Lasecki Anchors SMU’s Underrated Offensive Line

SMU has a decidedly underrated core of returning offensive lineman. This week, I have been re-watching the game films from last season, which can be a bit painful at times. A definite bright spot has been the play of our returning boys in the trenches.

Returning starting center and three-year starter Taylor Lasecki is a particular asset, both physically and mentally. He is a scrapper in the trenches who moves bodies in the running game and uses his long arms to provide the Mustangs with strikingly effective pass blocking. This May, he was placed on the Rimington Trophy Watch List, quite an honor for a player who toiled in obscurity last season on a struggling team.

Lasecki will be expected to lead the offensive line again this season, a group that includes road-graders in the making Seaver Myers and Chauncey Briggs, both of whom are entering their junior year. I noticed flashes of excellence from both players on film, but they both need to be more consistent in their production, especially in pass protection.

On another note, the SMU Athletic Department announced the kickoff times for several more of the Mustangs games this season, including the 6 PM Central starts for our home wins over North Texas on September 12^th and James Madison on September 26^th.

Last week, the SMU Athletic Department also announced the kickoff time for our cross-Metroplex trip to TCU this season. Game time is 7 PM Central on September 19^th. I feel good about this one too, but not quite as good as I do about our win against Baylor. After we layeth the smackdown to the Bears, our cover will be blown. I expect Chad Morris will coach the boys up though and have them ready to put Baylor in the figure-four leg lock.

Mark your calendars, chowhounds! The SMU Mustangs annual football kickoff luncheon will be held at high noon on August 18^th at the lovely Hilton Anatole Hotel  in downtown Dallas. Chad Morris will be in attendance as will Rich Phillips, the voice of Mustang football. Tickets are a mere 75 bucks.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Hilton Anatole Hotel, I highly recommend a visit just to check out the architecture. It is part of the late, great developer Trammell Crow’s Dallas Market Center Complex, a masterwork of post-modern, mixed-use urban development.

Inside and out, the Hilton Anatole Hotel and the Dallas Market Complex embody the sleek, sophisticated Sunbelt variant of opulence that Dallas has long presented to the world. Their design imperatives are simultaneously simple and showy.

The Hilton Anatole Hotel has an outstanding art collection installed throughout its corridors, including two sections of the Berlin Wall. Each Thursday, I get a bit misty when I make my weekly pilgrimage to the pair of installations from the wall. I bring a boom box with me and I play The Scorpions’ “Winds of Change” as I gaze on these symbols of past oppression.

I sing along too: “take me to the magic of the moment/ on a glory night/ where the children of tomorrow share their dreams/ with you and me.”

If you ask me, the Hilton Anatole Hotel is 27 stories worth of lodging magic surrounded by a seven square-acre sculpture garden.  The entire Dallas Market Complex is just as splendid. I call it five million square feet of trade show heaven, trade show mystery, trade show majesty.  Professional buyers come from around the country just to honor this mightiest of merchandise marts.

This hotel is a landmark. If you don’t make it to the football kickoff luncheon on August 18^th, you are cheating yourself and you will be disappointing the good people of Dallas who worked so hard to bring this crown jewel into being. Make your reservations now and listen for the winds of change.