DALLAS -- The three-week span of Texas A&M dominating inferior opponents came to a predictable conclusion Saturday at SMU's Ford Stadium.
The sixth-ranked Aggies put on a football clinic against an outmanned Mustangs' team in a name-your-score final of 58-6 in their final tune-up before returning to Southeastern Conference play next week. Texas A&M will come back to the Metroplex Saturday for a game against Arkansas at AT&T Stadium.
The return to SEC play will be a better indicator of where the Aggies are than Saturday's romp on the Hilltop.
"We'll know a lot more about ourselves next week at this time than we do now," Texas A&M head coach Kevin Sumlin said.
What we do know about the Aggies is that schools like Lamar, Rice and SMU stand no chance against the 4-0 Aggies. A&M outscored the three 169-19 over the last three weeks and is off to its first 4-0 start since 2006.
Saturday's lopsided win certainly didn't start that way as three early penalties and Kenny Hill's first interception put the Aggies up 3-0 after two possessions against an SMU team that had scored just six points in its first two games and had an interim coach in Tom Mason after June Junes resigned.
But then the Aggies got going and never looked back. Texas A&M ended the first half with touchdowns on five-straight possessions with none of them lasting more than one minute, 46 seconds. The defense was also up to the task as SMU didn't reach positive yards or record its initial first down until midway through the second quarter.
By the time the Fighting Texas Aggie Band was marching across the field at halftime, the Aggies led 38-3 and the second half was reserved for the backups.
It wasn't a bad way to end an easy stretch of the schedule.
"It's about what we're doing," Hill said. "It's not about anything anyone else is doing. We judge our performance by how we execute and I thought we executed all right today. We can do better but I thought we did pretty good."
In his half of work Hill threw for 265 yards and two touchdowns. He also had a key scramble for 58 yards that helped set up an early touchdown and completed 16 of his 22 passes before true freshman Kyle Allen took over the second half.
The Aggies spread the ball around offensively, with seven players running the ball and eight catching passes. Jeremy Tabuyo had two catches, but both went for touchdown as six Aggies found the end zone.
Texas A&M averaged nearly a first down every time it snapped the ball, gaining 663 yards on 68 snaps. A&M has won each of its first four games by at least 20 points for the first time since 1978 and the 9.8 yard-per-play average is the highest A&M has had since Sumlin took over the program in 2012.
While an Aggie offense that came into the game ranked fifth nationally in total offense having a big game is no surprise, the defense was also sharp. SMU, which is ranked last nationally in total offense, didn't find the end zone and didn't surpass 100 yards in total offense until it was going against the Aggie backups in the third quarter in a game in which the Aggies had eight sacks.
"We're just focused on getting better," said defensive tackle Jay Arnold, who had four tackles and 1 ½ sacks. "The way that game went we're going to get in the film room Monday, look at how we performed and see where we have to go from there."
