The 1997 Western Athletic Conference Mustangs football team represented

Southern Methodist University , mottoeng = "The truth will make you free" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = SACS , academic_affiliations = , religious_affiliation = United Methodist Church , president = R. Gerald Turner , prov ...

(SMU) as a member of the Mountain Division of the

Western Athletic Conference The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the western United States with member institutions located in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Utah, Washington (state), Washington, and Texa ...

(WAC) during

1997 NCAA Division I-A football season The 1997 NCAA Division I-A football season, play of college football in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association at the Division I-A level, began in late summer 1997 and culminated with the major bowl games in ea ...

. Led by first-year head coach

Mike Cavan Mike Cavan (born April 15, 1948) is a former American football player and coach. He served as the head coach at Valdosta State University (1986–1991), East Tennessee State University (1992–1996) and Southern Methodist University (1997–2001) ...

, the Mustangs compiled an overall record of 6–5 with a mark of 5–3 in conference play, tying for second place in the WAC's Mountain Division. Ten years after the NCAA's 1987 "death penalty" on SMU football, SMU's 1997 campaign was the program's first winning season since the football program resumed operations in 1989. The Mustangs played their home games at the Cotton Bowl in

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

Schedule

Roster

Personnel

Mike Cavan succeeded

Tom Rossley Tom Rossley (born August 9, 1946) is a former American football coach and player. He was the head football coach at Southern Methodist University (SMU) from 1991 to 1996, compiling a record of 15–48–3. Coaching career Early career Rossley sta ...

as SMU head coach. Rossley coached SMU from 1991 to 1996 and left with a 15–48–3 record. Cavan became SMU's third head coach in the post-"

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

" era for SMU. Cavan was previously head coach at

Valdosta State Valdosta State University (VSU or Valdosta State) is a public university in Valdosta, Georgia. It is one of the four comprehensive universities in the University System of Georgia. , VSU had over 12,000 undergraduate and graduate students. VSU a ...

from 1986 to 1991 and

East Tennessee State East Tennessee State University (ETSU) is a Public university, public research university in Johnson City, Tennessee. Although it is part of the State University and Community College System of Tennessee, the university is governed by an instit ...

from 1992 to 1996. This is Cavan's first head coaching job at a Division I-A school.

After the season

Coaching changes

Offensive coordinator

Darrell Dickey Darrell Ray Dickey (born December 6, 1959) is an American football coach who most recently coached for the Texas A&M Aggies football team. Before joining the Texas A&M staff he was the offensive coordinator at Memphis from the 2012 to 2017 s ...

left SMU to take the head coaching job at

North Texas North Texas (also commonly called North Central Texas) is a term used primarily by residents of Dallas, Fort Worth, and surrounding areas to describe much of the north central portion of the U.S. state of Texas. Residents of the Dallas–Fort Wor ...

in 1998; Greg Briner, previously the quarterbacks and wide receivers coach at

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

, succeeded Dickey as offensive coordinator. Offensive line graduate assistant Paul Etheridge was promoted to tight ends and offensive tackles David McKnight moved to running backs coach.

NFL Draft

In the

1998 NFL Draft The 1998 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 18–19, 1998, at the Theater at M ...

, linebacker

Chris Bordano Christopher E. Bordano (born December 30, 1974) is a former American football linebacker in the National Football League for the New Orleans Saints and Atlanta Falcons. He played college football at Southern Methodist University. Early years Bor ...

was selected by the

New Orleans Saints The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans. The Saints compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. Since 1975, the te ...

in the sixth round and 161st overall.

References

External links

1997 SMU stats
at Sports-Reference.com SMU SMU Mustangs football seasons

SMU Mustangs football The SMU Mustangs football program is a college football team representing Southern Methodist University (SMU) in University Park in Dallas County, Texas. The team competes in the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) as a member of the American ...

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