State into sole possession of 127th place out of 128. They would have been the first team to finish last in both categories since 2005 Temple.

Congrats to the Mustangs on their first win since Nov. 23, 2013. Clemson’s Chad Morris will be their coach next year, and there’s no way things won’t be better.